{"id":30231,"date":"2014-07-07T19:14:04","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T18:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/issue_content\/we-didnt-know-he-was-quick\/"},"modified":"2023-08-29T18:31:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T17:31:55","slug":"we-didnt-know-he-was-quick","status":"publish","type":"issue_content","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/archive\/article\/september-2013\/60\/we-didnt-know-he-was-quick\/","title":{"rendered":"James Hunt, McLaren’s unlikely hero: “We didn’t know he was quick…”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A large Greek called Demis Roussos topped the charts. Water was rationed as Britain sweated in the hottest summer on record. Bj\u00f6rn Borg beat Ilie Nastase to take the first of five Wimbledon titles. Viking 1 landed on Mars, the first spacecraft to visit the red planet. And on July 18 James Hunt<\/a> became the first Englishman to win the British Grand Prix since Peter Collins<\/a> in 1958<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or did he?<\/p>\n

This was the summer of 1976. Hot weather and hot tempers came together at Brands Hatch<\/a> in a cauldron of a Grand Prix that had the Brits out of their seats, stamping their feet. None of us will ever forget that weekend in Kent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Life in Formula 1<\/a>\u2019s pressure cooker had been intensifying all year. Something, or somebody, was going to blow. And it happened at Brands in mid-July.<\/p>\n

\n \"James\n
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Hunt on the podium with Niki Lauda at Brands Hatch. He would eventually lose his hard-fought British GP victory<\/p>\n

\n LAT\/DPPI\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

The season began as the previous one had finished, with reigning champion Niki Lauda<\/a> winning the first two races in Brazil<\/a> and South Africa<\/a>. The Ferrari 312T looked unstoppable, the Scuderia taking a one-two at the next race in Long Beach<\/a>, albeit this time with Clay Regazzoni<\/a> coming home ahead of Lauda. Most observers believed the Austrian\u2019s second title was a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n

In the McLaren factory at Colnbrook they had other ideas. Barely recovered from the abrupt defection of Emerson Fittipaldi<\/a>, their tails were up and the trusty old M23 was evolving nicely. Signing James Hunt from the defunct Hesketh<\/a> team was an enforced risk, but a very close second place at Kyalami<\/a> was encouraging. Team manager Alastair Caldwell, who\u2019s been closely involved with the production of Rush<\/em> and a recent BBC documentary, was the man charged with keeping the lid on their new, somewhat volatile, driver.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNiki Lauda remembers James Hunt: ‘One hell of a guy’\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
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I first met James back in 1971 when I joined the March team for my first season of international Formula Two racing. In those days I was living in London,…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJanuary 1998\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIssue<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
By\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAlan Henry<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n<\/article>\n <\/div>\n
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\u201cIt was an interesting year,\u201d says Caldwell, \u201cand we\u2019d had the abdication of Fittipaldi, which meant a ragged end to the previous season. We were still testing with Emerson, but he kept telling me he had another job to go to. I don\u2019t think anyone else believed him, but Emerson was a businessman first and foremost and wanted a big salary rise for \u201976, which Teddy Mayer didn\u2019t want to pay. This went on until nearly Christmas, when suddenly the shit hit the fan. Emerson announced his new Copersucar<\/a> team and off he went. Philip Morris, our sponsor, was a bit surprised by this, to say the least. Anyway, with about a month to go before the first race we didn\u2019t have a driver. At the same time Lady Hesketh had pulled the plug on her son\u2019s racing team and so Hunt was out of work. He rang up and said \u2018I guess I\u2019m your new driver\u2019, so we replied \u2018Well, we guess you are\u2019. That\u2019s how it happened. We told him we weren\u2019t going to pay him anything \u2013 after all, he was out of work and we had the second best seat in Grand Prix racing. So we paid him a pittance and off we went.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time was tight, the learning curve steep and there was no time to feel their way into a new season.<\/p>\n

“Testing bored him to tears and we really shouldn\u2019t have used him at all”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know if he was quick,\u201d says Caldwell. \u201c We knew he\u2019d had a lucky win at Zandvoort with Hesketh<\/a>, and we\u2019d seen him racing, but you don\u2019t know about drivers until you get them in your car. We thought the whole Hesketh thing, including James, was a bit foolish and foppish and he would not have been our first choice, not our style of driver at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway, we were stuck with him and took him off to Silverstone<\/a> to see what he could do. First impressions? He was odd physically, with those long legs, and he was hunched, a bit round-shouldered, with that weird shambling gait. He didn\u2019t fit our car \u2013 that was the first problem. We had to cut the front bulkhead out then move the master cylinders forward, and he had to cut the ends of his shoes off to fit inside the monocoque. Anyway, off we went to Brazil and nobody really knew if he\u2019d be any good or not. Poor old Jochen Mass<\/a>. He wanted to know who was number one, and I told him that would be whoever was fastest. That was sorted pretty rapidly when James got pole at Interlagos and Jochen was halfway down the grid. And that\u2019s how it stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"Bernie\n
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Bernie Ecclestone (with Martini umbrella<\/em>), stands with Teddy Mayer, as Hunt sits in the cockpit. Caldwell is opposite<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

