Hunt vs Lauda: F1's Greatest Racing Rivals

This programme contains some strong language

25 cars line up to start the last Grand Prix

of the most extraordinary season in the history of Formula One.

'This, then, is the clincher -

'the World Championship decider.'

As heavy rain pours down, two drivers prepare for the race that will decide

which one of them becomes World Champion.

'James Hunt in his McLaren.

'Niki Lauda in the Ferrari.

'The flag is down...'

The two men could not be more different. Britain's James Hunt

is a fast, flamboyant showman who parties as hard as he races.

His rival is the steely Austrian Niki Lauda who drives

with cold, hard logic.

Niki was the scientist, the counterpoint -

he was the first really technical driver.

This is the story of Formula One's legendary rivalry - told by those who witnessed it first hand.

James got out of the car, pulled off his crash helmet,

started to rant and rave at them...

'And Brambilla spins!'

The tension was just amazing.

His face was a mask of blood and I was saying, "My God, how can he race?"

With previously unseen footage and exclusive interviews,

this film charts the epic duel that would change the lives of both men and the sport forever.

You couldn't make it up. You could not make up this season.

It was just unbelievable.

'It's going to be a fantastic race.'

Fans line the streets to see Austrian Niki Lauda crowned

World Champion of 1975.

Lauda drives for Ferrari -

the greatest racing car constructor in the world.

But Lauda's thoughts

and those of his team are already turning to next season.

Ferrari's team manager

Daniele Audetto is confident that Lauda will retain his crown in 1976.

Niki Lauda was a very professional driver.

He can see the strategy,

he can really understand when was the moment to push a little more,

a little bit less, and was extremely fast

and so consistent.

But in Britain a new challenger has emerged.

Ladies and gentlemen, James Hunt.

APPLAUSE

James Hunt has signed for British team McLaren -

Ferrari's arch rivals,

but he has yet to prove he is championship material.

British drivers and British cars, for that matter,

have dominated Grand Prix racing

and our domination had dropped off a little bit now

and I just feel very ambitious to take up the cudgels.

I think James was hugely popular

because he was an attractive character.

He was a Brit and loved in this country already.

But I don't think people thought he had anything like

the chance that Niki Lauda had.

Hunt is better known for his romantic exploits than his driving.

I once talked to Jackie Stewart who had this thing about the car

being a woman.

And you drove the car like you made love to a woman.

Do you have the same poetic turn...?

I'd sooner stick to the women.

LAUGHTER

With his last team, his cavalier style had earned him

the nickname "Hunt the Shunt".

Now, McLaren team manager Alastair Caldwell

has reservations about Hunt joining the team.

The '76 season got off to a very interesting start for us.

James didn't have a drive

and we didn't have a driver,

so we were thrown into bed with him.

He rang me up and said,

"I think I'm your new driver."

I said, "I guess you are."

One of the first things you noticed is

when the car was switched off on the grid,

he was so wound up, the whole car was shaking

with his nervous energy.

He had a lot of adrenaline in him, that's for sure.

But that's one of the reasons he was a good racing driver.

He was always competitive.

And always very focused on something he wanted to do,

be it budgerigars as a teenager,

or train sets or Scalextric

or something as a small boy.

James was a sportsman, through and through.

He never played team games, his sports

were all solitary.

He was very single-minded and he knew what he wanted.

He wanted to be World Champion.

The 1976 season will consist of 16 races over 10 months,

running from January to October at locations across the world.

It is not just Lauda and Hunt that are in competition -

15 different teams, each with two drivers,

are in the fight for the title.

But Ferrari and McLaren are the leading contenders.

Ferrari were my arch enemies.

Daniele Audetto was their team manager,

so I was at war with them.

Ferrari has a history

much bigger, much longer than McLaren.

We couldn't compete with them on money

but we could compete with them in style and in efficiency.

They're a lot bigger team

and incredibly Italian.

I think we respect each other professionally

but I don't have a beer with him in the pub,

if you want an example.

Race one is in the scorching heat of the Interlargos circuit in Brazil.

Each race will cover a distance of 200 miles in approximately two hours but first,

each driver races against the clock to set the best possible lap time.

The driver with the best time will be rewarded with first

place on the starting line.

Pole position.

