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  • 16/05/2025
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00:00the world. Monaco, the fabled principality on the French Riviera. Opulence is the order of the day
00:05here. Nothing is too ostentatious, too outrageous, too outlandish. It's live and let live and let's
00:10do it all again tomorrow in this land of fiscal make-believe. It's measured not in square miles
00:15but acres, and more than a few of its residents and regular visitors have net worths that measure
00:20up to the annual budgets of some fair-sized cities. Each year at this time, the automobile
00:24becomes the focal point in Monaco. Be it miniaturized on a charm bracelet or the real
00:29thing on the principality streets, the fascination with cars becomes an obsession with the running of
00:34the Monaco Grand Prix. In a dramatic finish last year, Alain Prost of France was less than two
00:39laps from victory and running alone when this crash turned him into an also-ran. That opened
00:45the door for Riccardo Patrese of Italy, whose sudden good fortune turned suddenly sour when
00:50this spin in the hairpin turn appeared to end his chances for victory. Patrese's misfortune put
00:55DDA Pirini in perfect position to win the race, but incredibly, his Ferrari came to a stop in
01:01the tunnel one mile from the finish. Meanwhile, Patrese had managed, despite his spin, to keep
01:05his engine running and get his car back on the course to the finish line and took the checkered
01:10flag. The wild finish with the cars on slick tires was triggered by rain, which started to fall late
01:15in the race and which today looks like it will provide the big story again as a field of 20
01:18Formula One racers lines up. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Al Michaels and welcome to the
01:23world's most glamorous sporting event. Right now, however, there are more raincoats around here
01:28than mink coats because the weather is the big story. It rained quite a bit yesterday. It has
01:32rained this morning and off and on through the afternoon and right now the track is wet
01:37and the 41st Grand Prix of Monaco will get started on a slick surface. This is the fifth stop of 16
01:43along the 1983 circuit and right now a very good battle for the driving championship after the
01:48first four events. Alain Prost of France is tied with Nelson Piquet of Brazil, each with 15 points
01:54and Patrick Tambay right in the thick of things. He's third with a total of 14. Right now, let me
01:59bring in Jackie Stewart, my colleague, a three-time winner of this race. He last won the event back in
02:041973 and of course, Jackie, everybody around here right now talking and thinking about the weather
02:08and what the slick surface is going to mean. Well, of course, Monaco is extremely slippery when wet.
02:14We can remember back to last year when in the closing stages of the race, rain came on and many,
02:19many cars went off the road. I can remember back to 1972 when it was just appalling conditions.
02:25You could hardly see a thing as a driver. I spun off twice. It was certainly no game. The same
02:30applies today. Now, this is the first time in modern Grand Prix history that there are more
02:36turbocharged engines in this race than normally aspirated engines. Now, that could be a problem
02:42for the turbos because they've got, oh, between 600 and 700 brake horsepower. To apply that kind of
02:47power to this wet racetrack is no easy matter. So therefore, it could be something for the normally
02:53aspirated engines. Now, of course, here in Grand Prix motor racing, we do drive in the rain, unlike
02:58Indianapolis or Daytona, for example. The reason we do that, there are special tires. A man who's
03:04been world champion won this Grand Prix on two occasions. Our man in the pits for this weekend,
03:10Jody Schechter, could explain that a little further. Because more than 50 percent of the cars chose
03:15wet tires, this is called a wet race, meaning they won't stop the race if it's a downpour of rain.
03:21It's up to the driver to come in when it's too dangerous on the circuit. This is the wet tire.
03:25The basic difference between a wet and a dry tire is the treads. This gets rid of the water.
03:31The problem is, the dry tire will just aquaflame. There's no way to get rid of the water,
03:36and it'll be like a boat without a rudder. And using the wet tire and the dry, it'll overheat.
03:41There's not enough rubber on the road. Personally, I think I would have chosen dry tires, but it's a
03:46gamble either way, depending on the weather. Looking down on this model of the Monaco Grand Prix
03:52racetrack, 2.058 miles around, 18 bends per lap, 76 laps for the race. Very slippery when wet.
04:00So the car is right now nearing the conclusion of the warm-up lap, and let's take a look at this
04:04field, which has Alain Prost of France on the pole, flanked by his teammate last year, René
04:12Arnoux, who's now driving for Ferrari. The second row in this staggered grid has the American Eddie
04:18Cheever and Patrick Tambay. Then in row three, KK Rosberg in car number one. He was the world
04:26champion last year, and Nelson Piquet driving car five. Piquet was the world champion in 1981.
