Grand Prix: The Killer Years

[nopanic - neil]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z8v18

Just started on BBC 4 TV. Looks informatiive

[Pilgrim]

The drivers were absolute legends in those days, as brave as could be.

[Barry]

Bugger, missed it, does anyone know when it's being repeated?

[Pilgrim]

It's watchable on BBC iPlayer now.

[pretzel]

Definitely worth a watch. Be aware there are a couple of grisly images that can take you aback a bit!

[Snoring Rhino]

Thanks Neil, I would have missed it, very emotive.

[Paddy_NL]

Not available in your area

Bummer

[gt6]

The killer years was probably the best programme on F1 I have ever seen, seems odd that those guys were paid peanuts and risked everything whilst todays racers are paid millions but the risks are smaller, those drivers paid for the safety of todays drivers with thier lives

[pedersenkorsager]

Paddy: use a VPN connection. 

[knetter]

Saw a great documentary on belgian tv last monday, about the deadly accident Gilles Villeneuve had at Zolder, never saw the footage before! Those guys were heroes of their time!

[Boorish Grobian]

Living in the States I haven't seen this program yet, but it sounds interesting, if the title sounds more than a little sensationlist.  Speed TV ran a program years ago called the Quick & Dead, filmed mostly in the early seventies.  It was pretty cheesy, with its narration by Stacey Keach, and showed some pretty gory stuff (Tom Pryce's Kyalami shunt, Roger Williamson's Zandvoort accident,etc.) but it was worth watching because it had some fantastic, extensive interview footage with drivers like Francois Cevert, and Peter Revson.  Guys who died before the film was ever completed.  As you said, it was different era.  Horribly dangerous, but as Jackie Stewart once said, we were doing the best we could with the technology that was available at the time.  Compared to what they had known in the fifties and sixties, it was many times safer.
Fax

[Nordic]

The program is worth watching (if you excuse some of the clips which are either out of sequence or from indy) it was not a half bad program,

Some of those interviewed where still feeling the pain for events that they could not control and others seemed to want to blame chapman for the death of a loved one.

It stopped at the Zandvoot crash of Williamson, but could have carried on as it was some years before real progress had been made and many more drivers died.

In hindsight it is amazing the positions that spectators where allowed into!

[Boorish Grobian]

Without asking, I assume you refer to Nina Rindt, she's been very pointed with her blame for her husband's death, and she's always squarely layed it a Colin Chapman's feet.
The accident that had the biggest impact on safety was probably the '78 Monza shunt.  The shambolic rescue, and the chaos that followed, prompted Bernie to bring in Sid Watkins as the official FIA advisor, and form a safety commitee, rather than leave things up to the locals, who made a complete mess of things at Monza.
Fax

[Nordic]

Correct Nina Rindt clearly felt that Chapman was to blame. Namely the distrust of the new 72 and Chapman not taking the older car when Rindt was more than happy with it,

Having already won the championship it does seem right to bring on the new car so it could be fully developed prior to the next season. However maybe it was a still to new to race and the need a bit more testing. But then the testing could also have been as fatal.

The 78 Monza crash is the first that I affected me, I was a Ronnie fan and seeing it all played out on telly was quite shocking. The advances in safety after that driven by Bernie and others where alot faster, technology also helped, fuel cells and deformable structures etc.

[Boorish Grobian]

I've always had sympathy for Nina and her anger at what happened, but at the end of the day, whether the car broke, or it just got away from Jochen under braking without wings, if he had been wearing his crotch straps, the injuries that killed him wouldn't have happened.
Agreed, I was badly shocked by Monza '78 as well, Ronnie was my hero growing up and watching that played out was pretty big jolt to someone at sixteen, who had already been following the sport for several years and already seen a fair amount of tragedy.  But for all of the bashing we level at Bernie, he really became commited to making sure safety improved.  At that time, that standard of medical care and marshaling varied dramatically from country to country.  The handwriting was on the wall two weeks before Monza when Patrese and Pironi had that colossal accident at the start of the Dutch GP, Patrese's shattered Arrows ending up in a heap in the middle of the road.  The next several laps of TV footage could have been called The Three Stooges Try To Move A Wrecked Racng Car.  The sport had become by that stage, too polished & professional for races to be run the way they were.
Fax