In the thick of the action is pit lane reporter, Peter Windsor.

In the distance, you'd hear an engine note,

and four minutes later, the car would reach you

and all four wheels would be off the ground.

And you'd think, "Wow, this is Formula One."

The news on the track in Brazil is that Hunt is fast.

To everyone's amazement he makes the best lap time

and gains his first-ever pole position.

What I remember most is Niki Lauda

looking up the pit lane and thinking, "What's going on here?"

Because nobody really knew, including Niki,

how good he would be.

Do you just want to get a level?

If I say "shucks" and "fuck" and all that sort of stuff...

Oh, dear. I'll cancel it, then. Can we rub that out?

He might have had some good lines

for the microphones, he might have had

a roving eye for the girls,

but in the cockpit, he was very serious.

Hunt takes his place at the front of the starting grid, just ahead of Lauda.

The World Champion's car carries the coveted number one,

but all eyes are on the Hunt in car number 11.

Lauda gets the best start, with Hunt's McLaren chasing hard behind.

Sadly, in the race, part of the fuel system or the engine fell off,

so he flew off the road,

which wasn't his fault.

So it wasn't a fairy-tale beginning,

but everybody left Brazil very pleased

that James was obviously quick.

Lauda has seen off Hunt's challenge

and collects nine points to start building his score.

The points scoring system was disarmingly simple.

Nine points for a win, six for second, four for third,

down to sixth place where you got one point.

We didn't know it would become so complicated.

In an age when Concorde is taking its first passenger flight

and synth music is capturing the imagination, Lauda's highly

technical approach perfectly suits a time falling in love with technology.

MUSIC: "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk

Lauda is a complete driver - preparing his Ferrari

meticulously before every race.

He could stay in the garage

until maybe eight o'clock in the evening

to stay with the mechanic,

to make sure he does the job properly

and to understand what they are doing.

Because Niki is a perfectionist.

What he's doing, he want to do it to his best.

At Lauda's side is his wife, Marlene.

Marlene was a fantastic young lady.

She was a beautiful lady,

but for Niki she was also a big moral supporter,

and I think was a big part of his success.

Lauda knows how to get the best out of his team.

Niki Lauda had really learned

how to make Ferrari work for him.

An awful lot of very good drivers

went to Ferrari and never quite made it work.

It had a terrifying presence

of Enzo Ferrari, with his dark glasses,

looming over the whole thing.

Incidere senz'altro, perche...

After nearly five decades in motor racing, the 78-year-old

Enzo Ferrari rules his family business with an iron fist.

Mr Ferrari lost his temper and say,

"I am the boss here, you have to do what I want."

He did have his favourites

and Niki, clearly,

had got close to Enzo Ferrari in that way,

and I think the bottom line is Enzo Ferrari liked to win.

He loved winners.

He cared about the results.

And Lauda delivers, pulling further

and further ahead of Hunt with every race,

but at the fourth round in Spain, Lauda has worrying news for Audetto.

"Daniele, I have a problem." "What happened?"

"I fell off from my tractor

"in my house, in my garden

"and I broke two or three ribs."

I said, "My God - two or three ribs?!"

He had a gardening accident, I think.

I think he was mowing his lawn in Austria with a garden tractor

and it rolled on him, which is

quite a common occurrence with garden tractors.

James had this approach to it all, which was,

"He's no problem. Halfway through the race, his ribs

"will give up and I'll pass him and win the race." It's exactly what happened!

# There was something in the air that night

# The stars were bright, Fernando... #

'His first win for Marlboro McLaren.'

You're still extremely fast. How do you do it?

Big balls.

# Though we never thought that we could lose,

# There's no regrets... #

But Hunt's victory is short-lived.

In the scrutineering area afterwards,

there was this unheard-of situation

where the car was disqualified

and that was something nobody in Formula One really was prepared for.

Teams are allowed to modify the car to suit each circuit,

but they must work within strict regulations.

One centimetre in a Formula One car

makes such a big difference.

In Spain, Hunt's car had been found to be just over a centimetre too wide.

Before the race, the car was measured by the organisers,

and every day, they didn't say anything.

I'm pretty sure they were talking to Ferrari

cos there was kindred spirit there -

the Spanish-speaking Catholic country.