04:34A look now at some of the rest of the starters, and it's interesting to note that two teammates
04:39are out of it. John Watson and Nicky Lauda, who both had problems qualifying on the first day of
04:45qualifying attempts, and then they were stymied by the rain yesterday in the final qualification
04:51session. Neither man made the field, and the field is rounded out by an American driver from
04:57Louisville, Kentucky, Danny Sullivan, in car number four, driving a Tyrrell. By our count, as they get
05:04ready to start this race, 13 of the 20 will start on wet tires, and just seven on dry tires.
05:11A look there at Prince René and his family, and a sad scene in the way, because the royal box
05:18minus Princess Grace, who died tragically in an auto accident last September here.
05:25The field of 20 starting on the green line, and heading into the sand above the corner,
05:31and it's a good start for the pole sitter, Alain Froese, who was leading much of the race last year,
05:36and the Williams of KK Rosberg has quickly moved up from the third row into second position, so a
05:42great start for the defending world champion, but Froese has the lead, and they head up the hill with
05:48Rosberg second. And it seems a clear lap all the way up the hill, no incidents at Sainte-Évore, which
05:53could so easily have happened in these extraordinarily slippy conditions, and the cars come through the
05:57casino square, head down towards the Mirabeau, and now the leading Renault is in fact on wet
06:03tires, and Keki Rosberg is on dry tires. This is a significant thing for Rosberg. So it's a chess
06:09game right now as they head down toward the Lowe's hairpin. Alain Froese of France, the leader, with
06:16the defending world champion Rosberg in second place, and the other Renault driven by the American
06:22Eddie Cheever in his first year with a Renault team, currently in third place as they head in
06:26toward the tunnel. In the tunnel now, it's completely dry in the tunnel for the drivers. They can apply
06:31all the power they want through there, because it of course is not slippery. As he comes out the
06:35tunnel going towards the chicane in the first lap, you've got to be very careful and very gentle
06:39going through there. One of the rules. Look at the lead they've taken from Eddie Cheever in third
06:44position, hounded by the Ferraris thereafter. Jacqueline feet quite well up on the other
06:48Williams, and he's on dry tires also. The Ferraris are running fourth and fifth after starting second
06:53and fourth. René Arnoux dropping back. He started on the front row, but got off to a slippery start,
07:00and as a consequence, it was Rosberg able to move by him. He has dropped back to fifth with
07:05his teammate Patrick Cambray in fourth position right now. Big gamble for Keke Rosberg to be on
07:11the dry tires, but keep in mind, if the track dries out, he's going to have an enormous advantage.
07:17And there you have the battle for third position between Eddie Cheever, the American, René Arnoux
07:22and the Ferrari, with also Tambi and the Ferrari. They're driving all on wet weather tires, and the
07:27Ferrari drafts along in time. He's going for a pass. He's going into Santa Fe. He slipped through.
07:32René Arnoux and the Ferraris got through. He's accelerating up from Santa Fe, but they're
07:36side by side. Eddie Cheever in the yellow car has re-passed the Ferrari. Tremendous effort by him.
07:43Tremendous beginning to this Monaco Grand Prix. Although today it's overcast on a sunny day,
07:48this is the way the famed casino at Monte Carlo looks, and at night, here's a look at it in all
07:52of its glittering splendor. This is a building that's been the subject of numerous films and
07:57novels since it opened in 1863, and that still maintains its aura of opulence. The dice still
08:03roll, and the cards are still dealt, and the wheels still spin. And people still dream of
08:08breaking the bank at Monte Carlo, a gambler's paradise. Today, however, there's been no bigger
08:14winner in this principality than that man at the moment, Keke Rosberg, who has taken the lead early
08:19in the Grand Prix of Monaco on car number one. He started this race on dry tires. We didn't know
08:24which way the weather was going to go when the light turned green. Right now, it has remained
08:29dry since the outset of the race. A lane throws to France, and the yellow and white Renault is in
08:34second place. He's running on wet tires. Back in third is René Arnoux. He is also on wet tires,
08:40and Jacques Lafitte, the teammate of Rosberg, on dry tires is fourth, and Eddie Cheever on wet
08:45tires has dropped back to fifth place. A brilliant drive so far by Keke Rosberg. Those conditions
08:51really are very slippery, and the cars that he's wearing are simply not suited to it. You can see
08:55the reflection on the wet surface here. Now, if, however, this track turns dry, he's going to have
09:01an enormous advantage, but if it were to rain again, Rosberg would really be in bad shape.
