My esteemed colleague and I both watched the BBC documentary on James Hunt and Niki Lauda last night. I am yet to hear his views on it, but I'll give you mine now.
As with the Documentary Senna, some of the never seen/ behind the scenes footage is utterly incredible.
And today, the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes are constantly in a game of one-upmanship with each other and involved in political fights with the FIA. Some things in F1 just never change.
Witness Alastair Caldwell (team manager at Mclaren) and Daniele Audetto (team manager at Ferrari) getting quite, quite wound up, even now, when they are interviewed in the documentary about the political posturing and gamesmanship that went on in 1976 when they were both in charge. They clearly havent wasted money on Christmas cards for each other!
The images of Lauda's crash in Germany which nearly took his life are horrifying to view and it casts my mind forward to the safety issues of today's F1. Exploding tyres was something I touched upon last time out, but one of the big risks of open cockpit racing is debris or items hitting the driver in the head. Back then there were all manner of safety issues.
It's just got me thinking too about MotoGP riders. My colleague brought rallying into this blog once, so I can surely touch upon MotoGP. Jorge Lorenzo broke his collarbone on the friday before a race and went home to have a plate inserted, then raced on the Sunday and finished 5th. Insane.
The race just gone this weekend, he fell off his bike in practice and bent the damn plate! He now misses two races! Don't get me wrong, f1 drivers are incredibly brave, it's just with bikes theres only so much you can do safetywise. If you come off at 180mph, its all down to luck.
Just watch the documentary - it's a beautiful film about a beautiful rivalry in a beautiful moment in F1.
Hands up to those of you who cannot wait for Ron Howard's new film to come out??!!
Rush!
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