Ferrari were saying, "Sh! Keep it shtoom. Say nothing."

I was never involved with the scrutineering.

I was involved with MY scrutineering, with my cars,

because I want that my car respect, 100%, the rules, because otherwise, Ferrari kill me.

Hunt's points are given to Lauda -

and it looks like McLaren will leave Spain empty-handed.

We immediately appealed cos we thought

the penalty didn't fit the crime.

It was like being hung for stealing a loaf of bread.

They pretend in the appeal to say

that this was difference was not affecting

the performance of the car. Bullshit.

Had you any idea that the car might be thrown out?

No. I don't know, I just drive the damn thing.

Although their teams are at war,

both drivers are trying to steer clear of politics, but despite

their different characters, their passion for racing is a bond.

Niki spent time in our pits.

He was always visiting us and his grasp of English was very good.

He was always known as The Rat, cos he looked like a rat.

So he was called Rat to his face.

James said, "Hello, Rat."

They meshed well,

because they weren't actually directly in competition from looks.

MUSIC: "Tear The Roof Off The Sucker" by Parliament

The wild side of '70s Formula One is revealed in this

recently discovered footage of an after-race party.

Hunt is the star - with Lauda in the wings.

For sure, Niki was in awe of James' good looks

and personality.

James was the good-looking playboy

and Niki was the small Austrian

who looked like a rat.

They were good friends,

though on the racetrack, of course, no quarter given.

The race driver persona can change

completely - once on the racetrack, all this is forgotten.

All successful racing drivers are invested with an enormous ego.

They all think they're the quickest.

They can't imagine they're not the fastest racing driver in the world.

To admit to anything else but that would be ludicrous.

Niki and James both though they were the best racing driver in the world.

As the season approaches halfway, and even when the points from Spain

are reinstated, it's Lauda who still dominates with double Hunt's points.

MUSIC: "More Than A Feeling" by Boston

When the Grand Prix circus moves to Britain, the country is

sweltering in temperatures reaching 35 degrees centigrade.

Skirts were getting shorter.

It was getting hotter.

England was baking, the whole of Europe was. It never rained.

We slept in the garden for months.

It was quite a remarkable year,

in more ways than one.

But behind the sunny mirage, Britain is in the grip of political

uncertainty and economic upheaval - inflation is rampant

and for ordinary people, the future is anything but certain.

We all know how hard the employment market is just now

for new entrants

and I know how much harder it is

and has been for many of you to get your first job.

# More than a feeling... #

The return of Hunt is a welcome distraction.

I think the British public saw James

as a sort of hero figure...

Hello, girls.

..somebody they could admire

who was giving two fingers to the Establishment.

It looked good in what might be a rather austere time for other people.

MUSIC: "Get It On" by T Rex

He had a sort of freedom about him.

He didn't really care what people thought.

Hunt's unpredictable personality is a potential

problem for the team's sponsor, Marlboro cigarettes.

Off we went and...

HE COUGHS

Excuse me, I've been training for my new sponsors.

JACKIE STEWART LAUGHS

Image is everything for the American brand and John Hogan, the man

from Marlboro, has been tasked with keeping the young sportsman in line.

He was this very brash figure

with a trail of destruction behind him.

That was going to be new for McLaren,

which was quite a straight-laced organisation

and also for his sponsors -

which were also straight-laced organisations.

In the year colour television sales overtake black-and-white, Hunt's

car flashes Marlboro's distinctive red-and-white brand across the

screen - and with it, he brings his own unique splash of colour.

Turning up to a dinner party

in black tie and flip-flops

was, to James, pretty normal.

Because he had this...I don't know what the British call savoir-faire,

he was able to carry it off.

James changed the way Marlboro looked.

It was the first and probably only example

of a sponsor being moulded by the driver and not vice versa.

'This is Brands Hatch, just outside of London in the Kent countryside.

'Today is British Grand Prix day.

'The biggest day on Britain's motor-sport calendar.'

The race is sold out.

Britain is in the grip of Hunt Fever.

A record 80,000 spectators fill the circuit and all eyes are on one man.

Brand Hatch is packed.

Every grandstand is packed, every grassy bank is packed.

