German GP

It may seem strange that the German Grand Prix, and it's iconic venue the Nürburgring, are only mentioned in passing in the film. But therein lies a story.

You see, it's not that Frankenheimer didn't want to film at such a classic circuit. Of course he wanted to film there, and in fact he did. He reportedly shot 27 reels of film over the course of the race weekend.

But for the second time that man Steve McQueen casts his shadow across the story of the making of Grand Prix. McQueen and director John Sturges had sewn up a watertight contract with the venue at the start of making their own film, "Day of the Champions" which eventually became "Le Mans". This meant that all of Frankenheimer's footage had to be discarded, all 27 reels of it.

The ironies here are several fold. First of all, despite the setback, Frankenheimer still completed his film within the year, whereas McQueen and Sturges's film would take take another five years to come to fruition.

Secondly, McQueen and Sturges's film became "Le Mans", obviously based on Circuit de la Sarthe, not Nürburgring. And finally, John Sturges eventually quit during the making of Le Mans, and didn't even get a credit.

So perhaps there was more to McQueen's reluctance to take the role in Grand Prix, and maybe there was more to his supposed falling out with James Garner than meets the eye.

Frankenheimer and Garner were in fact direct competitors to Sturges and McQueen, and it must have rankled that Grand Prix was released a full five years before Le Mans. It must have also added insult to injury that Frankenheimer's film was so obviously brilliant, innovative, ground breaking, and most importantly a film that put the sport front and centre.