Panther_99FS
Retired SOH Administrator
"On Velocity Now - "Grand Prix: The Killer Years"...
1960s F1....Talkikng about the introduction of the Lotus 49 now...
1960s F1....Talkikng about the introduction of the Lotus 49 now...
Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

A very poor piece of TV 'Journalism', morbid and badly researched.
I was very interested in comments made by Nina Rindt and 'Beaky' Sims, Nina is very bitter [and rightly so!] about Chapman, but Jochen was his own worst enemy, he wanted to run without wings and he refused to buckle up the crutch straps of his harness.
Bad research, 'Four drivers were killed at Spa in 1960 driving Lotus cars'.
Certainly two drivers [Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey] died, two were badly injured [Stirling Moss and Mike Taylor] and Taylor won a legal action against Lotus for a faulty part causing his accident.
But Stacey was hit in the face by a bird at speed and lost control during practice [he was a Lotus works driver], Moss lost a wheel during practice and broke both legs driving the privately entered Rob walker Lotus, while Bristow overdrove his COOPER and crashed with fatal results mid race.
The program was littered with irrelevant images of bent and broken cars, most of which resulted in no or minor injuries, complete with footage of Indycars doing the usual first lap chaos.
I've never been an admirerer of Jackie Stewart and his comments throughout this production cemented that belief.
It never fails to amaze me that 'Wee Jock McArmco' never stopped his car at Zandvoort to assist David Purley [A genuine hero!] at the scene of Roger Williamson's accident.
Nor did any of the other drivers.
Why even include the death of Bruce McLaren in this morbid rollcall, he died while testing a CanAm car, a great loss to the sport but not part of F1.
Jacky Ickx summed up the mindset of the time perfectly when he pointed out that they were all doing what they wanted to do, nobody was holding a gun to their heads.
It could have been a first class production on an important aspect of Formula 1, sadly it ended up as mindless and morbid rubbish.

