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'Silverstone was always the place to go'
Motor Sport Magazine
|July 2025
As F1 celebrates 75 years ahead of the British Grand Prix, Sir Jackie Stewart tells Damien Smith about the significance of racing – and winning – on home turf

Were he to have his time again and had the blessing of choice, would Sir Jackie Stewart have raced in a different era? He'd surely have enjoyed the money Formula 1 stars earn today... But no. In the pantheon of the F1 World Championship's 75 years, Sir Jackie says he wouldn't change his own timeline. After all, he raced with and against his best friends. What could be better than that?
There is a caveat, however - and not the one you might expect. The three-time world champion has previously claimed he and his beloved wife Lady Helen counted up 57 friends and colleagues who were lost to motor racing during his time in the cockpit. Vastly improved safety is the clear and obvious positive development of the past 75 years, embraced by all (at least now) and encouraged so vociferously by the campaigning Scot from the mid-1960s onward. But the deadly element, considered crazy to young eyes today, isn't what he'd avoid if he was doing it all again.
"I'm happy I raced when I did, but I'm sorry that I didn't race in another era in one respect," says Sir Jackie. "It wasn't because of the deaths. It was because personally I was burnt out by motor racing. If you were a competitive driver you were bought. It didn't matter whether it was New Zealand or Australia, the United States of America or Europe, east or west, north or south. You would be driving everything, from a Cortina to Can-Am. It was a more interesting period from a driver's point of view, but for me it was probably the reason for my retirement."
This story is from the July 2025 edition of Motor Sport Magazine.
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