The M23 was three years old and needed some revisions for 1976. A new six-speed gearbox was introduced for Brazil and later in the year Caldwell hounded Texaco into brewing a new fuel for the team\u2019s exclusive use. The drivers stopped whingeing about gear ratios and the engines stopped blowing up. Progress was being made.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cutting a long and technical story short,\u201d says Caldwell, \u201cbut the new gearbox and fuel, with its better engine numbers, certainly helped us get on terms with Ferrari<\/a> as the year went on. As well as that, we had new pistons made for the Cosworths, but Keith Duckworth wasn\u2019t too happy \u2013 we\u2019d forgotten to tell him \u2013 and the service contract with Nicholson forced us to go back to the old ones. Anyway, then came the Spanish fiasco<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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From the archive<\/h2>\n \t\t\n\t\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArchive<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1977: James Hunt’s greatest F1 season\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
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Fuji, October 23 1977. A year on from the heart-in-mouth climax that crowned him an against-the-odds Formula 1 world champion, James Hunt has just completed his sole season as world…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNovember 2022\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIssue<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
By\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDamien Smith<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n<\/article>\n <\/div>\n
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This was the first major controversy of a very tense season \u2013 and it was all down to a team error.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we screwed up,\u201d admits Caldwell. \u201cStupidly, I didn\u2019t measure the car after we\u2019d moved the oil coolers to the side and, at the same time, Goodyear came up with new, fatter tyres that protruded just outside the rims. We hadn\u2019t actually changed the width of the car itself, but when they came to measure up in Jarama<\/a> it was illegal, no question.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d won the race, beaten the Ferraris, but the bloody car was illegal and it was my mistake. We were disqualified on the spot but much later won our appeal and victory was restored. Meanwhile, we changed the car back to its original spec before we went to Belgium and it was a lot slower. We were nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where was James Hunt in all this? How did he cope with this rollercoaster ride?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t really that interested in the detail. He hated testing. It bored him to tears and we really shouldn\u2019t have used him at all. He wasn\u2019t a constant fiddler like Fittipaldi or Lauda, he just drove as hard as he could \u2013 he was good at that. James thought he knew about being a racing driver, he\u2019d studied it all, but he didn\u2019t have the application.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went testing at Paul Ricard<\/a>. I\u2019d invented the air starter, saving us a ton of weight, and we\u2019d put skirts on the car. One of my jobs was to read the rulebook and I always made the most of the regulations, studying what they said and not what they meant. But still we weren\u2019t competitive. We were nowhere in Belgium<\/a>, Monaco<\/a> or Sweden<\/a> and Lauda won two of those, so we redesigned the configuration of the oil coolers, putting them into sidepods between the front and rear wheels. This gave us more downforce and this time it was narrower, and legal, having shortened the driveshafts to compensate for the wider tyres. And hey presto, the car was a whole second a lap quicker at Ricard. We went to the French Grand Prix<\/a> and James won easily. Ferrari had new engines and Niki, with his mind games, came down to tell us the new engine was the dog\u2019s whatsits and they\u2019d run away. But that was a classic example of what not to do when trying to win a championship, you never race a new development engine mid-season \u2013 and they both went bang after about 10 laps or so. It was after that that we got the points back from the disallowed win in Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The joy of winning in France, quickly followed by the Spanish reinstatement, put McLaren on the front foot as the circus headed for Brands Hatch in July.<\/p>\n

\n \"McLaren\n
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Hunt on his way to ‘win’ in Britain<\/p>\n

\n DPPI\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is where it got quite exciting,\u201d says Caldwell. \u201cWe were head to head with Ferrari, the gloves were well and truly off. We ignored the bullshit, that was the McLaren ethos, and ignored the drivers between races in those days. Ferrari had 10 times the people, two lawyers at every race, but we had no spare capacity. It was just Teddy [Mayer] and me \u2013 and Teddy wasn\u2019t the best politician. So, yeah, we were stupidly under staffed in the politics department. But that didn\u2019t bother me, because we just got on with the racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old M23 was now competitive again and Lauda only just pipped James to pole on the Saturday. It was going to be a hot, dry race \u2013 we knew that at least \u2013 and then, on Sunday afternoon, it all went wrong. Regazzoni lost it going through Paddock Bend on the first lap and all hell let loose. The race was stopped and James was off with damaged suspension.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1976 British Grand Prix – Well up to standard\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
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Well up to standard Brands Hatch, July 18th If there is one thing that you must admire the British for, it is their consistency. Once they get hold of a…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAugust 1976\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIssue<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
By\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDenis Jenkinson<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n<\/article>\n <\/div>\n
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\u201cHe got the car to the pits and we set about fixing it for the restart, but the stewards decreed he\u2019d had \u2018outside assistance\u2019 and was therefore not allowed to take part. As soon as the crowd got wind of this they started jeering, cat-calling and shouting, encouraged by me I have to say, because I could see there would be politics later. They yelled abuse at all and sundry \u2013 I\u2019ve never seen anything like it, before or since. The noise was incredible. They started throwing stuff and then the stewards relented, despite a protest from Ferrari, which was fairly predictable.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames was getting pretty edgy and, when he sat in the car, it was jigging about on the stands. He was often like that before a race. Anyway, we got it all sorted, took the car out to the grid at the last minute and away they went. The race itself was equally dramatic, Lauda leading for 45 laps before gearbox trouble slowed him and James zapped past to win. Unbelievable. But it wasn\u2019t over yet. Not until September did an FIA court rule that the win would be disallowed.<\/p>\n

