Simon Taylor Full Throttle

Down the years lots of motor-racing feature films have made it to the cinema, from Checkpoint to Grand Prix, from Days of Thunder to Rush.

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Some have been better than others, both in the critical eyes of the knowledgeable enthusiast and as entertainment for general audiences. Many have been eminently forgettable. I have an affection for The Racers (released in the UK as Such Men Are Dangerous) because I own one of the cars that Kirk Douglas drove in the movie. But the combination of a slim plot and woeful 1955 studio technology means that today nobody, except me, would give it a second look.

These days motor racing is best served by bigbudget documentaries – not least because the truth is stranger than fiction. With epics such as Senna, McLaren and Williams, the standard has become very high indeed, offering real in-depth understanding of great men.

But the latest doco is different because, rather than concentrating on the life of one individual, it focuses on a brief, dramatic, tragic period in the long history of the greatest team of all. It does this by bringing to life five towering characters who lived, laughed, loved, fought and then died all within two years of each other, and who are now to most people little more than names.