WEBVTT - The History Buff 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.400 Michael, So this is the one episode where you didn't 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:02.760 come up. 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:05.120 With a really a huge huck. 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:09.240 Okay, do you have any thoughts about history? 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:12.800 I love history. History repeats itself in order to predict 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:16.000 the future. Take a look at the history. The thing 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:17.759 I love about history is it has a tendency to 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:22.400 repeat itself, repeat itself, much like a lap on a race. 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.639 If history repeats itself, it's really not even history. It's 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:32.000 just now over and over. For My Heart podcast one 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.120 on one studios and Sports Illustrated Studios, this. 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:36.680 Is choosing sides. 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:53.720 If one wow, wow, So today, Tony, you're taking me back. 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:59.160 Absolutely. F one as a sport has such a fascinating 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:03.160 and rich history, and for so many Formula One I 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:05.640 had Formula one fans. The biggest fan and I'm not 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:07.959 even joking here, the biggest fan in the sport is 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:11.680 revealing its history. I'm covering and retelling those stories. Sometimes 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:13.560 it gets a bit pedantic if they go back of 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:15.920 just like remember who beat the fastest lap and who 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:18.800 beat who in the nineteen ninety one World Championship. Yah yah, yeah, 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:20.040 but there's so many good stories. 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:24.520 Clip Mike, Hello, can you hear us? 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:25.000 And see us. 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:27.759 Okay, I can can you hear and see me. 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:30.720 The miracles of technology that solved it? 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:32.920 That should certainly be quieter if nothing else. 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:33.520 How's it going? 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:35.920 It is another day in paradise. 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:37.679 I'm totally comfortable. Don't worry. 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:42.640 Fantastic well'na, We're gonna ask the first big question, which is, 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.720 please introduce yourself to our listeners, and how do you 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:47.960 fit into the big puzzle of Formula one? 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.919 What a big puzzle Formula one is was and always 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.480 will be. Indeed, my name is Matt Bishop. I've worked 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.400 in Formula one well for a third of a century. 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.360 I think we can now say born in nineteen sixty two, 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.000 and my first memory of Formula one is not watching 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.600 it on the television because it wasn't on television. You know, 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.200 I'm one of these people that does love the past. 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.839 You know, I'm very happy to watch a movie from 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:17.360 the sixties. Reybaby started off as a journalist editor of 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.919 F one Racing Magazine, which is now called GP Racing Magazine. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.280 Fifteen years as a journalist, then was hired to McClaren 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:30.840 as communications director, then stepped away from that and was 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.400 one of the founders with David Coulthard of w series, 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.840 which thrived for a while but isn't thriving now sadly, 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.800 but I still think it played its part in driving 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:46.040 forward the effort to incorporate women inside the cockpit. And 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.079 then I moved to Aston Martin, spent two years there 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.360 and now in my sixties, I've turned sixty. I'm now 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:57.600 running my own comms agency and also turned my hand 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:02.160 back to journalism and I'm doing a weekly column for 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:04.799 the Most Sport magazine website. So there you are. That's 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.120 a whistle stop tour. That's and a little bit of 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.160 racing pride along the way. That's me. 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.720 Hi, I'm James Allen. It's a great pleasure to be 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:14.880 with you here on choosing sides. I've been in Formula 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.639 one since nineteen ninety so what's that thirty four to 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.560 thirty five years, and I guess the bulk of my 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.960 career was a broadcaster and an announcer. I was with 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.399 the ESPN, I was with the commercial station in the UK, ITV, 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:29.360 and with BBC as well. 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.919 Who's this guy, Well, allow me to explain. I'm Sean Kelly. 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.560 If you've watched a Formula one broadcast anywhere, in the 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.880 world in the last say, two decades. You won't know me, 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.119 but you will know my work because I am essentially 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.440 the chief statistician to the F one Broadcast's all the 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.760 facts and figures you hear in a Formula one broadcast, 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.080 whether they be in the graphics, whether they be spoken 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:52.560 by the likes of David Croft or Martin brund or 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:57.119 Alex Jakes or whomever, I am chiefly responsible for all 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.400 of that content. So, depending on where you and on 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:05.040 the whole statistics spectrum, either you're welcome or I'm sorry. 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:07.080 I left edit points there so you could edit in 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.000 whichever response you are. I should point out, by the 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.720 way that Roman Grojan's career nos dived the very moment 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.080 I asked him on stage on race day in Miami 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.320 if he thought that breakfast Cereal was just soup with 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.120 better marketing. He was having a great IndyCar season. Checked 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.359 the dates from that moment on. I think it was 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:29.919 May eighth, twenty three, twenty three. I literally killed his career. 