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into the modern age.

John Miles:
The wedge shape,

the side radiators--

it was all highly advanced

and amazingly...

Fragile.

The car was being

developed at race meetings

in the back of trucks.

A lot of things

fell off, broke.

John barnard:
The whole safety

thing wasn't even an issue.

Let's not beat

around the bush--

a designer's

first requirement

is to make it fast.

Being quick comes first.

One month

into the 1970 season,

rindt set aside

his reservations

and sent Chapman's

new lotus

roaring

into the history books.

Sir Jackie Stewart: Jochen rindt and I

were the two fastest drivers,

that'd be fair to say.

I saw a lot of the back side

of his car in 1970.

They came to monza

with almost twice

as many points

as the second place team,

owner/driver Jack brabham.

At practice, we often decided

to take the wings off the car.

It was all to do

with straight-line speed.

At monza, you gained

more down the straight.

Eddie Dennis:
Seventy-five percent

of the drivers take the wings off.

The wings were off my car,

and the car was absolutely,

for me, undrivable.

It's the first time I've been

really, really frightened

in a racing car.

Jochen felt the only way

he was gonna go really fast

was to get rid of the wings

and sort of

hang the consequences.

Eddie Dennis:
But the 72 had never been raced

without wings.

Sir Jackie Stewart: I ran back

to see Nina, his wife,

to tell her

what was happening,

but I didn't know what

the situation was with jochen,

but I certainly

didn't want to worry her.

Bernie and I ran down

to the parabolica

to see what we'd find.

Jochen had gone by then.

Eddie Dennis:

It comes over you

that you're the last person

they talked to.

You search your brain to see if

there's something that you've done wrong,

but jochen, he said, "leave the wings off,"

he said, "for sure."

( Speaking German )

That you would

stop racing.

( Rindt laughs )

One of the first men

to openly question

the safety of his sport

was silenced at the age of 28.

Two months later,

his widow was awarded

the world championship--

the only posthumous title

ever won in formula one.

The lesson of

jochen rindt was that

had he had even basic

proper medical attention,

he would have survived.

Sir Jackie Stewart: The grand

prix drivers' association

had a really good

articulated vehicle

with everything on board.

The people did not

put him into that vehicle.

They took him

to the wrong hospital,

and the time he'd got

to the right hospital, he'd died.

Jochen rindt was

the third formula one star

to be killed that season.

Bruce mclaren was

killed at goodwood.

Nineteen days later,

piers courage was killed

in the Dutch grand prix.

Those were tragic times

in so many ways,

because we lost some

icons of our sport.

He had an accident.

As far as the world knew,

that's what happened--

he'd had an accident

and got killed.

And nobody really

looked behind it,

why the accident happened

and could somebody have done something

to stop it happening.

Mario andretti:

It always took some kind of a tragic event

for us to say,

"you know what? We can do better."

We're getting smarter

and smarter about these cars.

We're able to

make 'em go faster.

Why can't we use the same knowledge

to make 'em safer?

There is a parallel

between formula one racing

and space.

As a kid, I followed

all the moon missions.

NASA technician:

Five... four... three...

Two... one.

Ignition sequence--

NASA technician:

Liftoff! We have a liftoff!

Koen vergeer:

It was the same time

they sent men in rockets

to the moon.

They are carrying fire

inside these machines.

They are

driving over the edge...

Into new worlds,

getting beyond boundaries.

Also about life and death.

( Spectators cheering )

Koen vergeer:

And that's formula one, too.

You knew when

the season started,

one or two of your

heroes would be killed.

Koen vergeer was among

the legion of boys worldwide

who became obsessed

with formula one

during its most

violent decade.

He was just 11 years old

when he saw his first race,

the Dutch grand prix

at zandvoort.

Koen vergeer:

We went there by train,

and you go into the sand

of the dunes.

And nothing is organized--

no signs at all, nothing.

You can be lost in the dunes,

if you want to.

And after a half an hour,

you find the track.

John hogan:
In the early

'70s, formula one was

really a little bit

of a circus act.

Maurice Hamilton:

You'd go to a grand prix.

Until the cars cars

came out to practice,

you wouldn't know

who's gonna turn up.

Paddy McNally:

Each team would negotiate

with the individual promoters

at these various circuits.

John hogan:
In fact, the organizers

paid the broadcasters

to show the grand prix.

The whole business was much more informal

in those days,

so even as a fan,

you could literally

go into the paddock,

and there were your heroes.

Koen vergeer:
Jacky ickx was my hero.

He had his mysterious name.

Jacky ickx,

the baby-faced Belgian,

with Ferrari in 1970,

was the one driver

who could have caught

jochen rindt

for the championship.

In truth, ickx came

perilously close to becoming

the fourth casualty

of the season.

( Spectators screaming )

Jacky ickx:
Being burnt is one of the

most painful things you can have.

You can be broken, you can

have all sort of things,

but being burned,

it's really-- it's terrible.

Jacky ickx:
I never thought

it could happen to me.

It's not

gonna happen to me.

You always think

it's going to happen

to the other driver,

not to you.

John Watson:
It was never

going to happen to me.

Sir Jackie Stewart:

A lot of drivers have the philosophy

that it's always someone else

who has an accident,

it's never themselves.

But of course you're

always on the very thin line

between survival

and even disaster,

or certainly death.

Jackie Stewart had

a huge accident at spa.

He was trapped

in his car upside down,

and he was soaked in fuel.

Max mosley:
The great fear

was fire in those days.

Those cars were all

effectively a mobile bomb

because in an accident,

the fuel went everywhere

and caught fire.

Nigel roebuck:
When jacky had his accident,

no one was wearing seatbelts.

That's because they preferred

if they hit anything

to be thrown free from the car.

It's proof

how amateur we were--

organizers,

teams, and drivers.

Both jackies

had been cut out and escaped,

only to become absolute

rivals in the revolution.

Ickx won at zanvoort in '71,

while the other Jackie

won his second world title.

We were

in total opposition.

Pure competition.

The flying scot became chair

of the grand prix drivers'

association,

and as world champion,

the de facto leader

in the uprising.

You're all wearing seatbelts

because in these cars,

an unfastened seatbelt

is no good.

While baby face

refused to join the union.

Jacky was not a believer

in the safety movement.

John Watson:
Jacky just didn't want to

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