The reason - because they're hoping to see the first English victory

in the John Player British Grand Prix

since Peter Collins won, in a Ferrari, of course,

way back in 1958.

At Brands Hatch, what you had was

a front row, after qualifying,

which looked as though it was setting the race up perfectly,

because you had Niki Lauda and James Hunt

on the front row,

Clay Regazzoni behind in the other Ferrari.

There is drama right from the start.

Clay Regazzoni managed to drive into the back wheel

of Lauda,

so the two Ferraris actually collided.

Complete mayhem began.

'Laffite sends Hunt flying.'

James' car landed on the left front corner,

but being a McLaren, didn't break.

And being James, with the two pints of adrenaline, he didn't stop.

He charged off with the front wheels splayed out, like this.

'Drivers who escaped the pile-up

'are soon flagged down and the race called to a halt.'

James was immediately thinking,

"I've got to get back to the pits and have the car mended."

I got out of trouble completely. I never hit anybody. I stopped on the left.

And they came and piled into me.

Can you tell us what happened?

There's a race going on, dear boy.

The race has ground to a complete halt.

The organisers want to restart the race immediately

but Hunt's damaged car is not on the grid.

In the chaos, in the pit, he comes running up to me.

I said, "What's the car like?" He said,

"The car's destroyed, a write-off."

I wandered down to have a look at the race car

and realised the race car was repairable.

James explanation that it was a "write-off" was not true.

Caldwell and McLaren will have to act quickly. There are only minutes to spare.

It was thought that James Hunt would not be allowed

to take the restart.

And the crowd got behind James as a driver they wanted to see in that restart

in a way that you don't see outside a soccer match.

SLOW HANDCLAPPING

The slow handclap which ran

from the start/finish line

all the way up to Paddock Bend

and all the way round South Bank

and round to Westfield Bend

and then it became boos

and then it became catcalls.

CROWD: We want Hunt! We want Hunt!

Then, the marshals had to rush onto the track,

to pick up beer cans and coke cans

and even bottles.

I've never seen, at a motor race,

quite such an extraordinary display from the public.

"We want James Hunt, we want James Hunt."

A mini riot was going on...

which was not very British.

McLaren were delighted that there was this confusion and delay

because it gave them a little more time to mend James Hunt's car.

'When they return to the grid, the crowd goes wild.

'Now James Hunt is certain to start again.'

Ferrari, you could see them, their faces fell

cos they knew instantly what had happened -

we had fixed the race car.

What I remember most of all

is Niki Lauda in a rage, getting back into his car.

He had suddenly realised how much time had passed

and that McLaren had had time to repair

their race car again and get it onto the grid,

and he was absolutely livid.

'Back to the grid, and off they go again.'

After another chaotic start,

Lauda storms ahead, with Hunt chasing hard on his tail.

'The battle's really on now between Niki Lauda and James Hunt.'

Niki Lauda in the Ferrari leading,

James Hunt, cheered on by the British crowd,

gradually winding him in.

As we went past half distance, the cars go round

Paddock Bend, down to the bottom of the hill,

up the hill and behind the trees.

As the cars then came back into our sight,

the McLaren was in front.

And that's when the crowd erupted.

# It's more than a feeling... #

'Britain's James Hunt, in a Marlboro McLaren, wins the British Grand Prix.'

And we did win the British Grand Prix, fair and square.

James, how much does this victory mean to you?

Nine points, 20,000 and a lot of happiness.

Can I grab that cigarette off you? Thanks.

CHEERING

But Ferrari is about to spoil the party...

I think Ferrari appealed straightaway after the race

that we didn't comply with the rules.

We couldn't work out what kind of rule they thought

we hadn't complied with.

The rule says, and I am surprised but I am not surprised Alastair doesn't know well the rules,

that is another example,

that you have to complete the racecourse, even if the race is suspended.

Instead of completing a lap, as the race was stopped,

Hunt had taken a shortcut back to the pits.

In cutting behind the Paddock,

he didn't complete the race distance.

Simple than that.

For now, the race winning points are Hunt's, but the result

hangs in the balance, waiting on a hearing scheduled for months later.

The next race is at the notorious Nurburgring in Germany.

The Nurburgring was a frightening but fantastic racetrack.

It's 14.7 miles round,

goes up and down thousands of feet,

it's got hundreds of corners.

