Were the Drivers Braver Than The Rest of Us?

Stirling Moss said he welcomed the danger because bravery differentiated the drivers--it made them special. How brave were the drivers of the 1950s? Phil Hill (above) questioned whether the drivers were actually braver than anybody else. By way of example, he recalled sitting in a restaurant near a plate glass window that was quaking in a strong wind. “The racers were the first ones to flee the window before it shattered,” he said. “They are always the first ones to flee an accident on the track. They don’t want to die, they just want the possibility of death. It is their way of reaffirming life, reaffirming their life, that they are alive. Without racing they don’t really feel they are really alive. Of course this is not rational”