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.000 Oh God, put it in the show, get it in 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:33.600 the show. 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:40.400 Crashes out of the Indianapolis five hundred, another massive hit. 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:44.800 Either way, I haven't had an answer which means he's 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:46.200 still contemplating it in his head. 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:47.359 Amazing. 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.320 One thing that you've been telling me in this voice 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.880 that you use is that so many of the teams 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.599 are based in the UK. Why is that? And is 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.520 that your real voice or are you doing like a 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.080 UK voice for me all of this? 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.080 So, the reason why so many of the teams are 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:08.960 based in the UK actually goes back to the Second 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:09.360 World War. 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:16.240 Yesterday morning at two one am at General Eichena headquartern, 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:24.039 General Jodel signed the Act of Unconditional to render all 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:30.839 German land, sea and the airportage in Europe, and simultaneously 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:33.480 the Soviet High Command. 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:35.640 At the end of the Second World War, you had 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.279 all these people, these very clever people who had been 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:43.280 building spitfires and fighter planes and technology that had been 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.720 used during that war time period. And funnily enough, they 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.920 were flying planes out of an aerodrome just north of 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.840 London called Silverstone, which had a perimeter road around it 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.000 that was just an ideal shape for a racetrack, and 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:58.960 so they started racing on it, and then they started 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.240 making the car's lighter, they put bigger engines in, and 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:03.560 then they started playing around the materials and all the 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.520 things they've been doing while fighting a war they converted 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:07.280 into a sport. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.599 You kind of have this knowledge base, but there's no 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.840 more war to fight, but there is this experience, yeah, right. 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.520 And use this experience for something different, but also just 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.880 keep busy, like, let's have a job here. And there 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.760 was also not many cars left after the war because 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:25.359 the automotive industries, both in Europe and in the US 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.880 had been completely retool to manufacture the likes of tanks, trucks, airplanes, 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.839 as we mentioned before. So engineers got creative. They built 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.680 these really lightweight cars to go racing on these abandoned 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:40.800 and empty airfields, which later become actual racetracks and still 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:42.479 are some of the tracks where we go racing today. 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.160 It's very cool, but airfields are straight, yes, so they 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:50.200 added they added just a part of the race. So honestly, 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:51.799 we still race on some of these todays. 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.719 Comparsions of the racetracks I believe are still part of 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.839 cal And airfields that we had in World War two. 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:02.279 And basically that whole area around Oxford and Silverstone became 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:04.800 a center of excellence for things like carbon fiber and 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.160 materials and technology and aerodynamics and what have you, and 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.040 then lots of international people came to work in those environments. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:13.920 You know, you didn't have what they now call as 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.520 a headquarters or a facility. They had what they called workshops, 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:23.400 little workshops basically lock up garages, and they employed anything 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:27.400 between ten and twenty people, and they worked incredibly hard, 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:28.720 incredibly hard. 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.200 Talent suppliers and mechanics and shops and repair shops which 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:35.720 became what we now know as motorsport value. Motorsport value 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.880 is essentially the biggest hub of motor racing. Most of 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:40.920 the teams, if not nearly all of the teams are 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:42.480 based in this motorsport value and. 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.160 The only other exception to that has been Ferrari really 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.120 in Italy, where they've been racing since before anybody else 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.480 even thought about it, and before long before the Second 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.960 World War had. They did it their way in their 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:58.040 country and they've been competing basically against the rest ever since. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:03.720 But that's why the UK as a disproportionate basis because 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.000 of the sort of handing down through the generations of 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:09.240 this sort of technical know how. 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:11.240 And it's not even just the UK. They're in this 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.160 little vat like they're very close. They're very close. 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.200 Hey, can we borrow the five sixteenth ranch for the 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.119 nut bolt on the coming over the distributor valve? 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.000 Michael, you know what a distributor valve is? 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:22.320 Hell? 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:24.080 Yeah, please enrich us. 