A new Formula One season is nearly upon and as debate rages about the Bahrain Grand Prix (or the lack there of) and we are bombarded with sponsors’ adverts featuring Hamilton and Button it would be easy to forget it wasn’t always like this.
Motor racing wasn’t always this glossy, it wasn’t always this affluent and it wasn’t always this safe.
And whilst race fans may relish seeing two British drivers with very realistic title ambitious they should remember the efforts of a champion who did not have the helping hand that pampered drivers are given today.
Graham Hill was the epitome of a racing champion. He came from nothing, lived fast and died young.
But the playboy tag that is so often banded about when it comes to drivers of yester year would do a disservice to Hill’s passion and dedication to the sport.
He was born in to humble surroundings in London and rose from freelance mechanic to World Champion.
Hill’s passion had been ignited by a track day at Brands Hatch, paying five shillings for each lap of the track. He was hooked after his fourth lap.
“I’d never been to a motor race or seen a motor race until I was in the first one I was in!” Hill later exclaimed about his first race in the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix.
His party lifestyle off the track was a distance cry from his meticulous approach on it. “He was such a lot of fun yet frightening when he was serious,” explained his friend, and rival, Jackie Stewart.
Hill was a race fans dream but an engineer’s nightmare. He kept records of every car he drove and was constantly pushing for more.
The intensity brought success, and the success brought with it a more extravagant lifestyle.
The champion’s parties were legendary amongst the F1 fraternity but unlike so many others, enjoying the trappings of fame and fortune did not affect his burning desire to race, or win.
Still the only driver to have won the Indy 500, Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix he has to be one of the greatest drivers of all time.
Ironically the winnings from the Indy 500 bought the plane that Hill would later crash and tragically die in 1975.
But watching the BBC’s Graham Hill documentary Driven doesn’t just document an F1 legend but also the evolution of the sport and how the fear and stark reality of death shaped the glitzy world of racing today.
Driven’s fascinating depiction of a time when F1 was dealing with over a death a season makes Hill’s achievements all the more impressive and reminds as all that racing isn’t all about the glamour, money and celebrity.
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