– Three-time Formula 1 world champion Jackie Stewart believes that modern Formula 1 drivers can be much more aggressive thanks to modern safety standards, and in an interview with his grandson Lucas, he looks back on his tireless efforts for more safety in motorsport in the 1960s and 1970s.
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“They act more preventively in the area of safety, but at the same time, exploiting these standards has brought the sport to a level that never existed before. They do make mistakes, but these mistakes no longer cost lives as they did in the past,” Stewart says when asked how modern driving styles have changed due to increased safety.
According to the 87-year-old, everything in Formula 1 has developed for the better. “It is currently in a very good state. The likelihood of a fatal accident is vanishingly small compared to before. So that is a good thing,” emphasizes the Scot.
Many memorial benches on Stewart’s estate
During Stewart’s active career, accidents often had fatal consequences. He had already planned to end his career at the end of the 1973 season, but after the fatal accident of his teammate Francois Cevert at Watkins Glen, he stopped racing one race earlier than planned and thus missed his 100th Grand Prix.
“It was ridiculously dangerous. Most of my friends are dead,” he says, pointing to the numerous memorial benches on his estate: “Almost every bench here on our property is dedicated to a racing driver who lost his life.”
“We were all mates,” Stewart says, recalling very different times. “We didn’t even stop the race. We kept going while someone was just losing their life. That is an incredible reality.”
“And you knew who it was,” he continues. “Sometimes there was a terrible sight and you only recognized it by the helmet that had been torn off in the accident. Such things don’t happen anymore today.”
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Stewart wants to be remembered for safety
The fact that such things no longer happen today is largely due to Stewart himself, who already campaigned intensively for higher safety during his active career. Even after his career, safety in motorsport was always his top priority. “I had to do something to make the sport safer.”
“Today we have the highest safety in motorsport that there has ever been in the history of the sport,” Stewart emphasizes. Fatal accidents can never be ruled out, “but compared to past times, it is quite unlikely.”
Photo gallery: Jackie Stewart’s Formula 1 career
The last fatal accident in Formula 1 occurred in the 2014 season when Jules Bianchi crashed into a recovery vehicle during the Japanese Grand Prix and never woke from a months-long coma – it was the only fatal accident for a driver in more than 30 years now.
That he made motorsport safer is how Stewart also wants to be remembered: “The number of friends who died – in many cases completely unnecessarily – could be reduced to a completely new level, and that was continued by many others,” says the former racing driver.
“But maybe I was the first, because it was not necessarily received positively at the time when we enforced changes to the racetracks so that we could even continue racing. All this had to happen because there were so many deaths and it would have been ridiculous to just carry on. I was simply part of that era.”
