Inside F1 icon Jackie Stewart’s life 50 years after retirement

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“I think it’s the best film there is in motorsport. Maybe I’m slightly biased,” giggles Sir Jackie Stewart on the launch of a new biographical documentary on the British F1 legend. Sky’s new movie STEWART mixes the highs of the Scot’s three F1 titles with a more intimate look at his personal life 50 years on from his retirement.

Put together using archive footage and produced by his son Mark during lockdown, STEWART offers fresh insights behind some of the most dangerous years in the sport’s history. Unlike previous Stewart movies (Weekend of a Champion), the former Tyrell star opens up on his personal struggle with dyslexia which was not diagnosed until a later age.

Most shockingly, he admits how he used to disguise the fact he struggled to read after being called “dumb” at school. Speaking to Express Sport, he said: “I think the movie’s great. I think it’s the best motor racing movie there has been.

“I’m not saying that because it’s to do with me. I’m just saying I’m amazed they did it in the fashion they did. It’s a great movie.” Among the elegance of archive clips showing 1970s F1 cars sliding around the Nurburgring and Monaco is a detailed insight behind one of the sport’s biggest safety pioneers.

Stewart’s bid to improve conditions at race tracks is a major feature and an eye-opener to today’s modern F1 fans unaware of the previous horrors. Some of the film’s most heart-wrenching moments come during Stewart’s recollections of losing close friends Jochen Rindt and Francoise Cevert in horrific accidents.

He told Express Sport: “Death had a lot to do with that because all of my friends died over that period in motor racing. The sport was so dangerous at that time. The management of the sport was so poor.

“There was not enough fire fighting equipment, there was not enough medical equipment, there was nothing. It was very very weak. But at the same time it was the swinging 60s and 70s which were fantastic, The Beatles and the Stones, Frank Sinatra was still there and Elizabeth Taylor came to the Monaco Grand Prix with me. Princess Grace at Monaco was a superstar, It definitely was more colourful.

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“The sport was just getting bigger and bigger as we went along and I was really happy to be part of it. I wasn’t aware of that at the time but I’m looking back now and seeing that and really thinking wow. I went to win but there was always parties going on and Fangio would show up and things like that, Sterling obviously, There definitely was more passion I think.

“We were all travelling together in most cases, Jochen Rindt and I were travelling together all the time and Jimmy (Clark) and Graham (Hill) and Bruce McLaren.” Finally, Stewart’s wife, Lady Helen’s role in his career is a key ingredient throughout.

As her husband’s timekeeper she was often close to tragedy, admitting five of her closest friends had been killed. However, she kept a mental resilience to keep battling through until Stewart quit the sport after the 1973 United States Grand Prix.

Stewart concluded: “It’s been a great ride and I think the film shows that in that light, It’s not overly glamourous. It’s a real good movie. From my point of view it’s been 50 years since I drove in anger.”

STEWART is released on Sky Documentaries on December 30.

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