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.600 Next question, Okay, so he built this machine. Great, great, great, 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.160 But drivers? I mean, were they able to get drivers 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:31.920 who were willing to put their life on the line 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:32.600 for this machine? 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.160 I mean, it's a great question because it both shouldn't 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.640 surprise us that they didn't have too much of a 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.280 hard time coming out of World War Two, where I 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:42.200 think a lot of the men were still in this 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.720 heroism and heroic mindset where it was totally normal to 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:48.640 put your life on the line for anything that you 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:49.200 believed in. 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.679 If you've been in the situation, if you've been an aviator, 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.120 you've been bombed or anything like that. And then suddenly 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:58.240 it stops and you're thinking, kind of miss missing the thrill. 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.080 You know, it's lives of I kind of need another. 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:02.280 I need I need to be a bait of a 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.040 thrill seeker, a race car. 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.400 There is an aspect of the psyche, certainly of the 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.480 male psyche, and there is definitely a desire to feel 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.160 alive by putting everything on the line. 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:16.760 You know, in those days, if you knew you were 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.520 likely to die or very possibly were going to die, 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.280 then it did. It did mean that you were going 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:25.600 to approach everything your whole life differently. 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.320 Formula one was I guess along with bullfighting. According to 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.720 having Away the original, the original extreme sport. 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.000 I think the whole feeling of death was not quite 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.520 so remote as it is now. I'm not glorifying it. 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:41.240 Sterling Moss used to glorify it. He used to say, 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.920 I find one of the appeals is that I'm risking 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:45.360 my life. 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:46.240 Are you conscious? 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.640 Do you think about death while you're driving in races? 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:49.760 No? 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.040 Not when I'm driving, but I'm very I am frightened 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:56.360 of death. It's something which I think every driver should well. 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.040 Possibly it helps him to be frightened of it, because 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.679 if you're not frightened an accident, then what is your limitation? 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.480 You get a sort of tingling in the hands and 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:07.280 feeling as though you'd just eaten a lot of porridge 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:09.920 which goes right down, you know, to your feet, And 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.000 that's the sort of sensation I get. But I wouldn't 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:14.119 ponder on the thought. 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.480 You know, my dad was a racing driver, and there 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:20.280 was always something incredibly exciting about about racers, about the 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.560 people who sort of commit to this sport with their 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.240 time back in the day, sadly with their lives. 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.520 Formula One the World Championship was actually quite lucky in 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.679 the early years. I believe the first recorded fatality in 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.240 a World Championship event was an Offering Marriman at the 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.520 fifty four German Grand Prix. I'm looking at you as 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:42.320 if you're going to correct me, and I don't think 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:43.040 you will. 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.199 I'm assuming that they were all like dumb eighteen twenty 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:46.920 year old No. 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:49.600 Actually, the average age of the Grand Prix field was 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.840 well over thirty in the early years. I mean Fanjio 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.720 won the tied to when he was forty six. Luigi 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:59.320 Fajoli was I think fifty three when he shared the 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.160 car with with Andrew at the fifty one French Grand Prix. 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.800 Luis Chiron was fifty five when he raced at Monica 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:05.559 in nineteen fifty five. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:07.920 But they were still just as skilled, they were not 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:12.560 just as fit. You know, look at Freulein Gonzalez. You know, 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.800 a huge fat man. There are no huge fat men 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:19.600 in any sport now, with possible exception of darts, but 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.480 not most sport and not Formula one, that's for sure. 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:23.120 Baseball. 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.560 Are they fat? They're just big on they? 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:26.640 I don't know. 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:28.480 I think some of them are. I could lose a 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:29.120 few pounds. 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:34.320 Here's my theory. Tell me, when you have a family 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.280 and you have responsibilities at home, people that rely on you, 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.640 that's when you want to do your dared devil activities, 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:44.679 because it's like, get me out of the house, I'll 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.480 do whatever. You know, I just need a couple hours 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.199 to myself. Let me go with the boys down on 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:50.960 the airfield and we'll do some racing. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:51.280 Yeah. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:53.880 Now, me and my wife actually fight over who's going 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:56.080 to get to go to the supermarket without kids. 