Grand Prix (1966)

Izo Yamura: Why do you drive racing cars, or do you not think about it?
Pete Aron: Oh, Mr. Yamura, I don't think there's one of us who doesn't ask himself at least once in the middle of a race, "What the hell am I doing here?" Of course, when it's over, we conveniently forget that we asked ourselves that question. I think about it and a lot of reasons I don't know. Maybe to do something that brings you so close to the possibility of death and to survive it is to feel life and living so much more intensely.

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Izo Yamura: Some years ago, when I decided to race cars, I tried to buy the Jordan-BRM company.
Pete Aron: Oh yes, I had heard that.
Izo Yamura: Impatience on my part. I also manufacture radios and sewing machines. In order to save time, I wanted a proven product. That was not to be, however. Racing cars are not merely another product. They require great attention if any success is to be hoped for.
Pete Aron: Then that's why you're here.
Izo Yamura: I have been racing my cars in Formula One for two years, and have yet to win my first Grand Prix. I intend to win, by whatever means are open to me.
Pete Aron: That's the right attitude. All you have to do is go fast enough and long enough.
Izo Yamura: And with the best drivers! Do you want a job with me?
Pete Aron: Driving?
Izo Yamura: Driving, of course.
Pete Aron: Who are you dumping?
Izo Yamura: Dumping?
Pete Aron: Ah, which one of your drivers are you getting rid of?
Izo Yamura: Neither one. I am entering a third car.
Pete Aron: That'll be expensive.
Izo Yamura: Yes.
Pete Aron: You've got a driver.
Izo Yamura: My racing headquarters is at Silverstone, in England. Can you be there next week?
Pete Aron: Yes, sir.
Izo Yamura: We must begin to think about - Spa!
Pete Aron: Next week, then.
Izo Yamura: By the way, you are a terrible broadcaster!
[Aron turns and starts heading for the door]
Izo Yamura: Oh, Mr. Aron, if giving you the job would have meant firing one of the other drivers, would you still have taken it?
[Aron glares at Yamura]
Izo Yamura: Good!

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[Addressing Pete Aron at the Ferrari factory]
Agostini Manetta: What means far more to me than anything else is: our good name! Our reputation represents desire for perfection of the highest quality. I gamble that reputation gladly, because I have *absolute* faith in every car that leaves this factory. But I will not risk it on a driver in whom I cannot have an equal faith. There are fewer than thirty men in the world qualified to drive Formula One; a mere half-dozen, perhaps, to win. At this moment, I am inclined to think you are not one of them.

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Yves Montand's character, Sarti, tells how he no longer slows down when he sees an accident. He uses the exact words of the real life driver Phil Hill, as quoted by Robert Daley in his book "The Cruel Sport".
Frankenheimer's first film in color.
The film shows racing taking place on the banked oval section of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy, but in fact the oval section of that racetrack had not been used for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix since 1961. This section of the track was still used, however, for races involving other classes of cars until 1969. The Monza 1,000 Kilometre, for example, reserved for the Sports, Prototype and Grand Touring categories, used the full 10KM course (including the high-speed banked oval section) from 1965 to 1969. Ironically, the tragic fatal accident in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix (which took the life of German driver Wolfgang Von Trips, and 14 spectators) did not occur in the banked oval section but just prior to the "Parabolic" curve, which is part of the Road Course section of Monza. This road course, with modifications for safety and since the retirement of the banked oval section, has comprised the entire circuit at Monza ever since.
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