Fifty years ago on Saturday, Jackie Stewart claimed the first of his three Formula One world championships, at the Italian Grand Prix. Now Sir Jackie, he does not rush to answer when asked about his achievement, instead there is a pause as the 80 year old remembers Monza in 1969. His answer, when it comes, is considered but delivered with conviction. “I never felt at any time that I was better than anybody else,” he says. “But I knew I had a fantastic team of people around me.”
On Sunday, Monza will host the 90th Italian Grand Prix. In 1969, Stewart was driving here for Ken Tyrrell’s team, running Matra cars. His affection for Tyrrell and his squad is well known but Stewart explains how he owed them much more than just the title. “Roger Hill, Roy Topp and Roland Law were the three mechanics,” he says. “I recently spoke at the Royal Automobile Club and they and the Queen were there. I had them stand up and said: ‘I am here today because of those three men.’ My wife, Helen, counted 57 people had died in my career. I didn’t lose wheels or aerofoils. When everybody else was crashing, my car did not.”
The passage of time has clearly not dampened the affection with which he holds the team for whom he took all three of his titles. Nor has it dimmed the vivacity of his memories of Monza. The race was a thriller on a track where passing at high speed was the norm. There were no chicanes and the cars slipstreamed one another with repeated overtaking throughout a lap. It was also run at a breakneck pace, the average speed moving from 143mph to 146mph across the 68 laps. The lead and places were exchanged with almost bewildering frequency, Stewart explains, in what was for the most part a six-way fight at the front between Stewart, Graham Hill, Piers Courage, Bruce McLaren, Jochen Rindt and Jean‑Pierre Beltoise.
The climax was an F1 spectacle for the ages. Late on, Courage’s Brabham had fallen back with a fuel problem and on lap 64 a broken drive shaft took Hill’s Lotus out. With the remaining four contenders nose to tail as they entered the final lap, Stewart’s great friend Rindt took the lead through the Lesmos, but Stewart had claimed it back as they entered the back straight.
Only Parabolica remained. Beltoise braked late and went wide, Stewart swept up the inside and led heading for the line. Stewart and Tyrrell’s decision to put in a higher gear ratio made the difference when he did not have to change gear on the run to the flag.
The protagonists crossed it almost as one: Stewart, Rindt, Beltoise and McLaren. Nineteen-hundredths of a second separated them – what was then the closest finish in F1.
Just as they will be passionate on Sunday, the Italian fans erupted at what had been a magnificent race. Ferrari may not have won but they knew they had seen a worthy world champion claim his crown in the most glorious fashion.
Motorsport magazine wrote: “The huge crowd poured on to the track and the presentation of the victors laurels disappeared under a seething mob of wildly enthusiastic spectators.”
Stewart remembers with a smile being at the heart of their celebratory maelstrom. “The crowds at Monza were as big as they are today,” he says. “I came down from the podium and the crowd broke though the barriers. In those days the wives came up on the podium, so Helen was with me.
“The crowd completely engulfed us, the police had no chance. We then went into an administration office and they broke through there. Then Helen and I went into a toilet with the laurel wreath still on and they were banging on the door of the toilet, so we had to climb out of the window and run down to the paddock.
“I have never seen anything like it. I jumped into the back of a Dunlop van, but somebody saw me going in so they pushed the van. Fortunately, a friend of mine, Philip Martyn, a world champion backgammon player, had a big Merc so he brought it into the paddock and Helen and I ran into it and he drove it away.”
Stewart has been married to Helen since 1962. His relationship with his long-term sponsor, Rolex, on whose behalf he is recalling the events at Monza, is six years shorter.
When he won his first world championship he had been with them a year; now Stewart is one of their “testimonees”, a role given to those who have achieved extraordinary feats, such as Sir Malcolm Campbell, Sir Edmund Hillary, and in the modern era, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods.
He has long taken all such commitments seriously, believes in making them last and that where he can, he should also try and make a difference. His tireless work in making racing safer is well documented and vital. Of late, he has thrown himself into defeating dementia, to which his wife has succumbed. His charity, Race Against Dementia, has raised $3.5m for research into the disease.
Perhaps less well known is that his commitment to those who had been so vital in his success 50 years ago was never forgotten. In 1987, he founded the Grand Prix Mechanics Trust, now the Grand Prix Trust, of which he is still chairman, to provide support and welfare to any former F1 team members that require it.
Stewart has been able to contribute so much thanks in part to the success he enjoyed in 1969. That year, he was in complete control. He won six of the first eight races to take the title and remains the only driver to have a led on at least one lap of every grand prix in a season.
Monza was its peak but one that, despite the glory, he kept very much in perspective. “If you start thinking you are king of the castle, you usually have a fall,” he says of that remarkable year. “And I had a great fear of falling.”