09:06Right now, he's driving around the racetrack looking for grip, not using the conventional
09:11line in particular parts of the racetrack, because what he has to do is try and find the
09:16part of racetrack where there is more grip, and right now, you can see that on the inside of the
09:20racetrack coming down to Mirabeau. We had an opportunity to speak to Keke Rosberg.
09:26How much did the World Championship mean to you as a driver?
09:31Well, as a driver, it obviously was some sort of a fulfilment of a goal, but it doesn't stop
09:38there. After that, one obviously sets himself new goals that he'll go after, and, you know,
09:44it's passed, and it's happened. I'm glad it happened, and I hope it will happen again one day.
09:49There is Nelson Piquet. He has come in for dry tires, started on wet, has to make the change now.
09:54Well, that's a big decision for him also, because it's not perfectly clear to any of us,
09:58and that was a quick pit change. That looked like it might have been 10 or 12 seconds. The Brabham
10:03team, very efficient with its pit stops. Earlier this season in Grand Prix racing, they've been
10:08coming in quite often to refill. That's a turbocharged car, and incidentally, the car
10:12that's leading this race, the car going through the tunnel right now and just coming out of that
10:16tunnel, Keke Rosberg, is a normally aspirated engine, not a turbocharged engine, whereas the
10:22BMW that was in the pits there was one of the turbos. But the best decision that he has made
10:26thus far was to start this race on dry tires up until nearly race time. We had some sprinkles
10:33off and on. It was a real guessing game going on as to whether or not it should be dry tires or
10:37wet tires that you put on your car. Rosberg elected to go with a dry set, and right now,
10:41he looks like he's a winner, at least at the moment. Well, he has a gigantic lead,
10:46and this is because the wet weather tire is a much softer tire. It's got deep tread on it.
10:51It has what we call tread shuffle, and here right now, the Ferrari of Arnoux is being pressed very
10:59hard by the second Williams car of Jacques Lapitte, another Frenchman, and he's pressing
11:05very hard in the heels of the Ferrari. Remember, Lapitte is also in dry weather tires,
11:09whereas the red Ferrari that you're looking at, driven by René Arnoux, is in wet weather tires.
11:14This is an amazing performance by the Williams team. They took a very big gamble. They put both
11:19their cars on dry weather tires, and it certainly so far appears to be paying off.
11:25So the battle for third right there, but Jacques Lapitte really putting the pressure on car 28,
11:30René Arnoux. And in fact, disappearing from our picture right now is the American driver,
11:35Eddie Cheever, in the other Renault. He's dropped way back. We can hardly see him in that picture.
11:39That is, of course, the car of Jacques Lapitte, enormously experienced driver going through the
11:44casino square, going down to the Mirabeau, attempting a pass on the inside. Can he do it?
11:50He's trying to slip up, but no. René Arnoux closes the door. Jacques Lapitte has already picked up
11:57quite a bit of ground on René Arnoux. And again, now you have the other Brabham in for a change of
12:04tires. We earlier saw Piquet in, and now Ricciardo Patrese. And now you've got car 28, René Arnoux
12:12having some trouble. René Arnoux with a punctured left rear tire. I think he's hit the guardrail.
