F1 legend Jackie Stewart recalls his greatest moments

Were he to have his time again and had the blessing of choice, would Sir Jackie Stewart have raced in a different era? He’d surely have enjoyed the money Formula 1 stars earn today… But no. In the pantheon of the F1 World Championship’s 75 years, Sir Jackie says he wouldn’t change his own timeline. After all, he raced with and against his best friends. What could be better than that?

There is a caveat, however – and not the one you might expect. The three-time world champion has previously claimed he and his beloved wife Lady Helen counted up 57 friends and colleagues who were lost to motor racing during his time in the cockpit. Vastly improved safety is the clear and obvious positive development of the past 75 years, embraced by all (at least now) and encouraged so vociferously by the campaigning Scot from the mid-1960s onward. But the deadly element, considered crazy to young eyes today, isn’t what he’d avoid if he was doing it all again.

“I’m happy I raced when I did, but I’m sorry that I didn’t race in another era in one respect,” says Sir Jackie. “It wasn’t because of the deaths. It was because personally I was burnt out by motor racing. If you were a competitive driver you were bought. It didn’t matter whether it was New Zealand or Australia, the United States of America or Europe, east or west, north or south. You would be driving everything, from a Cortina to Can-Am. It was a more interesting period from a driver’s point of view, but for me it was probably the reason for my retirement.”

He reckons his topline career would have lasted longer than its nine seasons between 1965 and ’73 had he specialised as F1 aces do today. That dismissal of his other exploits will likely disappoint those of us who laud the great all-rounders, who drove everything and everywhere, every weekend. F1 was always the pinnacle and what mattered most, but half a century and more ago it wasn’t the be-all and end-all like it is today. Still, Sir Jackie always did have his priorities in order. Take Le Mans for example. “It didn’t interest me,” he states. “It is a big and fantastic race, but I was Formula 1.”

Sir Jackie always was a man out of his own time, in hindsight embracing the modern era before it had even begun. Now 85, but only just starting to show signs of his age, he still can’t get enough of F1 – still travels to a high percentage of the 24-per-season races. “It’s still the same sport, I love it still,” he insists. “It’s more professional and bigger, but it’s the same animal.”

Now the oldest-living world champion, Sir Jackie is our equivalent of another long-haired knight from the Swinging Sixties: Sir Paul McCartney is another survivor who was at times taken for granted and written off, only to pass through a process of reputational rehabilitation as the world finally remembered his genius. Sir Jackie too wasn’t always universally popular, particularly during his turbulent years as British Racing Drivers’ Club president between 2000-06. But the mood has gradually swung back towards him, accelerating perhaps around the time of Max Mosley’s misjudged, cruel and plain inaccurate “certified half-wit” jibe in 2007. They’d never really liked each other, ever since the days of the March 701.

“Winning at Silverstone was very important whether it was in F3 or F1”

Motor Sport’s most recent catch-up with Sir Jackie was at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, where he was attending the opening of his own room. Previously the St James’s Room, the mid-sized banqueting space next to the library on the first floor is now the Stewart Room. Surrounded by a curated gallery of photographs depicting both his career and others who have left their mark on F1’s past 75 years, it was somewhat surprising to find a mid-1970s shot of Mosley with his old mucker Bernie Ecclestone.

You had chequered times with one of them, we prompt. “With both of them,” Sir Jackie murmurs but then he’s quick to offer credit where it’s due. “Bernie made motor racing to be built up beyond a level that even he achieved,” he says. “Without him I don’t think it would have built up in the manner it has. I take my hat off to him. Max made a contribution to safety, with Bernie. The two of them made an excellent job. And I was involved to some extent, but it was their power.”

Monaco is a key theme of the room, see opposite. “I won there four times [once in Formula 3, in 1964]. Monaco is lovely. A nightmare, but it’s lovely.” But Silverstone too keeps cropping up. Like the old airfield circuit, Sir Jackie has been a constant presence in motor sport for longer than most of us can remember and their histories are intertwined. “Winning at Silverstone was very important, whether it was in F3 or F1,” he says. “Silverstone played a big part in my life, as a racing driver and as president of the BRDC. I first went with my brother Jimmy who drove for Ecurie Ecosse and Aston Martin. Silverstone was always the place to go to when I was a wee boy.”

On another spot on the wall is his most-celebrated performance at Silverstone: 1969, when he and good mate Jochen Rindt traded the lead lap after lap. “Look how close those people are, at the end of the main straight,” he says of the shot capturing the pair of them pushing on through Stowe Corner. On the inside, photographers butt up against the low brick wall that defined the edge of the race track. No track limits violations to debate back then. “This was a great race between me and Jochen,” Sir Jackie says. “We were good friends, I could trust him and he could trust me. We passed each other often, and we knew we were going to pass so you’d put your hand out to indicate the other could get through. Then in the end something went wrong on the back wing of his Lotus. I pointed to it and he knew I wasn’t kidding, so he pulled in.”

His gaze falls on another shot, this time from 1968. It’s the Dutch GP, scene of his third grand prix win and first for Ken Tyrrell. “Zandvoort is a track I have mixed memories of – not because it was a bad circuit. It was a good track. But in later years it was not safe.” He doesn’t have to say the names Piers Courage and Roger Williamson for us to know what he’s thinking. “I was president of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association and we took the Nürburgring out, we took Spa-Francorchamps out and we also had to take out Zandvoort. But it was the right thing to do. Safety was non-existent. Look where the people are in this picture. There’s not a single piece of proper barrier between them and the cars. Too dangerous.”

He’s right. Looking back is a familiar comfort, but there’s no time like the present. Which is why come British GP Sunday on July 6, you can bet your house Sir Jackie will be there, pressed and pristine ready for a quick chat for TV on the grid or in the paddock. It’s just what happens at Silverstone. And long may it continue.

Royals and the majestic

Among the gallery of photographs, at the head of the Stewart Room amid the Royal Automobile Club’s Pall Mall opulence, hangs a new portrait, above.

It depicts early 1970s Jackie Stewart acknowledging another win on the podium at Monaco. Below him, Lady Helen – all long hair and model good looks – offers her loving congratulations, and either side stands Formula 1’s literal royalty: Prince Rainier and turbaned wife Grace of Monaco, better known as Grace Kelly.

The artist, renowned portrait specialist Louise Pragnell, was commissioned specially by the RAC with the Stewart Room in mind. Jackie’s long hair means it’s definitely not a scene from his first F1 win in the principality in 1966 – but it’s not 1971 or ’73 either. Actually, it’s a composite, Pragnell using a variety of photos from different angles and years to create something unique. Pragnell, whose other works include portraits of Princess Anne, William Hague and, er, Jeremy Clarkson, has captured Jackie in his element. Set against the red and white of Monaco’s flag, it’s an image that couldn’t be more ‘Jackie Stewart’. DS