A salute to pioneers who dared to dream of glory
A new film charts the courage of two Britons who blazed a trail with Ferrari in the 1950s, writes
In an era when Formula One is as safe and as rich as it has ever been, it is easy to forget that, not so long ago, drivers took their lives in their hands every time they sat in a car – and were rewarded pitifully for their troubles.
A new film, Ferrari: Race to Immortality, is a reminder of that darker time. It charts the stories of British drivers Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn, two of the sport’s often forgotten trailblazers during the 1950s. Not only were they part of the team that Enzo Ferrari built around his iconic cars, but cars they both adored ultimately ended their lives.
If that sounds odd, it is even more curious to hear Collins’s widow, Louise King, speak so fondly about that era, despite her husband perishing in the 1958 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.
“It was really nice to watch the footage because it was a really great period of my life and I had a great time – almost all the time – so reliving it was a pleasure,” she told me.
“We – the drivers and their families – were all very close. One of the major things was that there wasn’t a huge amount of money involved with winning, so the boys could just enjoy themselves with the racing. If they won it was merely a plus.”
The friendship between Collins and Hawthorn was so strong that the latter considered retiring immediately after Collins’s death at 26. Although Enzo Ferrari persuaded him to continue and he went on to lift the Formula One championship, after that year he never raced again competitively.
Somewhat poignantly, he was in his 3.4 litre Jaguar on his way to meet Louise for lunch when he had his own fatal accident the following year, six months after his retirement, on the A3 Guildford bypass. He was later revealed to be suffering from a terminal illness linked to kidney failure.
“As Peter’s wife, I accepted the safety risks and, to be honest, I put it to the back of my mind and didn’t worry about it,” Louise adds. “I don’t think I had a fear of how to get through it because that isn’t my personality.”
But, amid the tragedy revisited by the film, there is also glamour. Racing for the Prancing Horse was, and still is, one of the supreme honours of motorsport, and the film documents the rivalry the two Britons had with Italian driver Luigi Musso. They shared the winnings whichever of them won, and unity on the track was replicated in life.
“We were definitely aware of the prestige of racing for Ferrari,” Louise says. “I was involved with the Sportscar Club of America and so I was really into all the racing history, so I was aware of the Ferrari name. It was never about the celebrity for them.”
Although she describes her involvement in Collins’s career as “no big deal”, the fact that she logged the lap times of dozens of cars in order for him to compare his performance to his rivals shows that her contribution should not be underestimated.
The film was surely intended to showcase the history of Ferrari as they celebrate their 70th birthday, but it also stands as a monument to human courage – to those on and off the track.
‘Ferrari: Race to Immortality’ is in cinemas tomorrow, and available on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday.
‘There was not a lot of money in winning, so the boys could just enjoy their racing’