Jackie Stewart wasn’t known for being a showman, but in the classic showman style he saved his best for last, and left his audience wanting more.
Fifty years ago on Saturday his final, and triumphant, Formula 1 season concluded. It did so amid sadness as Stewart’s team-mate Francois Cevert was killed practicing for the Watkins Glen finale, and their Tyrrell team withdrew from what would have been Stewart 100th and final grand prix.
Yet Stewart in 1973 had already sealed his third F1 World championship title, and surpassed Jim Clark’s 25-win record, setting a mark that would not be matched until 1987.
Stewart for months had known that the campaign was his swansong. Due to exhaustion from the all-encompassing life of an international racing driver, and for reasons of self-preservation in a still-perilous age, Stewart decided he would retire at the season’s end. He told his team boss Ken Tyrrell and Ford executives Walter Hayes and John Waddell in April. And only they knew. Not even Stewart’s wife Helen was told, as Jackie wanted to spare her counting down his
