Sir Jackie Stewart 

 

 

Sir John Young "Jackie" Stewart OBE (Milton, June 11, 1939) is a British race car driver, three-time world champion in Formula One.

 

Biography [edit] Adolescence and the first competitions [edit] Stewart seemed destined to become part of the world of motor racing as a child. His father owned a first dealer of Austin and the Jaguar then. Stewart's own father was an amateur motorcycle racer [1] and his older brother was a talented pilot who ran the Ecurie Ecosse F1 World Championship 1953 as well as numerous other racing.

 

At age 13 he won a competition skeet shooting and later became a member of the award-winning Scottish shooting team. He won the British championship, Scottish and Welsh and European championship skeet 'Cup of nations'. He competed for a place in the British team to compete in Shooting at the 1960 Olympics but was awarded to another. [2] His involvement in motorsport is limited for the time being in contact with family activities that worked as an apprentice mechanic. The introduction to racing was the natural consequence of this work.

 

In 1961, of offering a customer of his father, he began to experience car racing and in 1962 he decided to turn pro after shooting at Oulton Park on a Jaguar E-Type with the same time professional pilots. In that year he won his first two races and the Ecurie Ecosse offered him a wheel and won at Goodwood on a Cooper team itself. In 1963, however, racked up fourteen wins, one second place and two third places and only six withdrawals.

 

In 1964 he signed again for Ecurie Ecosse. But Ken Tyrrell, then director of the Cooper Formula Junior team, had heard of him by the Director of the track at Goodwood and called Jimmy Stewart to see if his brother was available for testing. Jackie then went to Goodwood for these tests and was given a brand new car that was also trying to Formula3 Bruce McLaren. Stewart immediately turned faster than McLaren was forced to get back on track to beat the time of Stewart, but later the Scot turned even faster. Tyrrell was then that he offered him a place in his team, this was the beginning of a collaboration that lasted throughout the career of Stewart.

 

Racing career [edit]

Jackie Stewart Matra-Cosworth at the Nürburgring, 1969.

Stewart (right) with Mike Kranefuss in 1973.Nel F3 debut in 1964, Tyrrell was on a meteoric. The first race took place after two laps in the wet and Stewart already dominated with 22-second lead, finally won the race with as many as 44 seconds on his pursuers. Cooper did not wait and, after a couple of days, offered him a job in F1 but he refused to gain experience in F3 with Tyrrell. At the end of the year missed the victory in just two races (pick one for clutch problems and a spin) and graduated from the sample.

 

At the end of the season 1964, after trying a Jaguar E-Type and a Ferrari at Le Mans, a Lotus 33-Climax tried F1 and its performance impressed that Jim Clark and Colin Chapman (needless to add that both are not so easily impressed ), but Stewart once again refused to race in Formula 1 Formula 2 always on a Lotus. In 1965 he made his debut alongside Graham Hill of BRM in F1, after the previous year had run an F1 race on Lotus to replace the injured Jim Clark, and his debut at the GP of South Africa won his first World Championship point . At the end of his first season in F1 so he collected a win (Grand Prix Italy 1965), three second places, third, fifth and sixth place finishing the World Championship in third place behind the winner Graham Hill and Jim Clark .

 

The following year, in a Lola, touched his victory at the Indianapolis 500 in his first participation in the American race. He was forced to withdraw from a cooling pump failure eight laps from the end when he was a lap ahead of his pursuer, his team mate Graham Hill, also making his debut. Her performance so impressed the American public that he was awarded the Rookie of the Year winner even though Hill was the first participation to 500 miles.

 

Between 1966 and 1967 he collected a victory in the F1 World (MONACO GP 1966) and a few placings. In fact, these two seasons were marked unreliability of BRM, which forced him to withdraw 14 of 19 Grand Prix starts. However participated successfully in competitions such as minor Tasman Series and 1966 Rothmans 12 Hour International Sports Car Race.

 

1968 was the year of return to the team of Ken Tyrrell that when lined up in the world of F1 Matra MS10-Cosworth. His talent, and new types of tires available, enabled him to win at Zandvoort and the Nurburgring in a flood in the fog where he won with a lead of four minutes on the second. This race is considered one of his masterpieces, even if the victory was due to the rain tires that were substantially higher than those of other teams. He won at Watkins Glen but still did not attend the Spanish Grand Prix and Monaco, because of an injury remedied at the Spanish GP in F2, and retired to the Grand Prix of Mexico, due to a mechanical failure, so he had to give the victory of the World Graham Hill.

 

The 1969 was the year of the consecration. Always with Ken Tyrrell, Matra, Stewart showed an overwhelming superiority in more than one occasion. He won by two laps ahead of Spain, with more than a minute in France and more than a lap at Silverstone. Then he won in South Africa, Holland and Italy and graduated as world champion, Alonso's title until 2005, was the only rider to have won the championship for a French brand. And it is still the only one to have won the championship on a car built entirely in France since 2002 as the Renault team based in England.

 

For 1970, Matra, who had since been purchased by Chrysler, insisted that its engines would use the V12 as Tyrrell and Stewart wanted to keep the V8 Cosworth and their collaboration with Ford. So for that year, supported financially by the sponsor Elf Tyrrell left the French brand to buy the chassis from March Engineering and retain the Cosworth engines, with the new March 701 - Cosworth, Stewart won once at Jarama but it was soon evident schacciante superiority of the new Lotus 72D driven by Jochen Rindt. Even with the new Cosworth Tyrrell 001, which appeared in mid-season, Stewart was unable to prevent Rindt to win the championship (although he died Rindt at Monza that year, had so many points ahead of Jacky Ickx that the world he was still assigned in a posthumous).