12:18It looks like the wheel is broken and the tire has gone down. This is one of the penalties of
12:23Monaco. You slide a car out, you kiss a guardrail, you hit a cube, and of course you break. It's light
12:29aluminum wheels, and they so easily break. René Arnoux now trying to drive the car back as quickly
12:34as possible. He has to be extremely careful when he comes down here. And there's the cars
12:39trying to get past him. That's the other Renault of René Cheever there coming through. And look at the
12:43wheel, just flew off there, flying across the racetrack, high in the air. The end part of the
12:48wheel, the inside of the wheel is flying apart. Very dangerous, not only for other cars, but for
12:52debris on the racetrack. You can see the front wing has been damaged, front airfoil. He's hardly
12:57driving with any wheel at all. This is really a precarious set of circumstances now. He could
13:02lose control of the car at any time, and I do know that the marshals and commissars will be paying
13:07extra attention now to the racetrack to pick up that, because they're sure it could cause
13:13punctures to other cars. Front wing hanging off, rear wheel literally holding itself on just by
13:19half a wheel. And it looks right now that the car's come to a complete stop. He's not getting
13:24any drive from it. I suggest that the suspension is probably damaged, the transmission is damaged,
13:30and we'll be right back. Whether they be little dinghies or whether they be enormous crafts,
13:37under sail or under power, they're drawn almost by a magnet to the harbour of Monte Carlo. And this
13:42the most important weekend in the Monaco year. The opulence, the elegance. These crafts come from
13:49almost every corner of the world. They're parked elegantly here in the Principality, and the people,
13:55they'll climb anywhere to see the race. When this race started, the teams had to make a decision
14:01whether to go with wet tires or dry tires, and the Williams team elected to take the chance and go
14:07with the dry tires. As a consequence, it has not rained, and they are doing exceptionally well,
14:13in fact running one-two. You have KK Rosberg out in front. He's not had very good success
14:18here in Monaco. In fact, he's never finished a race here, and three times he's tried to qualify
14:22and did not, but he's the defending world champion, and he's built up a very sizable lead
14:27over his teammate Jacques Lafitte. So the Williams tandem is exceptionally well placed
14:32at the outset, Jack. Well, the Renaults both have come into the pit, and you're wondering where they
14:36went, because of course Alan Frost was leading earlier on. The car, the yellow car just going
14:41out of the picture, is the American driver Eddie Cheever, who is just about to be lapped perhaps
14:48by Rosberg, because Eddie Cheever has been into the pits to change from wet weather tires
14:53to dry tires. It will now be very difficult for KK Rosberg to pass Cheever, however,
14:59because the turbocharged Renault has got a considerable power advantage over the normally
15:04aspirated engine of KK Rosberg. They're now coming down to the slowest part of this racetrack, the
15:10lowest hairpin, which used to be the old station hairpin. The yellow and white car of Eddie
15:14Cheever's, the Renault, closely followed there by car number one, the reigning world champion,
15:19KK Rosberg, and the green and white car from Finland. Well, he may not be able to get by him,
15:24but that does not matter at the moment if it does not rain the rest of the day, and he can stay away
15:29from the guardrails and any bad racing luck, because he's running very smoothly, he has built
15:34up a substantial lead, he's on the right set of tires at least right now, and the only thing that
15:39could throw a dancer into their plans, so to speak, would be the rain. If rain arrives now, however,
15:46most of the leading teams have come into the pits and have changed tires, so therefore everybody's
15:52in the same boat. The gamble that Rosberg and Lafitte laid off was a remarkable choice, and as
15:59you say, a golden choice, because they were the only potential winners in this race to go with the
16:04dry weather tire. Either somebody's been talking to people in high places, or they knew something
16:10that we didn't know. Then, let's see if we can find out a little bit more about that as we check in
16:16with Jody Schechter. Both your cars are on dry tires, it looks like it's the right decision.
16:23What made you make that decision?
16:25It wasn't raining enough at the start, and our dry tires have a fairly soft compound, and until there was
16:36standing water on the track, and figuring there'd be a lot of traffic to dry what little water there
16:40was, I took a chance. I didn't panic because, I mean, I could be wrong, the problem is it's officially
16:45a wet race, so if it pours with rain, they don't stop the race. What's happening now is that most
16:50of the other wet starters are going dry, so soon we should be even Stevens, but if it rained now,
16:56I'd be in trouble. But right now, the Williams team not only running first, but also second,
17:01there is Jacques Lafitte, so they made the right decision in spades at this point. The Renault
17:07team, meanwhile, started the race on wet tires. For more on that, Jody's with the chief of competition
17:12for Michelin. Most of the Renaults went on the wet tires. Why was that decision made?
17:19The problem was to be able to do without too many risks the first laps, because of the wet on the
17:27Mirabeau and Casino should be very, very dangerous and difficult, and the drivers said
17:32they thought that it was better not to take a race with slicks for first laps,
17:37even if it loses time as it dries, like it does. It was a mistake.
17:43So it was really the driver's decision to put on the wet tires?