It was generally hostile to fast racing cars,

which was part of its appeal.

Three-times World Champion Jackie Stewart had driven the course to

highlight the dangers of a track that had claimed more than 50 lives.

Every time I see this, it frightens me.

There's no barriers on the right-hand side,

there's just a rock face and trees.

You have a left-hand-side barrier

but that's not where you'll go off the road.

I think if I were to walk round them,

I would he horrified and never drive round the place again.

The faster you drive round the ring, the less you know,

and maybe that's the best thing to do.

For a quick lap at the Nurburgring,

you probably experience more in seven minutes

and six or seven seconds

than most people have experienced in all their life.

It was a pre-health-and-safety era.

Motor racing was dangerous.

It said so on the back of every ticket.

And it was part of what it was.

Nearly every year in Formula One, a driver had been killed.

By this stage, I'd lost

my brother in a racing car accident.

After that, I thought, "I won't befriend racing drivers.

"I'll have them as people who work for me,

"but I won't become their friend,

"because I don't want to go to their funeral as a friend.

"I want to go as their team manager."

For Lauda, the Nurburgring isn't worth the risk.

He calls a meeting of the drivers in an attempt to have it stopped.

But his fellow drivers don't agree.

He loses by one vote,

and now has no choice but to race.

For the first time in the season, it is raining on Race Day -

but the track is so long that not all of it is wet -

the choice of tyres will be crucial.

Wet tyres, they're quite tall - they have

big tread on them like a road tyre, unlike the slicks,

which are smooth, no tread at all.

Like most of the field, Lauda starts the race on wet weather tyres

but quickly discovers he is losing too much speed on every dry

section of the track.

After the first lap,

many drivers come into the pits

to change the tyres, it was really chaos.

The pit stop was a little bit slow.

When Niki started for the second lap,

with the slick,

he was about maybe

in tenth position.

For a driver, it's not good

psychologically to go to race on a circuit

that you judge is too dangerous.

It puts you in a condition that you are afraid.

When he restarted on the second lap,

it was not the cool Niki

that we know.

Lauda will not complete the lap.

His helmet comes off in the impact.

He is trapped in a fire burning at over 400 degrees centigrade.

It will be nearly a minute before Lauda is pulled from the flames.

I put his head on my lap. Didn't want him to lie flat.

But he was conscious and talked all the way through.

He said, "Is my face burned, is it burned?"

I replied, "Don't worry, it's OK."

In fact, his forehead was badly burned

and his scalp was actually charred.

rather than telling him all this,

we tried to keep him as quiet and composed as possible.

Lauda is rushed to hospital.

Amongst the drivers who arrive just after the crash is James Hunt.

We weren't aware Niki was in trouble because there were racing drivers at the scene

and he was conscious and talking to everybody

so the drivers came back to the pits and said,

"Niki's burnt but he's OK, he's fine."

With the track cleared, the race is restarted and Hunt is victorious.

He is now just 14 points behind Lauda.

Then the news came through that he was

gravely ill,

so that cast a shadow over the whole thing.

I can remember it now and thinking, "He isn't going to live,"

and I felt absolutely horrendous.

I felt like the bottom had fallen out of my world.

When we arrived at the hospital,

Niki was, little by little, losing consciousness.

Whilst Lauda battles for his life,

Ferrari are already looking for another driver.

I was speaking with Ferrari all the time about the accident

and Ferrari said to me,

"Ferrari will live, with or without Niki.

"You don't need to stay in the hospital.

"We need you to go back to the circuit

"and find another driver,

"because if Niki will not drive,

"Ferrari will not stop."

Once he had been the protege of Enzo Ferrari, but for Enzo,

giving up on the World Championship is not an option.

Press and the public like to concentrate on the driver as being

the most important member of the team, but he's not at all.

A driver is very much replaceable.

The unfortunate idea of the two McLaren drivers

being involved in a motorway accident together

and dying -

do you think their team would be in the back

row of the grid at the next race?

No, they won't be, cos they'll just hire

two more hot shoes and they'll be right up there.

Hunt takes full advantage in the next two races,

closing the gap to just two points.

With Niki Lauda, his main opponent,

likely to be in hospital for some time,

his chances of winning the title are pretty good.

