Formula One - the legacy of Jackie Stewart
By the mid 1960s the three-time world champion Jackie Stewart raised voice to improve the driver’s safety in Formula One which was being brushed aside since years.
"Imagine an 11-year window of time when you lose 57 - repeat 57 - friends and colleagues, often watching them die in horrific circumstances doing exactly what you do, weekend after weekend," the great driver penned in his autobiography called ‘Winning Is Not Enough’. He expressed, "I didn't have to imagine. I lived through it. To be a racing driver between 1963 and 1973 was to accept the probability of death."
The incidents that made Stewart raise his voice were the unfortunate deaths of the two British drivers Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey who died with a difference of a few minutes to each other at Spa track during the Belgian Grand Prix of the season. It is worth mentioning here that the legendary circuit is a deceitful eight-and three-quarter mile track that slithers through thick pine forests and encompasses vast sections that have no barriers and let the driver go out of sight for long moments.
Similarly the same track went cruel again at the Belgian Grand Prix of 1966 as the race started in dry but only after the first three miles of the initial lap, heavy downpour of ice caused eight cars to crash into each other where Stewart was the only driver who was left unhurt though his car shaped into a banana having him stuck inside.
It took twenty-five minutes before he was helped out of the wrecked car, and all this time no marshals were seen around. Ultimately a small toolkit of a spectator was borrowed which helped in unscrewing the steering wheel and pulling the driver out. Stewart was then asked to have his clothing remove as the fuel-soaked race suit kept on burning his skin.
While describing the event he further told in book that, "Then these nuns came in and spotting a naked man in the back of a hay truck put my clothes back on. Having found an ambulance, Graham came back in and took my clothes back off again."
However, the sufferings of the day did not finish for him right there as he was then loaded into an old ambulance which took him to a filthy place known as a medical centre. He was sad to recall that he was left lying on a canvas stretcher on the floor, which was surrounded by cigarette ends and there was no doctor there.
After a long wait he was put back into the ambulance as they set off for a hospital in Liege following a police escort. However, the worst happened when they detached from the escort and the driver lost his way to the hospital.
Inside the ambulance Stewart's wife, Helen and a friend, Clark, kept waiting for what seemed forever before they reached the hospital.
It was fortunate for the driver to have survived and above all to have gone back to the track within a month of the ordeal. However, this incident made him meet death closely; it was only then that he realised the hazards of the game as he writes, "Like most drivers, I only thought accidents happened to someone else.”
From then onwards Stewart started his passionate campaign against the circuit owners as well as the organisers and managers of the race to provide the drivers with better safety levels.
It is sad that before all started to take notice another five drivers had died in just five years including Lorenzo Bandini at Monaco in 1967, Clark at Hockenheim in the year 1968, Spence at the Indianapolis track in 1968, Jochen Rindt at Monza in 1970 and lastly Jo Siffert at Brands Hatch in 1971.
However, the remorseless fight of Stewart was able to introduce several major safety features that we see today, like seatbelts, full-face helmets and above all fireproof racing suits.
"If I have any legacy to leave the sport, I hope it will be seen to be in an area of safety," told Stewart at the Grand Prix Hall of Fame website.
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