17:49It has been the decision of all the team, but the drivers said that it would be very dangerous
17:55to do the first lap on the wet with the slick tires. So there speaks the man who was part of
18:01a decision that seems to have been wrong amongst the Renault team to choose the wet weather tires
18:06to start in the car. Through the chicane and Eddie Chivers of the Renault has got his hand in the
18:09air. Alan Frost, his own teammate, passes him there. He's okay, but Chivers, the young American
18:14driver who's spent most of his life in Europe, has had a mechanical happening, it would seem.
18:19He is very much still an American. He waves your American flag often, but today it looks like he
18:24won't be waving it much longer. It looks like he's over for the day. It is still K.K. Rosberg who has
18:31the lead, last year's world champion, out in front by a large margin over Jonathan O'Keefe.
18:36Ben Marcseur, he's the only Swiss driver on the Grand Prix circuit,
18:40running third. Derek Warwick is fourth, and Alain Frost of France currently fifth.
18:50We're back at the Grand Prix of Monaco. Just a few years back, women weren't even allowed in
18:55the pits at Indianapolis. Not so in Grand Prix racing, where the women act very positively in
19:01the pits for lap charting and timekeeping. At Monte Carlo, you get a great collection of people.
19:08Some of the ladies merely come to adorn the pits. At the moment, however, the eyes are not on the
19:16pits, but on the racetrack itself, where we have a good battle for third. Marcseur in car 29,
19:21followed by Derek Warwick and Nelson Piquet. Those three are moving up on the back marker.
19:26First man in your picture here, the American Danny Sullivan. But Seurer has been holding
19:30on for third for several laps, and Seurer turns sideways, gets hit by Warwick, goes into the guard
19:34rail. Marcseur gets spun all the way around. There is Warwick backing up. He's trying to get back out
19:41on the course and up the hill. He is in motion, and it appears that Seurer is okay as he vacates
19:46his car. Yes, Marc Seurer, who had a heavy accident in South Africa. Both his ankles were
19:53broken a few years back. What a disappointment for the young man in third position there. Had
19:58a coming together. We'll have to look at that again in slow motion. But there, they're going
20:02to put a crane on that car probably and lift it over the barrier. Monaco extremely fast on this
20:08type of thing. They may just be moving the car across the racetrack because it's not too badly
20:12damaged. The rear wheels still seem to be okay. That's what they're doing. The yellow flag, which
20:17is the flag to advise other drivers of caution, is out, and the emergency crews are trying to move
20:22that around as quickly as possible. Very disappointing for Marc Seurer. Let's watch it
20:27again. Danny Sullivan, incidentally, the American driver in the green car there, coming towards
20:32Saint-Devaux. Roughly Sullivan's in about 10th place, 9th place right now as he comes into Saint-Devaux.
20:39But watch behind Sullivan. Marc Seurer now coming along there. Derek Warwick in the more powerful
20:44turbocharged car gets up the inside there. Marc Seurer trying to keep his line. He moves over to
20:49take the corner, gets hit. The rear wheel of Seurer's car was hit by the front right wheel
20:56of Derek Warwick's car. Car smashed into the barrier, went right across the racetrack, hit the barrier.
21:02Not so hard, but certainly hard enough to disable that car completely. Derek Warwick
21:07half spun his car. Nelson Piquet slips through in the Brabham to take over. Third position in
21:14this race. Alan Frost takes up fourth position. Derek Warwick reverses away there and is allowed
21:20to continue. Marc, we could see on the TV a little bit. I wasn't sure if it was Warwick that touched
21:27you coming in or not. He tried to pass me. Must have braked much too late. He hit me in the back
21:34wheel and I spun off. You spun here because it looked like he caught your back wheel.
21:39He hit me quite hard actually. Yeah. Because I spun, I crashed into the left barrier. Right, I could see
21:45that. Yeah. Unfortunate because you're going very well. Yes, it was all right so far. No problems.
21:52Certainly Derek Warwick did hit. You can see the impact right there and the car comes into the
21:56barrier. Now watch the driver's head here. It really gets thrashed forward on that impact.
22:01Of course, pieces fly off the car. They're absorbing the energy. Derek Warwick was able
22:06to go around the racetrack, has come into the pits and he's now with Jody Schecter.
22:11From what we could see in the pits, it looked like you touched him at the back,
22:14but there was some confusion because there seemed to be three cars involved.