By then, of course, Lauda had suffered his accident at the N\u00fcrburgring<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

On August 1, after changing to wets at the end of the first lap of the German Grand Prix<\/a>, Lauda crashed, the car caught fire and he was horribly burned. For a while there were rumours that he would not survive but, in a staggering display of courage, he was back in the Ferrari at Monza<\/a> in September, having missed just two races. Hunt, meanwhile, had won in Germany, picked up a fourth in Austria<\/a> and won again in Holland<\/a>. By Monza, Lauda led Hunt by just two points.<\/p>\n

“They just wanted to fight each other for the championship, never mind all the bloody politics”<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen bravery like it, not in any sport,\u201d says Caldwell, \u201cLauda\u2019s face was badly disfigured, he was in a lot of pain and after the race his balaclava was soaked in blood. Unbelievably he\u2019d finished fourth and James had started from the back and spun off early on, having had his qualifying time disallowed because of what they called \u2018fuel irregularities\u2019, although of course we disputed that. So now the gap was five points and James was pleased to see Lauda back. They were good friends and enjoyed each other\u2019s company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only time they fell out was when Niki went to the FIA hearing after the British Grand Prix. It was a political thing, probably under pressure from Enzo [Ferrari] or Daniel [Audetto, Ferrari\u2019s team manager] and he wore a bandage with blood on \u2013 it must have been tomato ketchup because by that stage he was well healed after the N\u00fcrburgring crash. But they made up and in Japan they were chasing girls together, the banter and the repartee back to normal. They just wanted to fight each other for the championship, never mind all the bloody politics, though it must be said they both spent Sunday morning at Fuji trying to get the race stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJames Hunt and Hesketh: The Unlikely Lads\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
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It looked like an extravagant joke, an extended April Fool’s stunt played by a bunch of ex-public schoolboys with more money than sense. It ended, as everyone had predicted, in…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 1997\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIssue<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
By\n\t\t\t\t\t\tShaun Campbell<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n<\/article>\n <\/div>\n
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Surely there could be no more drama in this spellbinding rollercoaster of a Grand Prix season? Wrong. Hunt was in sparkling form in North America, winning at Mosport<\/a> and Watkins Glen<\/a> while Lauda scored a single third place. When they arrived in Japan, for the final showdown, Lauda led Hunt by three points. The tension was almost too much to bear as those of us back home rose before dawn to watch the final act unfold.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty spooky at Fuji,\u201d says Caldwell. \u201cThe Sunday weather was terrible, with heavy rain and the top of Mount Fuji hidden in cloud. Everyone was a bit tense and the race was delayed until the last possible moment. Most of them didn\u2019t want to race at all, including James: he said it was too dangerous, and the crowd became very restless. I told him, \u2018Don\u2019t be a prick, no race, no World Championship. We can win this\u2019. Out on the pitwall we encouraged the crowd to ramp up the boos and jeers. Eventually the race went ahead, and James got away in the lead. At the end of the second lap we saw Lauda come down the pit road, park the Ferrari and walk away, saying the conditions were just too dangerous. It looked like we had it in the bag, but towards the end the track dried out and we were looking at a stop for tyres.<\/p>\n

\n \"McLaren\n
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Soggy grid in Japan<\/p>\n

\n DPPI\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

\u201cNow James only needed fourth to take the title, but he went back out in fifth, and it wasn\u2019t over yet. With just two laps left he passed Regazzoni and Jones and came home third. It was just about dark by now but we didn\u2019t care, James was World Champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was confused by the last few laps and thought he hadn\u2019t made it. So he was pretty tensed up and very vocal when he got out of the car \u2013 but once he\u2019d understood what he\u2019d done the piss-up started and went on for a very long time, through the night and into the next day if I remember rightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never said thank you, not to me or Teddy [Mayer] anyway, and I don\u2019t think he ever bought anyone a drink all the time he was with us. That was James. If Niki had won he\u2019d probably have found a way of getting his hands on a Rolex for every Ferrari employee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHunt’s ‘red-blooded dogfight’ \u2013 Zandvoort’s greatest F1 race\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
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At the 1976 Dutch GP James Hunt battled against some of F1’s fiercest ’70s heroes and a crumbling McLaren M23 to win at Zandvoort \u2013 its greatest race, says Matt Bishop <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

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