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As he walked across the paddock, up the stairs and into the media centre for this interview, Jacques Laffite was stopped and greeted more times than either of us wanted. It was a hot day, not comfortable to stand and swelter, but it is a measure of this Frenchman's enduring popularity with all nationalities that he has so many friends.

Not perhaps the greatest French driver of all time and maybe not the most handsome, he nevertheless remains a figure held in great affection by the English in particular, and has a sense of humour to go with his great status after many years spent living on the wrong side of the channel that divides England and France.

The son of a Parisian lawyer, affable, generous and blessed with a grin that can melt cold hearts, Laffite is now a well-established television commentator and has retained not only a deep interest in Formula One, after more than 30 years of close association with the sport, but also a massive knowledge base.

In the real meaning of the phrase 'been there, done that', Laffite has experienced it all. He contested 176 Grands Prix, a record that he shares with Graham Hill, but there have been arguments over the scoring system used. So, for the sake of clarity and fairness, it must be said immediately that for these purposes herein, Jacques Deschenaux's wonderful Grand Prix Guide 2007 edition is our source. Whatever the system chosen, there is no doubt that Laffite drove a lot of races.

Curiously, for a driver of such experience and such a long career - he was racing for various teams from 1974 to 1986 - he is just as well remembered for a races he forfeited (he was already on his way to hospital with both legs broken when the race re-started) as for those he finished.

The memorable race, of course, was the 1986 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, the last to be held on the famous old Kent circuit. Nelson Piquet started from pole position with Nigel Mansell, his Williams-Honda teammate and friend alongside him. That, in those days, was enough to assure the crowd of an action-packed start, but when Mansell stalled in that uphill rush to Paddock Hill Bend, all hell was let loose.

Jacques Laffite is trapped in his Ligier JS27 Renault, after a nine car accident at the start, which caused the 1986 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch to be stopped © LAT

The resultant chaos behind Mansell saw several collisions and accidents and in the worst of these the luckless Laffite, aged 43, starting the race that would draw him level with Graham Hill in the record books, suffered his dreadful injuries.

Some, pedantic to the extreme, have since excluded that race start from their records and granted the Frenchman only 175 Grands Prix to his name. But how can a man who suffered two broken legs in a crash at the start of a Formula One Grand Prix be told he did not take part in the race?

"That accident, honestly, it was not too dramatic for me," recalled Laffite, some 21 years on. "I was 43 and I was old, for racing, so obviously the accident and the legs everything made the news, but I was ready for anything then, inside my own head!

"It was not so terrible except that I could not walk very well for some time. I did my time in Formula One and I was lucky not to have had a big accident before."

"That weekend, everyone was talking to me about the number of races, and it was fantastic, and all that. But I had a lot of problems. I had an accident with Keke [Rosberg]. I was down the grid, 13 or 14 or something, and everyone wanted to take a picture of me with 176 on the grid. I was not tempted much. I had a good friend and I said to him before the race 'don't worry, it won't take long - my car is shit so I am not going to go very far!' You are very clever, he told me. We laughed, but I was right in a different kind of way!

"Of course, it was July 13 and I had an accident. It was like I was going in a hurry for the summer holidays in France. I was not proud of that. There were too many pressures on me and then afterwards it was like it was all over. It just happens like that. I know. After an accident, nobody wants to think about you anymore. For me, it was not exactly the same because I received maybe 3,000 letters, and most of them were from English people who were watching the Grand Prix.

"I was living in England at that time and all this helped to keep me going. I loved to race, so when I could walk and do it again, I went racing. Then I worked on the TV and that was it. I think people know me better now for television than they ever did when I was racing. Now I am 64 and I have been working on TV for 20 years since then, so I am pleased with that."

Laffite's easy-going nature enabled him to make light of an incident that was branded on the memories of the many fans who saw it that day. Ironically, when the race re-started, Mansell, who had stalled, went on to claim victory. Laffite's accident left him with 107 fractures. It took the rescue crew 35 minutes to hoist him from his car. He had 40 breaks alone in his left ankle and 48 in his right. His pelvis and his hip were smashed also.