22:18Yeah, well, Sullivan was in the front and he was holding us up and Schur was right behind him. Then
22:24going into the corner, I started to go by him. Then he hesitated and come over and just touched
22:29my front wheel. Right. I mean, Monaco is such a difficult pass to overtake. It
22:33seems like this is what happens. Yeah, for sure. So, both Schur and Warwick are out of the race.
22:40We're back at the Grand Prix of Monaco. The leader is the same man who was out in front
22:45when we last were with you. It's KK Rosberg in car one, the defending world champion. His team,
22:51the Williams team, made the right choice early on when it looked like it might rain. A lot of the
22:55top teams went with the rain tires. They decided to go with the slicks. It has not rained throughout
23:00the course of the race. The track is completely dry right now, and Rosberg's lead is over a minute
23:05at this particular point. However, his teammates, Jacques Lafitte, who is solidly entrenched for a
23:10good part of the race in second place, has dropped down with apparent mechanical trouble.
23:14Thus, you have Nelson Piquet, the 1981 world champion, running second, running third in car
23:19number 15 is Alain Prost of France, running fourth in car 27, Patrick Tambay in a Ferrari,
23:26and Riccardo Patrese, who won this race last year, is fifth. They're all on the same lap,
23:30and Danny Sullivan, the young American, hanging right in there. He's a lap down,
23:33but is currently in sixth place. I'm Al Michaels reporting with Jackie Stewart. We have Jody
23:39Schechter working the pits. KK Rosberg is looking for his second career Grand Prix victory last year.
23:45He won the world championship at a remarkably consistent season, though he won only one race.
23:49That was the Swiss Grand Prix. We have a moment to take a look around this fabled principality.
23:55Right there, the Romanesque-style Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, where the prince and princess
23:59were married, and nearby, the lovely exotic gardens with cactus and brilliantly colored
24:04flowers that are grown side by side. The Formula One cars are not the only ones that grace the
24:11roads of Monaco this weekend. The chariots of the rich are quite in evidence, as always on
24:18Grand Prix weekend. And it's their owners who patronize the specialty stores of Monaco,
24:23where one can purchase baubles of one sort or another for a mere five figures. Items,
24:29perhaps, that would only appeal here. A great sport in Monaco this time of year is people watching,
24:36looking at the bejeweled entourage. And this unparalleled sight is of the Royal Palace,
24:42high on the rock of Monaco, home of the royal family. But the mood has been greatly saddened
24:46through the loss this past year of Princess Grace. Jackie Stewart reflects. One of the traditions
24:52here in Monaco for the Grand Prix was that, for many years, Princess Grace and Prince Rainier
24:57opened the racetrack generally in an open car. The prince and princess presented the trophy to
25:03the winner and, in the evening of the Grand Prix, hosted the gala in the sporting club.
25:09Sadly, Princess Grace will not be at this year's Monaco Grand Prix. Her passing has left a void in
25:16Monaco that can surely never be forgotten. From the time of the fairytale marriage to Prince Rainier,
25:23her beauty, her style, her effervescence and her dignity projected new life into the tiny domain.
25:30Her contributions were many. Social events became happenings in the jet-set world. The flower show
25:36in Monaco became an international date and a rose was given her name. The performing arts were not
25:43overlooked. L'Académie des Danse Classique Princess Grace has grown and flourished in Monaco and will
25:49hopefully continue with contributions from the public. Her dedication to the responsibilities
25:55as a member of the reigning monarchy was enormous but, above all, Princess Grace was more committed
26:02to her family than anything else. A devoted and proud mother who adored her children and accomplished
26:09by great dedication the task of bringing them up successfully to be public figures as well as being
26:15happy in the privacy of the family unit. Princess Grace has been an example to the world in so many
26:22ways. She was truly one of the most beautiful women. Her serene highness was indeed the epitome of serenity.
26:33Rainier is here today looking on with his family and they have watched KK Rosberg lead almost
26:40from the very outset. He has built up a very big lead and right now he has put yet another lap on
26:45the American Danny Sullivan in the green car. Sullivan is down by two laps but he is in sixth
26:51place at this particular point so a good showing overall and he's a fella, Jackie, that you have
26:56known for quite some time. When I first met Danny Sullivan he was a wee boy even smaller than I am
27:04now and that says a thing or two. He came around the Tyrrell workshop in England. Just to get close
27:10to racing cars he would do anything. He would sweep the floor just to be real close to racing.
