Production
The making was a race itself, as John Sturges and Steve McQueen planned to make a similar movie titled Day of the Champion. Due to their contract with the German Nürburgring, Frankenheimer had to turn over 27 reels shot there to Sturges. Frankenheimer was ahead in schedule anyway, and the McQueen/Sturges project was called off, while the German race track was only mentioned briefly in Grand Prix.
The F1 cars in the film are mostly mocked-up Formula 3 cars made to look like contemporary F1 models, although the film also used footage from actual F1 races. Some of this was captured by Phil Hill, the 1961 World Champion, who drove modified camera cars in some sessions during the 1966 Monaco and Belgian Grands Prix. This was some of the earliest experimentation with in-car cameras for Formula One.
The actual level of driving ability of the actors varied wildly – Bedford couldn't drive at all, Sabàto was very slow and nervous, Montand himself scared very easily early in filming and was often towed rather than driving the car, but Garner was very competent and even took up racing and entering cars as a direct result of his involvement in the film.
Circuits featured in the film include; Circuit de Monaco (Monaco), Clermont-Ferrand (France), Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Circuit Park Zandvoort (Netherlands), Brands Hatch (United Kingdom), and Autodromo Nazionale Monza (Italy). The Watkins Glen International (USA) circuit was mentioned, as was the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (Mexico) but there was no footage shown.
The camera car used was a Ford GT40 driven by Phil Hill, the car having cameras mounted at the front and rear of the car, front and rear body panels of the car being removed as necessary. The GT40 was used as, being a Le Mans car, it was one of the few cars that could keep up with the 180mph-plus of the cars featured. Aerial shots at Monaco were filmed from an Alouette III helicopter.
During the making of the film both Frankenheimer and Garner were interviewed by Alan Whicker for the BBC television series Whicker's World.
Read more about this topic: Grand Prix (1966 film)
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