Exclusive: Sir Jackie Stewart on dark period of F1, wife Helen's battle with dementia & new charity
A new film documenting the life and career of Scottish racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart is released in the UK today.
A new film documenting the life and career of Scottish racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart is released in the UK today.
Ahead of its release, the three-time Formula 1 World Champion has been speaking with MFR, but Sir Jackie says it’s more than a simple documentary.
Produced by his own son Mark, the film titled ‘STEWART’ dives deep into the personal life of the 83-year-old who survived the darkest period of racing in the late ‘60s and early ’70s where many of his colleagues and rivals died driving.
Using restored archive film, STEWART shows Sir Jackie’s beginnings as a mechanic in Dumbarton, to his first race win in 1965 at Monza, and to his first World Championship title in 1969.
However, it delves into the struggles Sir Jackie endured during that time, touching upon his dyslexia diagnosis when he was 41 and shows how his new race is now against dementia to save his wife of 60 years, Helen.
‘All my friends are dead’
For a three-time world champion, Sir Jackie Stewart was a humble driver. At the time, no one had won as many titles as the Glaswegian making him the most successful racer of his time.
He said: “My mentality was always that there was going to be someone better than me, and I had to try harder to beat them and win.
“I won the world championship three times, but I set out to work with the best mechanics and best car I could.
“But even by winning world championship races, you were still threatened. Not just from the accident side, although I never dreamed of living or dying, but on a competitive level too.”
STEWART documents his most exhilarating Grand Prix races in Monaco, Silverstone, Monza and Mexico, looking at how he set out to improve racing safety.
Sir Jackie lived through a dark age of racing and lost many friends and colleagues in the sport, but he emerged from his Formula 1 career without drawing blood, he tells MFR.
He said: “I always say all my friends are dead. My wife Helen counted 57 Grand Prix Drivers that had were killed during my career.
“We all travelled together, we all went on holidays together, we were completely different group of people to those in F1 today.
“My wife Helen was with me the entire time, and witnessed it all, so she plays a very important role in the film.”
Dementia – “This is the biggest race I’ve ever had in my life”
After being diagnosed with dyslexia when he was 41, Sir Jackie set out to help who he could and started Dyslexia Scotland.
Now Jackie is on another mission, and has been running a new charity for the last year.
He’s making it his sole purpose to try and find a cure for dementia after his wife Helen was diagnosed with the brain disease.
Helen is featured heavily in STEWART as she was by his side his full career, travelling with the formula paddock with their two sons while working as Sir Jackie’s timekeeper and he says he couldn’t have had the career he did without her.
His new charity, ‘Race Against Dementia’ is looking to take the elite problem solving of Formula 1 and apply the same determination to finding a cure for dementia.
Sir Jackie says he’s now more driven to find a cure than he ever was in his racing career.
He said: “For 60 years, we have had no cure for dementia, we need to find one.
“That’s the biggest challenge I will ever face in my life, it is the greatest race I could ever win, and I’m more driven to win that now.
“I sorted out motor racing with regard to the number of deaths we had. It was hideous. So, I’m trying to do the same with dementia.
“We’re using Formula 1 as an example of that, because they have faster problem-solving activity than anything else in the world. After one Grand Prix, there will be six or seven massive changes made to fix problems and they’re sometimes done in a matter of days.”
Sir Jackie now wants to encourage as many people as possible to see STEWART. With the recent popularity surge in the sport after the Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’ new and old enthusiasts of the sport can see what it was like in its early stages.
He added: “Come and see a film about a sport that is now the biggest in the world. In it, during the time of 60’s and 70’s you will see some of the most glamorous people who ever lived, and one of those glamorous people was my wife Helen."
STEWART debuts on Sky Documentaries & NOW on Friday 30 December.