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.760 I probably much preferred these types of drivers as opposed 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:02.640 to like the twenty year old Max who's born in 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.319 the sport and has seen all of the evolution through 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:07.400 his dad. It's like, these were guys who just got 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:09.640 done killing Nazis with their bare hands. Give me the 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:11.160 fucking steering wheel, let's go, baby. 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.480 I just wanted to mention here, like, keep in mind, 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:18.120 Michael that in their day, Fanjo, I mean, he he 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:19.320 wasn't changing diapers. 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:23.440 That's true. That's true. He wasn't walking a daycare nop. 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:25.520 No, thank god for those days are. 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:27.880 Yeah, well we blew it. I want to talk to 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.480 Juan and tell him if you guys would have just 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:32.240 put in a little more effort, would have been better 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:33.080 for men today. 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:34.600 Yeah, they fucked it up for us. 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:36.440 Oh oh, we need it done. 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:43.520 Yes, I'm done. What was the beginning, Like, what was 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:45.559 the F one first F one race? 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:45.840 Like? 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.560 Was there a shitload of people there? Was it just 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:51.680 a couple ragtag guys with helmets in their hands? 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.000 Oh no, I mean Formula well not just Formula one 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.960 motor racing, you know, lamon twenty four hours, things like 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.520 the mean a Melia that's featured in the Adam Driver film. 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.080 You know, they would probably over a million people lining 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:04.360 the roads in Italy for that thousand mile race back 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:06.640 in the day. I mean bear in mind that this 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.080 was the white heat of technology, the development of the 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.800 automobile as it got faster and faster and more glamorous 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.720 and brands like Ferrari and Mercedes. It was exciting and 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:17.480 it was, as I say, it was an extreme sport. 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.280 People were really excited about it and they could go 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.600 to these racetracks like Monza in Italy or silver Stone 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.640 and just just north of London and pack out the 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.960 grandstands and have a really amazing experience watching these heroes 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:34.240 sliding these cars around the racetrack. And so it was exciting. 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:37.160 You know, its post war in Europe. You know, it 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:39.960 was pretty gloomy. People that were still rationing. You know, 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:41.920 football was back and running and people liked to go 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.000 to the match and cheer on their team, but go 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.880 and watch some really powerful, noisy, fast racing cars. You know, 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.640 it wasn't expensive to attend, and sort of huge crowds 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:53.680 at the you know, you know, tens hundreds of thousands 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:55.000 of people watching motor races. 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.319 How many races did they have that first year? Let 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.480 me guess, Let me guess, have a guess. They're new, 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:02.760 they're not really having their shit together, but they got 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.920 a little bit of money. They had four before I'd say. 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.000 Six races, very close, one more. 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:14.199 Eight races. I've never been go with math. Seven races. 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.600 Okay, they deemed that seven races was the suitable number 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:19.640 for this championship. 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:23.000 What is it now, like twenty three or something? Too many? 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.600 Okay, seven races for the championship. How they guess at 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.440 how many people participated in this championship because this is 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:29.880 kind of cool. 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:35.400 Well, previously we had thirty six drivers, so I would say, 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:37.320 let's say the same thirty six. 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.080 During that entire year. So during those seven races, we 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.680 had between fifty and sixty drivers participate in at least 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.760 one race, which also speaks volume. Remember that concorded agreement. 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:49.240 They speaks volume about the amount of people who entered 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.520 a race and sometimes didn't show up. And some teams 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:53.640 had six drivers and some teams had one or two, 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:55.320 so it was all over the place. 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.240 There was a time where you could buy you know, 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:00.880 in the fifties, but if you were someone like Horace Gould, 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:05.240 who wasn't particularly quick but had a business wasn't minted. 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.000 He bought a two fifty f Masa, one of the 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:11.000 most beautiful fullball one cars there's ever been, and he 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.480 went racing in it, not very well, and he didn't 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:16.880 have to do all the races. He didn't have to 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:19.240 take it to Argentina if he thought that would be 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:21.880 too much of a pain in the bum to do that, 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.040 So he could take it to the races that he 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.080 wanted to take it to and race where he wanted to, 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:29.040 so that was something you could do. 