Lauda has second and third-degree burns to his face and hands.

Part of his scalp has been burnt away.

He has lost half of one ear and his lungs are barely working.

I was suddenly aware, through the accident,

how quickly you can die.

I remember my wife coming

and she burst in tears,

so she was very much affected when she saw me there.

I said, "Shit, if she's crying, I must be in a bad state."

But in racing, the risk

and taking chances was exactly the same

as it was before,

because this was part of the game.

'Just 40 days after doctors had given up hope

'and a priest had knelt at his bedside,

'the Austrian ace climbed back into the cockpit

'of his glaring red Ferrari.

'His friends and colleagues claim

'that his miracle recovery had more to do with his iron will

'than with master surgery.'

With five races left and everything still to play for, Lauda is back.

When I came to the hospital,

you feel a kind of...

you feel you are very tired.

And you would like to go and sleep

but you know it's not just going sleeping, it's something else.

And then you just fight with the brain.

You hear noises

and you hear voices and you just try to listen

to what they're saying and try to keep your brain working

and to get the body ready to fight against illness.

I think this was very good that I did that

because in that way, I survived.

Niki Lauda

was recovering so fast

that he proposed to Ferrari

to race in Monza.

Ferrari said, "No, don't,

"because if we lose the championship at the end of the year,

"it's better you don't start so early,

"because then we can say you had an accident.

"This was exactly the opposite of what I was thinking."

At Lauda's side is his wife, Marlene.

She has been with him throughout his recovery but

Monza is the last place she wants him to be.

Monza, Italy.

Home to Ferrari and their fans.

After coming within seconds of being burnt to death,

Lauda returns to a hero's welcome.

When we went to Monza, the focus was on Niki -

110%.

We took him inside

the garage, he took out the balaclava

and his face was a mask

of blood.

I said, "My God, how can he race?"

It was pouring with rain on his return.

This is the Nurburgring carrying on, almost, you know,

the gloom of the Nurburgring.

Is there any psychological aftereffects from this

accident for you at all?

I don't think so.

Everything looks good.

Lauda prepares to go back on the track to

race against the clock for his place on the starting grid.

The pressure was on. Ferrari called. Should I race or not race?

It was a huge pressure on me for that particular race.

The physical scars have begun to heal but the mental ones run deeper.

I came to the circuit, wanted to drive out of the pits and couldn't drive.

And I suddenly was hit by the whole four weeks' accident problems -

all these kind of things.

And I just couldn't drive.

I did one slow lap, went back into the pits.

I said, "I go back there and I drive for myself."

And in the end of the day,

I was quickest Ferrari

and was right back like before.

Just before the race begins, Hunt's team, McLaren, are having

problems of their own - their fuel has been ruled to be illegal.

We were made to pump the fuel out of our cars,

fill up with standard fuel at the racetrack

and start on the back of the grid.

So we were shafted by the Italians.

But they're very good at this.

The Italian Mafiosi

managed to get us on the back row of that grid.

How is it feeling, fighting against Niki again?

Hard work.

When he first met him, James said straightaway,

"Niki, you're the only person I know who could be in a fire and come out better looking."

For Niki, this race is life-or-death.

"I finish and I go in the points or I lose the championship

"here in Monza."

Stuck at the back of the grid,

Hunt makes a charge on the first lap, but as he tries to fight his way through,

he almost immediately spins out of the race.

'The partisan Italian crowd cheers for only two things today -

'a Ferrari competitor

'or their most serious challenger for the World Championship

'in trouble.

'Here it is - the latter.'

Poor James didn't enjoy the walk back

past the Italian fans.

Actually, knowing James, he probably loved it.

Lauda's wife, Marlene, can only watch.

Incredibly,

Niki finished not only the race, but finished fourth.

That was something incredible.

CROWD: Niki Lauda!

Hunt and McLaren jet off to practise for the Canadian Grand Prix,

but their troubles are far from over.

In Paris, Ferrari presents its case for overturning McLaren's

win at the British Grand Prix.

There were gentlemen in blazers wearing old school ties

who were meant to decide on matters

of whether people should be disqualified,

drivers should start or not start.

None of them really seemed to have read the rule book very clearly.