27:16He's a fella who's been brought up in Louisville, Kentucky. He's called the Kentucky Kid.
27:21It's not him we're looking at right now. That's KK Rosberg the leader of this race but Danny
27:25Sullivan I think is going to leave his mark in motor racing and is going to wave the flag for
27:30America. He's been in Can-Am racing. He's won races there. He went to Indianapolis last year as a rookie.
27:35Did really well indeed and in fact forsook going to Indianapolis this year to concentrate in
27:42Grand Prix racing. KK Rosberg the man still in the lead here at Monte Carlo however.
27:49There's the car of Riccardo Patrese. He had been in to change rubber. Had been doing quite well. In
27:55fact he had worked his way up into fifth position and was sitting there steadily. Then he went into
27:59the pits and now he has come to a complete halt and that has moved the American driver Danny
28:05Sullivan into fifth place. So Sullivan is still two laps down but in the top five at the moment
28:11because Patrese who is the defending champion here in Monaco is through. He's been in Monaco all week long.
28:18He was the United States first Grand Prix champion. He won the world title in 1961 and we first saw
28:24him on Wide World of Sports in 1962 here in Monaco when he chased Bruce McLaren in a race McLaren
28:31eventually won. Recently we started a series called It Seems Like Only Yesterday. Hill is the subject
28:37today and Sam Posey visited with him. Bill Hill doesn't drive Formula One cars anymore. Today he
28:42drives cars such as this 1919 Pierce Arrow around another seaside town Santa Monica California.
28:50The Bill Hill of his championship years is known as a nervous aggressive driver. Brought everything
28:55he had to the job. Today Bill Hill is still very much the same man. Still involved with cars. Still
29:03with as much energy as ever. He is a partner in the classic car restoration firm of Hill and Vaughan.
29:10This is not a hobby for Bill. A typical work day is a full 12 hours. It is a careful painstaking
29:16sort of life. Very different from his frenzied much-traveled existence as a racing driver.
29:21His first races back in the early 1950s were in MGs and Jaguars but it was driving Ferraris
29:27that would establish Bill's fame and reputation. In this one he scored his first of three victories
29:31at Le Mans. It was 1958. The same year he became part of the Ferrari Grand Prix team and led the
29:37world's best drivers in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. He was a prodigious talent but he was also
29:43a bundle of nerves. I covered my nervousness with nervousness and I really did. I found myself sort
29:49of almost elaborating on it because it was inactive. It was a doing something. It was a which
29:55which made me get rid of. I didn't sit there and yawn like some of the others. Some of the others
29:59maybe got ulcers or something but I just sort of acted out what I felt. The battle for the 1961
30:06World Driving Championship had its climax at Monza, Italy. The contenders were Phil who by that time
30:12was 34 years old and his Ferrari teammate the German Count Wolfgang von Trips. They had dominated
30:19the season. Now one of them would be champion. The disastrous events of that day would become woven
30:24into the fabric of racing history. How Hill led on the first lap. How von Trips after his fourth
30:29start was coming through the pack when he touched wheels with Jim Clark triggering this crash which
30:34killed not only von Trips but also 12 spectators. Unaware that von Trips was dead, Phil went on to win
30:43the race and become the first American ever to be world champion. As he made his way to the winner's
30:50stand he asked Carlo Chidi the Ferrari team manager what had happened to von Trips. I said to
30:56Chidi I said how's Trips and he got he's a lousy liar and he just got a certain look on his face
31:02that just said it all right then and then he said he's fine and uh and then I was just sort of on
31:10automatic pilot for the right you know they shoved me up to the to the winner's stand and having to
31:17go through all that business you know and so I just sort of was automatic about the whole thing
31:22which very often you are anyhow right you can you know it wasn't the first time that I had stood on
31:30a winner's platform and been thinking about something else very powerfully. The Monza race
31:39of 1961 was to become irrevocably linked with another race at Monza in 1978. Again two teammates
31:46were locked in a battle for the world championship Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson both driving
31:51for Lotus and then this happened a fiery horrible crash that would take the life of Ronnie Peterson
31:56and hand the world championship to Andretti. It was only the second time an American had ever been
32:01champion and for both to have won in such tragic circumstances seemed beyond coincidence. 17 years
32:08later at the same place in the same race and you know I could just I just felt for him so much
32:17you know knowing uh that he must have felt very similar to what I did. Today Phil Hill lives in
32:24this house in Santa Monica the same house in which he has lived for almost 40 years. His trophies which
32:30he largely ignores are there as is his fully operational collection of player pianos which
32:36as with all things musical he loves. Phil didn't marry until his racing years were behind him and
32:45at 56 he has a young family. He and his wife Alma have two children Vanessa and Derek.