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:32.120 One of the few female drivers who's raced in Formula 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.400 one was a lady called Maria to Raise the Philippies, 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:40.120 who was very very accomplished equestrian athlete. You a big, 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.600 big horsewoman, and she was a very good racing driver 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:45.760 as well. She loved cars, she loved driving, and she 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.640 raced in the late nineteen fifties in Formula one but 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.000 did really well, you know, she was, she was great 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.200 and so the accessibility I think then probably helped a 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.480 little bit. And it's a shame, it's it's we haven't 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:58.520 you know, we haven't seen so many female drivers since then. 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.520 And they were just what was called disparagingly garage East. 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:06.080 In other words, they had a garage and they bought 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.680 a cost of engine and a human gearbox, knocked it 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:10.480 together and got someone to drive it. So they were 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:12.880 garage East. It was a disparaging term. 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.400 It made for very chaotic racing. 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.440 Well, they're figuring they're shut out. Take your Vovo station 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.880 wagon if you remember, take your kid's car seats out 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.200 there you go. If not, car seats, definitely didn't exist 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.520 back then. But it actually leads to my question of 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:27.640 what was the sat what were the cars like? Was 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.040 there a seatbelts? Were there? 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.880 Certainly wasn't halos No, no halos no. 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:33.800 And the wheels didn't even detach. 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:34.160 No. 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:35.720 They were bloody dangerous is what they were. 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:35.840 Like. 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.120 They're beautiful, you know, really lovely shaped body if you google, 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.720 like a two fifty f Maserati or you know a 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.880 two four six Dino Ferrari. So the fuel tank was 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.640 in a kind of a behind the driver in a 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.520 kind of a like a cone at the back, and 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:53.240 then the engine was in front of the driver, and 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:55.520 the pedals the throttle pedal on the right and the 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:57.640 brake and then the clutch on the left, with a 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:00.440 massive drive shaft that went between his legs down to 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:04.000 the rear wheels which are just basically just by his 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.359 hips if you want, sort of small leather seat, wooden 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:12.520 steering wheel with a very rudimentary four gate metal gear 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.800 gear change. Absolutely no seat belts, absolutely no rollcages. 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.280 In the fifties, they were racing with cork helmets and 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:20.320 polo neck shirts. 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.040 Cork helmets literally like a little. 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.159 Like you know, like a helmet you would wear if 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.600 you were playing polo, Like if you're on a horse 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:29.479 and playing polo, that kind of helmet is what they 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.320 were wearing. There was no rollover protection at all. In fact, 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.280 there was no rollover protection mandated until nineteen sixty one, 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:39.520 and even when it was mandated, it was basically a tube, 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.480 a hollow tube of aluminium which would crush flat as 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:43.480 soon as the car rolled over. 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:45.000 Anyway, it was a token gesture. 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:48.560 Really really poor brakes have to start breaking about, you know, 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.000 three weeks before you reach the corner to sort of 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.000 go around it. I'm exaggerating, but really really really difficult 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:56.680 cars to drive. Those cars like to slide. They didn't 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.320 go around on rails. They If you google photographs of 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.560 one Manuel Fangio, there's an amazing picture of him sort 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:04.720 of drifting at one hundred and sixty miles an hour 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.960 through a corner. It's like literally drifting like it's just 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:12.040 insane at that speed. And yeah, they were beautiful cars. 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.880 I'm looking at pictures of a nineteen fifties F one 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.919 car right now, speak to you, and it looks like, 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:24.640 sorry to say it, a carrot. It looks like a 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.720 wide in the back, shallow in the front carrot. You 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:34.480 could also say like a missile, you know, I mean. 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.200 Which again goes I still look fast. They were building 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.720 airplanes that it looks probably more like something you'd you know, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:42.480 it's see in the air flying around. 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.160 And there's some listener right now saying like, just say it, Michael, 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:46.840 say it looks like a penis, and I won't. 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:48.720 Okay, but you just I won't know what I want, 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:49.560 but you won't say what. 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.320 I won't say that a nineteen fifties F one car 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.800 kind of looks like a penis, which also lines up 0:18:55.880 --> 0:19:02.840 with the mentality mentality, the maleness the war. But still, 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.560 but I will say this, it still looks fast, and 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:16.240 it still looks dangerous. Do they have seat belts? 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:20.280 Seatbelts were definitely around, but most drivers, as you can imagine, 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:21.239 preferred not to use them. 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:23.119 It's like wimpy if you put a seatbelt on. 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:25.919 It wasn't considered wimpy to wear seatbelts. It was actually 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.359 considered dangerous to wear seatbelts because there was the omnipresent 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:30.919