English Formula 1 driver James Hunt secured his one and only world championship on this day in 1976, capping a chaotic season in memorable fashion.
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The 1976 Formula 1 season will be remembered for two things. First was the way Niki Lauda came back from a life threatening accident to nearly win the world championship. The other is the world title win of a certain James Hunt.
Hunt is not a name who many modern-day F1 fans would be familiar with. He only won the one world championship and would retire a little over two and a half years after that title win. But what a title win it was.
Hunt was something of a cult hero in the sport at the time; his reckless and hard racing style led to him earning the nickname Hunt the Shunt. Regardless, he managed to win the title in epic circumstances.
With 45 years having passed since the day, let us now look back at a moment that is still fondly remembered by those who witnessed it.
The way the season ended left F1 fans in a tizzy, but 1976 had been a rollercoaster season for other reasons too. Ferrari driver Lauda was seen as the favourite for the title by most.
Indeed, the first six races of that season saw a Ferrari driver win five of them; Lauda won four with teammate Clay Regazzoni winning one. Hunt, by contrast, only won one race in that time.
Hunt and Lauda would take one win each in the next three races that followed. However, arguably the defining moment of the season came at the German Grand Prix.
The Nurburgring hosted the race, which saw Lauda suffer a near-fatal accident that left him in the hospital for a number of days. Amazingly, he would only miss two races after this and returned to race in the Italian GP.
The magnitude of Lauda’s lead was such that he remained on top of the standings till the final race of the season. However, given Hunt won the two races prior to the season-ending Japanese GP, he knew he could challenge for the title. The gap was that of three points.
The permutations and combinations in play for Lauda were simple; all he needed to do was finish ahead of Hunt in the points or for his rival to finish fifth or lower.
For Hunt, matters were a little more complicated. A win would do the trick, but if he finished second he needed Lauda to finish fourth or lower. A third or fourth place finish would also do, but Lauda would have to finish at least either sixth or seventh, respectively to hand the title to Hunt.
Thus, we had an epic final race to decide what had been an epic title fight.
Qualifying worked out in favour of James Hunt; he started in second, behind Mario Andretti’s Lotus but ahead of Lauda’s Ferrari, who was in third.
There was, however, another complication to look out for: rain. The morning of the race saw massive thunderstorms and fog, leaving running water on many parts of the track.
Some drivers wanted the race called off, but the organisers decided to go on with the race anyway. One of the drivers unhappy with this decision was Lauda; after all, he expressed similar safety concerns ahead of the German GP but was ignored and then had to pay the price.
The race saw Hunt make a good start and he took the lead, with Andretti and John Watson behind him. However, the treacherous conditions were always going to factor into the equation, and so it proved.
Watson would slide down an exit road during the second lap, an incident that prompted Lauda to drive into the pits and retire the car. “My life is worth more than a title”, he would say afterwards.
This led to a spate of withdrawlas from the race. Larry Perkins retired a lap later, with the Brazilian duo of Emerson Fittipaldi and Carlos Pace following suit.
It must be said that their safety concerns were not without merit. However, with the race still ongoing and with Lauda no longer a factor, it became Hunt’s title to lose.
The Brit was leading for a good portion of the race. However, once the track began to dry out, others began to catch up to him and he lost positions.
He only needed to finish fourth but some late drama ensured he had to sweat to get the desired position. First, Patrick Depailler lost the race lead due to tyre issues and he had to pit; Andretti took the lead from him and Hunt moved into second.
However, Hunt himself developed similar issues and was forced to pit. He emerged back out from the pits in fifth; suddenly, his world championship dream was slipping away.
He was now behind Alan Jones, Depailler and the Ferrari of Regazzoni. Depailler was in fourth, but overtook both drivers to move into second on Lap 70.
On Lap 71, Hunt also managed to pass both Jones and Regazzoni to move into third position ahead of the final lap. He wound up finishing the race in third, and thus sealed the world title.
Afterwards, Hunt said he was unsure about what caused the issues and even added he didn’t know he had won the title when he crossed the line.
“The front tyre started shredding, and I had rubbish all over my visor,” said Hunt afterwards. “I didn’t know what the hell to do. Then the tyre burst.
“I dropped some places during the pit stop, but I didn’t know how many. At the finish I was convinced I still had to pass a couple of cars to regain third place. Fortunately, I was wrong.”
He was wrong about his track positions, but James Hunt was a world champion at long last.
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