Jackie Stewart

Interesting facts

Stewart struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia throughout his schooldays at Dumbarton Academy, where teachers and classmates alike branded him 'dumb' and 'thick' - the real cause only came to light in 1980, when he was 41, after his son Mark was diagnosed and Stewart had himself tested. As a teenager he excelled at clay pigeon shooting, winning British, Irish, Welsh and Scottish skeet titles and the European 'Coupe des Nations' twice, and came close to a place on Britain's 1960 Olympic trap shooting team, finishing third in the selection process. At Spa-Francorchamps in 1966 he crashed at 165 mph in heavy rain into a telegraph pole and a shed; trapped by the steering column with fuel pouring into the cockpit, he had to be freed by fellow drivers Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant since no marshals or proper tools were on hand - the ordeal launched his safety campaign, which included organizing driver boycotts of Spa in 1969, the Nürburgring in 1970 and Zandvoort in 1972 until conditions improved. He won the 1971 championship while battling mononucleosis and crossing the Atlantic 186 times that year alone to meet media commitments in the United States. A plan to co-drive a Porsche 917K with Steve McQueen at the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours fell through because McQueen could not get insurance for the race. After teammate François Cevert was killed in practice at Watkins Glen in 1973, Stewart retired on the spot, skipping what would have been his 100th Grand Prix even though he had already clinched the title two races earlier at Monza. Jackie Stewart raced in Formula 1 from 1965 to 1973, across 9 seasons as a British driver. He won the World Championship 3 times, in 1969, 1971, 1973. He scored a total of 359 championship points over his career.