BBC documentary 'Grand Prix: The Killer Years'

[truefan72]

watched it online and it was very powerful and really sad, especially that last segment on Willamson and Purley.
I think the most powerful thing I took away was that back then the public, organizers and teams had a completely different attitude towards death and racing.
But it was simply heartbreaking to see such tragedy and if a couple of those incidents happended today, we might even see the rest of a season abandoned in order to sort things out.

That Purley, Williamson scene was almost unwatchable to me. The man tried his best,nobody would/could help, fellow drivers wouldn't stop despite purley's pleadings, I felt terrible. Just gut wrenching

[Mark]

I knew there were a lot of deaths in those days, but I really had no idea just how many, shocking and rather disturbing! I guess it's true when they say that the past is another country and that kind of death toll would have seen F1 banned in this day and age

[AndyL]

I knew there were a lot of deaths in those days, but I really had no idea just how many, shocking and rather disturbing! I guess it's true when they say that the past is another country and that kind of death toll would have seen F1 banned in this day and age

Compared to today, I think everyone had a very different attitude to death in the years after the war. It took a long time for that mindset to change.

[Mark]

I've heard 'the war' argument before, which makes some sense, but what we don't know is what attitudes were before the two world wars, to know if it was actually the wars that changed peoples perceptions.

[wedge]

Post-war, 'The Right Stuff'; it wasn't just insistent circuit owners but from JYS's autobiography a lot of people felt safety would dilute the sport, armco barriers sanitising the 'Ring, Jenks slagging off JYS in Motorsport magazine for diluting the sport, even Moss also in disagreement today: "for me danger in F1 is like salt is to cooking".

[BDunnell]

I've heard 'the war' argument before, which makes some sense, but what we don't know is what attitudes were before the two world wars, to know if it was actually the wars that changed peoples perceptions.

It is a very interesting topic, this. I think there is a degree of truth to the argument about the war, but it is very hard to measure how far this came into play compared with other factors. There was certainly a general assumption that, sadly, deaths were inevitable in certain activities. One sees plenty of examples of this in aviation. Take the disaster at Farnborough in 1952, when a de Havilland DH110 broke up during a display at the Farnborough show and sections, including one of the engines, went into the crowd. 29 spectators were killed. However, the flying resumed soon afterwards. Today such an occurrence would see the show being halted immediately and, in all probability, a reaction such that air displays might no longer be permitted in the UK, yet that was simply not the case in 1952. People accepted the fact that, in pushing the boundaries, there would be deaths — including, in this case, amongst the public. And not long after a de Havilland Comet airliner had broken up in a tropical storm off India, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret still flew on such an aircraft on a visit to what was then Rhodesia. Can you imagine that now, let alone the fact that the Comets flew on, and were only grounded after two more airframe break-ups? As I said, attitudes were completely different.

As for motorsport, I assume this documentary (which, living abroad, I have been unable as yet to see) dealt only with Formula One? If one adds in other formulae, not least sportscar racing, then the toll of that time becomes even more appalling. In an interview in MotorSport a while back, Derek Bell remarked upon the number of deaths in motor racing that are today completely forgotten, such as three drivers killed in one Italian Formula 3 race alone. Again, this would now be totally unacceptable.

It is all too easy to apply our modern standards and our modern ways of thinking to this matter, to think 'What were they doing?' A lot of the time, I think this is misguided, not to say irrelevant. Those times were what they were. There was less knowledge regarding vehicle and driver safety than there is now, less knowledge regarding circuit safety than there is now, and, with all due respect to those involved, motor racing was simply less professionally-organised. But, despite this, it still beggars belief that certain events were allowed to happen, because relatively simple measures of which people were well aware could have been taken, and lives would have been saved. The presence of properly-equipped, properly-trained fire services stands out.

[Don Capps]

I've heard 'the war' argument before, which makes some sense, but what we don't know is what attitudes were before the two world wars, to know if it was actually the wars that changed peoples perceptions.

There is bit more to it than that, but suffice it to say that one must keep in mind what L.P. Hartley stated in The Go-Between (London: H. Hamilton, 1953): "The Past is a foreign country. They do things differently there."

[Bezza]

Watched both docs last night.

I thought The Killer Years was a fantastic documentary, and very moving. My girlfriend also enjoyed (if that is the right word for this).

However, the other one was rather dull. Not enough archive footage, too much focus on current drivers and far too may shots of nothing happening.

[I am evil Homer]

If anyone can watch that and then dismiss Jackie Stewart they are frankly an idiot. He made himself unpopular by campaigning for what now seems like common sense - the fact he stood up and made that point over and over until something changed cannot be underestimated.

His quote about attending Courage's and then McLaren's funerals in one week then being told the 'Ring organisers refused to change anything...then the Rindt accident you can tell the anger is still there to this day. Immensly powerful stuff.

The Purley footage I find un-watchable now...left me cold the first time - the body language of anger, the dejection as he realises no one is coming to help is horrific.

[BDunnell]

If anyone can watch that and then dismiss Jackie Stewart they are frankly an idiot. He made himself unpopular by campaigning for what now seems like common sense - the fact he stood up and made that point over and over until something changed cannot be underestimated.

Chris Amon, someone else for whom I have much respect, has been quoted as saying that pretty much every driver of the day agreed with Stewart, but didn't want to be the one to stick their head above the parapet. This brings Stewart's contribution into even sharper focus.