Yet, incredibly, he did not lose consciousness, become embittered or lose his humour. He was to be feted on both sides of the Channel and visited in hospital by the president of France, Francois Mitterrand. Mansell also sent his friend and sometimes golf partner a gift to the hospital: a bag of clubs and a note. It read: "Thank you for my win. I hope we can play again soon."

Jacques Laffite (Ligier JS7 Matra) wins the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp © LAT

Once he had learned to walk again, Laffite returned to the golf course. He developed his interest in golf and now owns a course of his own at Dijon while Mansell, of course, owns one close to Exeter, in England. The clubs sent by Mansell remain at home, however, virtually untouched by Laffite, but enjoyed as a warm memory of a man who became a good friend.

"We had been playing golf together for four years and he was a good player," Laffite recalled. "We played very often. We played between the Grands Prix and sometimes during the days when we were there. We often met at the golf course after practice and racing because in those days it was all more relaxed than now, the hours were shorter. We had more time. Usually, we met at four o'clock and played golf until night-time! Now I think that is impossible for the drivers.""

During his career, Laffite was not one for bargaining hard to extract the best deals, settling instead to race for his team chief Guy Ligier under the terms offered.

"I was stupid," he said. "He could call me and say 'Jacques will you accept two million francs to drive my car?' and I said 'OK, no problem, I don't care ...' and I should have discussed it more, but I didn't like to do that. I just wanted to race."

After his accident, he also withdrew from a potential legal action being prepared against those who, it was felt, could be adjudged to have taken some blame.

"I don't like people who, when something happens, always find somebody to say 'it is not me, it is because of this or that' and it is not my fault. I think, if you have an accident, it is an accident."

"Sure, when you are on the road and you have a drink and hit something then you can say it is not an accident. But when you are living your life, many things can happen, and you cannot each time say 'it is not my fault, it is his fault.' We are responsible; we have to accept it. Unfortunately, it happened to me. It can happen to you tomorrow, or the day after or it can happen again to me."

Laffite takes a human and fatalistic view of the events in his life. He accepts dangers are par for the course. "They say to us, to the drivers, 'don't ski, and don't ride on motor-bikes' and so on. I say, 'f**k you, it is my choice to ski!' If I want to die on skis that is my choice. The only thing they [team owners] accept is that you are to die for them, and for their bloody car! Why? All the teams are like that."

"When I signed my contract with Frank Williams, I was alone and I had no people helping me and we had a lunch in Paris. I took the pen and I said 'no ski? No bike?' And he said 'Jacques it is impossible.' And I said 'it's OK, then I don't sign. I don't care ...'

Jacques Laffite © LAT

"When you area good skier, and you do a lot of riding on the bike, it is OK - I knew my limits. So, it was up to me to avoid a broken leg. It was not then like it is today. I needed to ski, and to bike, and to bicycle and I needed to water-ski. I needed many things in my life."

Mention of such needs, such excitements, suggested it was a suitable moment to ask about the image he enjoyed as a ladies' man and a curious admission, made in recent times, that he has kept an entire drawer full of ladies underwear and that he valued those collectors' items more highly than any of his trophies.

"They are my wife's underwear," he answered, perhaps a little to quickly and deftly. "I am not really a guy with so many girlfriends ... I don't know why people think so."

But he admitted that drivers of his era did have a more enjoyable way of life, in terms of their freedom, than the drivers of today who are chained to offices and motor homes for such long hours.

"Now, they play on their Playstations, but I still prefer to go outside and play golf, or go fishing. I feel it is much better for me. They have more money than us and they have a life like old people! For me, the idea to have a plane at 22 or 24, with people working for you inside the plane, is strange. It was something for in the life for a 50-year-old or a 60-year-old. For people who have worked all their lives and made money."

"But, no, I don't envy them. In my time, we were like fighters, Nigel and I. We raced with our cars, but we started with heavy cars with 220 kilos of fuel and we had to look after everything. It was more physical. Now, from that point of view, it is easier. But it is different. They are so fit now. They have pressures, too. Different lives. But, in the end, you know, we are here because we still love racing."