{"id":17075,"date":"2010-11-11T10:04:50","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T10:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=17075"},"modified":"2022-06-29T16:35:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T15:35:27","slug":"jackie-stewarts-1969-annus-mirabilus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/jackie-stewarts-1969-annus-mirabilus\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackie Stewart’s 1969: Annus Mirabilis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jackie Stewart shot to prominence when he won the 1969 world championship in a French-built Matra MS80 run by Ken Tyrrell.<\/p>\n

Stewart, with his long hair, corduroy cap and shades, was more Beatle than racing driver and became an icon as the Swinging Sixties morphed into the seventies.<\/p>\n

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Stewart had lost a three-way final round \u201968 title shoot-out in Mexico but there was no stopping him in \u201869. The championship was played out over just 11 rounds back then and Jackie started with a win at Kyalami in South Africa.<\/p>\n

After a two month gap he was fortunate to win Spain, which was notable for spectacular accidents to Lotus drivers Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt when the high aerofoil rear wings that were starting to proliferate in F1, broke under load. They were banned from the next race on, in Monte Carlo. Stewart led Monaco from pole position and set fastest lap, but the Matra retired and Hill won.<\/p>\n

Stewart made himself all but unbeatable when he scored a hat-trick of wins at the Dutch, French and British Grands Prix. He got a fright at Silverstone, however, when a bit of loose kerbing at Woodcote corner punctured a tyre and put him off at 150mph in practice. He took over team mate Jean-Pierre Beltoise\u2019s car for the race, while the Frenchman was shunted across into the recalcitrant four-wheel-drive Matra MS84 spare car. Later that season in Canada, the car became the only 4WD to score an F1 championship point, albeit six laps down in Johnny Servoz-Gavin\u2019s hands in Canada!<\/p>\n

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Stewart fought an epic Silverstone battle with friend and chief foe Rindt, until the Austrian was slowed by a car problem. At Monza in September, Stewart took his sixth win of the season and clinched his first world title in what is still the closest four-car blanket finish in F1 history.<\/p>\n

Pre-chicane Monza was famous for its slipstreaming battles and Stewart deliberately took a long fourth gear ratio so that he did not have to change gear between the exit of Parabolica and the finish line on the last lap. He came out of Parabolica second to Rindt\u2019s Lotus but was ahead by eight hundredths as they flashed across the line, with less than 0.2s covering Stewart, Rindt, Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Bruce McLaren.<\/p>\n

Shaky footage below of an incredible last few corners at Monza<\/em><\/p>\n