 

Despite a disappointing season, Stewart had confidence in the Tyrrell for 1971, which produces the Tyrrell 003 - Cosworth with which he won in Spain, Monaco, France, Great Britain, Germany, and Canada, where he graduated with a world champion for the second time. The same year also participated in the Can-Am championship as well as in 1973. For 1972, due to a series of health problems due to frequent travel, had to skip the Grand Prix at Spa as well as forced her to race for McLaren in Can-Am championship, but in F1 he collected a series of victories in Argentina, France, the United States and Canada that made him finish the season in second place behind Emerson Fittipaldi. The same year also in the European Touring Car Championship races with team-mate Francois Cevert and talented driver in a Ford Capri with which he finished second to 6 hours at Paul Ricard.

 

At the beginning of 1973 season, Stewart had already decided to retire from racing at the end of the year, but this did not prevent him to win even in South Africa, Belgium, Monaco, Netherlands, Austria and Germany, which was also his twenty-seventh victory in career ahead of team mate Francois Cevert, and then the F1 World Championship. At the last GP of the season at Watkins Glen, after the death of his partner and friend in qualifying Cevert, Stewart decided not to run so lacking in his hundredth Grand Prix career.

 

Consultant, commentator and owner of a team [edit] Later he became a consultant to the Ford Motor Company and representative men of all types of industries. At the same time, he became an advocate for safer cars and circuits in Formula One. Between the '70s and '80s he worked as a commentator for American and Australian television.

 

Rubens Barrichello in the Stewart Grand Prix 1997 1997.Nel Stewart returned to Formula 1 with the Stewart Grand Prix, as the owner of the team in partnership with his son, Paul, and the Ford Motor Company. The best result was at the Monaco Grand Prix where Rubens Barrichello in the same year he obtained a surprising second place in the rain. The reliability still left much to be desired and many potentially good results were marred by mechanical failures as the second place at the Nurburgring. 1998 was even worse with only 5 points scored. The year 1999 saw a new-found competitiveness of the car thanks to a new engine, Johnny Herbert won the European Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello got three third places and a pole position in addition to leading a race at the Brazilian GP. The team was later bought by Ford and became Jaguar Racing in 2000 which in turn would become the Red Bull Racing in 2005.

 

Stewart has become knighted in 2001 and was president from 2000 to 2006 the British Racing Drivers' Club, an association that manages the Silverstone circuit and the organization of the Grand Prix F1.

 

The battles for a more secure F1 [edit] On the occasion of the Grand Prix of Belgium 1966 Stewart was involved in an accident on the first lap in the rain. He was trapped in the cockpit with a shirt soaked with petrol coming from the tanks during the impact squarciatisi. Any spark could cause a fire and Stewart could not get out of the car because the steering column lil deformed leg and the stop you were not there it will close the marshals the tools to pull it off. After he was released he was lying in the van waiting for the ambulance which arrived very late. Then he was transferred to the emergency room of the circuit where he was medicated to the floor in the midst of dozens of cigarette butts and dirt varies as a result, while being transported to hospital in Liege, the ambulance driver got lost on the road.

 

This series of events made him realize that he must do something to make motoring a safe sport and became one of the most active supporters of the safety in F1. These are his words about the incident at Spa:

 

"I was trapped in my car for 25 minutes, unable to move. Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant made me quit using a wrench with a kit of a spectator. There was a doctor and there was no place to put. In then they put me in the back of a van. Eventually an ambulance took me to the emergency room near the control tower where I left on a stretcher on the floor surrounded by cigarette ends. then I put in an ambulance with an escort of police, but the stock was lost and the ambulance driver did not know how to get to Liège. At first I suspected that an injury to the spine, after it was discovered that the injury was not serious, but they did not know "

"So I thought that if this was the best we had then was something wrong: there was something wrong with the tracks, cars, doctors, fire prevention and rescue teams. There were bumps on the lawns were well-off ramps, where you crashed objects, unprotected trees, and so on. Young people today do not understand. It was simply ridiculous. "[3]

Adding that:

 

"It is unacceptable for there to die crashing into a tree that is there by chance." [4]

In response to this and supported by Louis Stanley (BRM chief), began a campaign to improve emergency services and to construct the security barriers at the sides of the tracks. It also had to follow his personal physician at each and every Grand Prix race put a wrench in his cockpit when he needed it. Also insisted that they would make mandatory the use of helmet and seat belts, objects of which today no one could do without. At the same time the organizers of the Grand Prix because they modernize their circuits, and invited his colleagues to boycott the most dangerous races on circuits like Spa and the Nurburgring, at least until they were modernized and made safe.

 

However at the time all these battles made him popular among the organizers of the Grand Prix, journalists and even among some of his colleagues and he often recalls that: "If I had said what many wanted to hear a sample I might have been more popular. Maybe dead, but more popular. " But his victories and his popularity among fans is that her message did not remain unheeded.

 

Despite what his friends and colleagues continued to die. He and his wife were particularly affected by the death of their friend Piers Courage and a few months later, Jochen Rindt that left a young wife and a young son. All these dramas convinced him to retire at the end of 1973. The final blow came when the Cevert Francois, who did not know that next year would be the first guide Tyrrell, died during qualifying Grand Prix of Watkins Glen in an accident whose dynamics are still unknown. Stewart then decided not to run the GP and retire with a race in advance. [4]

 

As he remembers:

 

"One day, Helen and I decided to make a list of all the friends we have lost due to accidents during the race car, we stopped when we reached 50 ..."[ 4]

It was acceptable that men die by negligence of others when at the same time man set foot on the moon? Evidently not.