Quote:
Originally Posted by Perfectlap
F1 drivers of his era had a near 70% of being dead within 5 years.
That's not the sort of terrain that a person with low self-esteem is going to cut it in.
If you found a racing driver with that level of super human talent, in an era when GP cars weren't doing any of the driving for you whatsoever, against the best and bravest drivers in the world, on tracks that had laughable safety standards, when Bandini and Williamson were both roasted alive during a race, a driver that could stand going to 10 funerals per season during that five year era.... and this person was also a nice guy with a regular sized ego, then I would say your lofty expectations were met.
If I met a guy who pulled all that off, and managed to outlive it all, he could be as big as an arrogant prima donna as he wished. Because the bottom line is this guy could have decided to sell bar-b-q sets at the local hardware store instead.
How many of us would continue with our respective lines of work if we were told we had a 70% of being killed on the job by 2019? Not many...
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Yes, they no doubt had a right to whatever mindset they wanted but don't kid yourself, no one put a gun to their heads telling them to race or else. There were hundreds of other hungry drivers looking to take their positions if offered. Thank God there were drivers like Stewart, Fittipaldi and Lauda to bring sanity to the track.
The driver line-ups ran the spectrum personality wise but Stewart's overt arrogance definitely rose head and shoulders above most drivers' inner confidence levels. Another question; why would he go to Roman Polanski (what a prince of a gentleman
) to make his film?