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Jackie Stewart. Sir Jackie Stewart, royal prefix, attributed by Her Majesty, in 2001, precedes the name that, incidentally, does not appear on the registry at birth (it was registered as John).
Three times Formula 1 world champion, in 1969, 1971 and 1973, he is in Portimão, at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, to witness the Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prémio de Portugal, a circuit that he steps on for the first time.
Start by praising him. “The Moto GP riders say he is the best in the world,” he confides on a tarmac that he has not yet set foot on.
At 81, his voice came out soft, dragged, protected by a mask matching his Scottish kilt trousers, with long hair, a brand image that he has always worn; a mix between pop star and playboy who never was (he was always a family man and devoted himself to his wife and two children). Sir Jackie Stewart spoke to him SAPO24 about his life, cars, glamor, safety, drivers and money in the top category of motorsport.
You hear wrong. It was a warning to navigation made by the advisors. This is confirmed in the first exchange of words. The noise of cars accelerating during training does not help.
credits: DR
“data-title =” Jackie Stewart: “I never had a luxury car, Mercedes or Ferrari. I have a seven-seater BMW ”- SAPO 24″>
“I never had a fancy car, Mercedes or Ferrari,” he smiles. “I have (count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 cars. A seven-seater BMW. My wife (Helen) has dementia and I need to get the nurses and everyone in the car. Another BMW, an Audi and a Range Rover … ”, lists the former driver.
He likes to drive. I do it every day. Look, I walk my two dogs. I take them to the forest ”, he points out. And add. “Everyone and everyone in the world drives a car. At the traffic lights there is always someone who says he wants to be Alain Prost ”.
“The 60s and 70s were glamorous”
It takes more than 50 years of life in F1. He was a pilot (1965-1973) and owner of a team (Stewart, from 1997 to 1999, the year of its sale), commentator and ambassador for brands such as Heineken or Rolex.
Your life makes a movie. Not that it was. Ahead of the Netflix of this life. In 1971, Jackie Stewart and Roman Polanski spent a weekend together during the Monaco Grand Prix. The unprecedented encounter spawned the Frank Simon film. “A weekend with a champion.”
The reels did not leave the drawer until, forty years later, in 2013, Polanski decided to reassemble it, add minutes to it and present it at the Cannes Film Festival.
Nostalgia enters the conversation. “I don’t think about what I miss. I still think that Formula 1 is a beautiful, colorful, exciting and glamorous world ”, describes“ the Flying Scot ”(Scottish flight), as it was known.
Jackie Stewart (D), his wife Helen (C) and Roman Polanski (E), Cannes, 2013, EPA / GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO Credits: Jackie Stewart (D), his wife Helen (C) and Roman Polanski (E), Cannes, 2013, EPA / GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO “data-title =” Jackie Stewart: “I never had a luxury car, Mercedes or Ferrari. I have a seven-seater BMW ”- SAPO 24″>
“F1 then had a good camaraderie in general. We travel together, we share rooms. The 60s and 70s were glamorous. Fangio, Stirling Moss, speeding cars, music by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. It is glamorous, colorful, exciting, and dangerous. And the danger, then, was an aphrodisiac ”, he assumes. “People like to see accidents, but they don’t like the dead. And the death toll was too much. All my friends died. 57, from my time ”, he laments.
He left racing when François Cevert, a teammate, died in 1973 training for the United States Grand Prix. Jackie Stewart, himself, escaped unscathed from a fatal accident in Belgium, 1966.
Stewart has always fought for safety on the tracks and the drivers. The helmets that cover the face and the fire retardant suit were an introduction that came from the head of the Scottish pilot while he was still racing. The obsession leads him, in an interview in November 1990 with Ayrton Senna, to question the behavior of the Brazilian driver on the track.
He rejoices in the path followed by the four wheels. “Now it is safer, fantastic. With technology, pilots are sitting in a survival cell. And ventilation … when the riders take off their helmets, not a drop of sweat drips. They are hydrated and everything, they drink through the tubes ”, he exclaims.