32:57For someone of unceasing action he is also a man of deep introspection
33:01aware and proud of the fact that he has fulfilled his childhood ambitions
33:05that his life has a certain continuity to it.
33:11I think what caused me to think I could become a racing driver
33:15was the fact that I sort of needed to be a racing driver. Now don't ask me why
33:21as individuals we pick certain things that go further than just a superficial what we would
33:27like to be. They get into really what we just have to be and to be a racing driver
33:33just suited what my needs were as a youngster to a tee and I wasn't really aware of it at the
33:41time I thought it was some sort of that it was the subject rather than me that wanted to do it
33:47it was so great. I still think it is great of course I think it's a great I think motor racing
33:51is a just the greatest thing going. Even now? Oh yeah I think it's just I just can't think of
33:57anything that's more wonderful than automobile racing. Do you miss it? Yeah I miss it yeah miss
34:05it a lot. The Grand Prix of Monaco winding down with two laps to go Al Michaels with Jackie
34:14Stewart and Jody Schechter the race has belonged to KK Rosberg. The Williams team made the right
34:20decision at the outset today when it looked like it might rain it might not we didn't know which
34:25way the weather would go it has been dry they were on the right tires they have not had to
34:30pit and KK Rosberg who finished second this year in Brazil but was disqualified for getting a push
34:36start who did not pick up any points in Long Beach who finished fifth in the first Grand Prix and
34:41fourth in the last Grand Prix the one at San Marino is on his way Jackie to his second lifetime victory.
34:47I think also technically one of the best races this young man has ever driven because the first
34:5210 laps in very slippery conditions as far as I'm concerned were brilliantly handled
34:57in difficult conditions because he did have dry weather tires on a wet racetrack
35:02he really must have been driving the car with great sensitivity to ensure to achieve those
35:07first 10 laps as competently as he did. I take my hat off to him today. His teammate Jacques
35:12Lafitte who was running second for quite some time went out earlier with mechanical problem
35:17otherwise it would have been an incredible day for the Williams team but KK Rosberg who
35:23has been battling hepatitis and his recovering from from that ailment is just a little more than
35:29one lap away from a victory and it would be in essence a wire to wire win even though he started
35:34fifth on the starting grid he was back in the third row he moved quickly into second by the
35:38time they reached the Sandoval turn and officially was the leader at the end of the first lap at the
35:43last one he took the lead at that point from LA and pros he's on the final lap right now
35:50well he was given one lap to go there by Michel Ferry and the start finishing line
35:56as he now weaves his way around making sure that he makes no error now because this
36:00Grand Prix of Monaco for any Grand Prix driver is the pearl amongst the jewels this is the race
36:05that everybody wants to win with such a glamorous backdrop with the just all of the nostalgia that
36:12Monaco provides to us as racing drivers I know as a personal point of view this is a race that I
36:18desperately always wanted to win and for KK Rosberg to be the reigning world champion and to come here
36:24this year to win this race he just can't afford to do anything wrong now and he's only got about
36:31I would say half a mile to go before the end of this final lap in Monaco going through the
36:36tunnel for the last time he must be just holding his breath right now there are seven cars still
36:44running we had 20 that started and right now unless somebody winds up in a guard rail or runs out of
36:49gas they're going to finish this way with Rosberg on top Nelson Piquet running second Alain Prost
36:56of France will wind up in third and Patrick Tampe of France driving for Ferrari will be fourth Danny
37:02Sullivan of the United States and one of the seven still running will wind up in fifth place
37:07Mauro Baldi of Italy will wind up sixth and Chico Serra of Brazil will finish seventh and there he
37:15is and he is saluted by those in his pit as he takes the checkered flag KK Rosberg of Finland
37:21they call him the flying pin on the Grand Prix circuit the winner of the 1983 Grand Prix of
37:28Monaco and he did it by going wire to wire