FORMULA 1’S SEVENTY GREATEST INFLUENCERS
For Formula 1, the 1970s started with the posthumous crowning of a world champion. The fatal accident to Jochen Rindt at Monza not only robbed motorsport of a gifted driver but cost Jackie Stewart one of his closest friends, fuelling the Scot’s long campaign to make the sport less lethal for its participants. The last world champion of the 1960s, Stewart went into the new decade as Formula 1’s leading figure: not just as the quickest in the field, destined to win further titles in 1971 and 1973, but as a pioneer in both paddock style and on-track safety.
This son of a Dumbarton car dealer went out of his way to make himself a highly marketable figure, thanks to the long hair, the tartan band around his white helmet and the silver-framed sunglasses with holes drilled in the arms to resemble components from a racing car. Plastic replicas of the sunglasses were soon available on special offer at your local filling station, an early sign that Stewart understood not just how to drive fast but how to monetise his fame.
His work on safety made him a controversial figure with traditionalists, to whom the presence of mortal danger was intrinsic to Formula 1. But he and his wife Helen had attended too many funerals to be deterred. And his critics could be reminded that of his 27 wins from 99 starts, the greatest had come in the 1968 German Grand Prix, when he conquered the Nürburgring’s fearsome 14-mile Nordschleife to finish
