Ferrari: Race to Immortality Page #8

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going for a long walk on the moors.

I think I heard it

on the television at home

and it was, you know,

it was very, very, very sad

and, you know,

so... so unnecessary, really,

but it's easy to say that

with the benefit of hindsight.

I think it's that he had a blackout

because he knew that road backwards.

He knew the car.

He used to race that car.

That road, it might have been slippery,

but Mike's been in...

in masses of skids,

so I think he had a blackout

and he didn't really know anything

about the accident at all.

That's what I think

and that's what I hope.

Whichever way you look at it,

Mike's life was tragic.

He only got to savor

his World Championship for three months

and then it all just went away.

People who knew him well said to me

he would not have made 35.

Whether that's true or not,

I don't know.

Um... But...

But the prognosis wasn't very good.

His last Christmas

was spent in bed. He wasn't at all well.

I didn't know how ill he was.

His doctor told me later

that he only had a few years to live.

So the way he went, I suppose,

it was the best way for Mike.

You've been quite straightforward

about some of those who quit.

You said, "Time will prove

the worth of all these people."

It is not up to humans to judge

what we are supposed to believe.

Only time can do that.

And time is relentless.

If you put a racing driver

in a racing car,

he's always going to take it

to the limit and beyond if necessary.

Um... Ferrari certainly

didn't discourage that.

He wanted drivers who thought like that.

I would say, first and foremost...

that I did nothing

other than what gave me pleasure.

I just did something that mattered

to me, in a purely selfish way.

I only find comfort in the thought

that what I did

wasn't detrimental to anybody.

It was phenomenal

with Castellotti and Musso and Portago

and Collins and Hawthorn.

That was an amazing bunch.

An amazing bunch of characters

as well as a bunch of talents.

And to lose those drivers

one after another,

it was a terrible thing,

it couldn't happen now,

and it was probably unique

in sporting history.

Well, they were rather like

fighter pilots or gladiators, I suppose.

They were...

They were stars.

They would have been the first

out of the trench or over the top,

the first off the landing craft.

These guys were...

They were warriors.

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