“I cannot read and spell words. I’m a mess. But in what I do I am brilliant “
Go back in time. The time before entering the F1 “Circo”. “I was a mechanic and I only started driving a car when I was 23 years old. Today, the pilots carry a steering wheel almost in diapers. They go karts since they were 8 years old ”, he compares.
“I was married when I drove the first car (23 years old). He used to be a sniper for Scotland. I competed in Europeans and World Cups, but I didn’t give money and I had to support a family ”, he recalls. He took several lessons from a gun. “Shooting taught me a lot. Concentration. He couldn’t be under pressure and show nervousness. We lose a goal and never recover. On track, after a small mistake, we can recover. I learned a lot in my career with an amateur sport ”, he highlights.
His disease, dyslexia, diagnosed in 1980, curiously, or perhaps not, allowed him to achieve success behind the wheel. “I cannot read and spell words. I’m a mess. But at what I do I am brilliant. I talked to the mechanics and I talked a lot with them about the disease, ”he recalls. “Who has dyslexia… we think outside the box. Da Vinci, Churchill, Einstein, Spielberg, all dyslexic and very creative, ”he exemplifies.
The first driver to open a bottle of champagne celebrated when he broke his record
He says he was the “first driver to open a bottle of champagne in F1.” He celebrated 27 victories, a record that lasted until Alain Prost surpassed him in Portugal, at the Estoril GP in 1987.
“I was happy. I celebrated it with a bottle of Moet & Chandon, on the podium, with Prost. There were no disagreements, disappointments, I was not bothered or missed anything. It was good that someone of quality achieved my record,” he assumes. ” I lost my title. It was the man who hit him, “he continues.
The conversation goes into comparisons. A field in which you do not like to move. “Prost was better than his time. Better than Senna, always on the edge. Alain was very technical, methodical. Like Jim Clark. And Fangio ”. He pauses when he talks about Juan Fangio. “He’s probably the best of all time, because he won 4 titles, in 4 different cars, in 4 different years. But that’s the past ”, he closes the topic, without forgetting Lewis Hamilton.
The British Mercedes driver can, in Portimão, beat Michael Schumacher’s record (92 victories). “The machine has to be good. And if it is very good, it will be easier to push the car to the limit and the driver will win. That is why Mercedes is the best car. You can, in certain circumstances, take advantage of the pilot’s hands, but trains that have the right machine ”. It was the way he found to avoid the recent controversy in which he became involved with the six-time world champion. He talked about the car. And not who leads it.
credits: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFP “data-title =” Jackie Stewart: “I never had a luxury car, Mercedes or Ferrari. I have a seven-seater BMW ”- SAPO 24″>
“I was very lucky. I survived everything. I saw the changes, the growth, I saw it, I was part of it”
Between advances and setbacks, trips to the past and the paths of the present, recognize the differences for the benefit of today. “In my time, I needed 15 to 20 laps to discover every corner of the circuit. Today, in five laps, the drivers already know everything. Before hitting the track, they already set up the simulators. They are the most sophisticated in the world. More than are used in airplanes, ”he shoots.
“When I was champion, we had 17 people with us at the Grand Prix. Today we have 100 in the box. To deal with two dancers from the races, ”he laughs. “In my time I didn’t have this pasture. Multinationals have made F1 a better sport. Sport is bigger ”, he acknowledges.
“I was very lucky. I survived everything. I saw the changes, the growth, I saw it, I was part of that”, recognizes Jackie Stewart, a pilot loved worldwide by several generations of fans, a true pop star, from television until the paddocks, after being in the car. “I was lucky,” he repeats. “My relationship with the sport is unique. Because of the position and the time I have been and am in the sport,” the former champion shoots.
“You are never sure if you are the best. It is very difficult. There was never another Fangio, Moss, Prost and Sena … ”. And the next Jackie Stewart, there will be, we question. He replied with a smile. Two minutes after the conversation ends.