These three old boys turned up

and were introduced to the saintly Niki before they went in,

which was all part of Ferrari's...

..psychological warfare.

So they all went in, going, "We've touched the hand of Saint Niki..."

The verdict goes against McLaren and nine vital points are deducted.

So we didn't win the British Grand Prix,

and there's no appeal to this appeal.

That's the end of it.

With so many points lost and only three races to go, the odds are

heavily against Hunt, and the strain is showing between him and Lauda.

I hope that on the other end of this telephone

we have James Hunt, who's a very long way away in Toronto.

-Hello, James. Good afternoon to you.

-'Afternoon, Frank.'

Disappointed with this decision but are you really surprised?

'Yes, I was very surprised

'because, as far as the rules were concerned,

'there was no question - Ferrari had no case.'

We've just pulled off the tapes here in London

as I've been talking to you a quote from Niki Lauda.

He has reacted to the news, quite understandably, by saying,

"I'm madly delighted,"

and he goes on to say that,

"I am satisfied, not just because this will be good for me,

"because at least a positive decision has been taken

"in the interests of the sport."

What do you say to that?

'Well, it's the sort of rubbish you'd expect.

'The guy has, you know, had a very bad accident.

'He's been very brave and done every well.

'But he'd do well to considerate it as a sport.'

I see. You are very critical about the way he behaves, are you?

'Niki isn't a sportsman - Niki's interested in one thing, and that's Niki.'

I don't want to discuss if the decision was wrong or right.

At least, I expected James to react in the same way -

to respect me as a driver.

And fight if he wants against Ferrari.

I decided we couldn't possibly win the World Championship

from this position now without these points

and stopped trying to control James' excesses, which became quite excessive.

MUSIC: "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac

We were staying in a great, big motel

on the side of the freeway in Toronto

and there was a live band in the bar.

And the lead singer was a bit like Stevie Nicks - blonde,

little dynamite creature, so James managed to pull her.

We had to get up early in the morning to go out to the warm-up

and he came down, dishevelled, with this lady -

obviously...anyway..

"dishevelled" might be the best way of putting it, staggered off

to the racetrack,

won the race!

# You can go your own way... #

Sex - the breakfast of champions.

In this particular case, it worked out.

The win in Canada gives Hunt nine vital points

and in the next race, he remains on form.

He storms through to another victory and takes the podium.

But Lauda is still ahead by three points.

After 10 months and 15 races,

the championship has come down to the very last Grand Prix.

For the first time ever, the final race is in Japan.

Excitement about the season has reached fever pitch -

only three points separate Hunt and Lauda.

This will be the first race ever to be broadcast live by satellite across the world.

Determined to win it, so in order to do that,

the best way for me to do it is to the win the race here.

But on race day,

the weather threatens to bring the season to a premature end.

'It couldn't be worse at the Fuji circuit.

'Pouring rain, thick mist and it's a delayed start,

'so is the Japanese Grand Prix on or off?'

All the drivers got together and said,

"This is ridiculous."

Not only was Niki Lauda saying that,

James Hunt also said, "This race should not take place."

Being nice and wet again.

James and Niki were both on the Drivers' Safety Committee,

so they were in the tower, arguing

that the race shouldn't be held,

so we had this direct confrontation.

I said to him, "If we don't race, James, you can't win the World Championship."

"No, Jack, we can't race - it's too dangerous."

All very above board

but a bit irritating when you're trying to win the World Championship

and you can't if you don't race.

The race has now been delayed for nearly two hours.

The rain continues to fall

but the race organisers have reached a decision.

The race director came in and said,

"We have to start."

We all looked out and said, "Excuse me? It's the same rain as before.

"Why?" "Because of television."

In two hours, it will be too dark.

And we have the satellite TV that cost a lot of money.

And we have a contract with the organiser

to at least start the race, otherwise we lose money.

The teams, the drivers, I lose the money

if we don't at least start the race.

'But the race is on.

'James Hunt, in his McLaren,

'getting ready for a lap of the circuit

'and next, out comes Niki Lauda

'to join the grid with the rest of the competitors.'

The drivers have been forced onto the starting grid

by the demands of the vast TV audience they have created.

'This, then, is the clincher -

'the World Championship decider.

'Three points separate the leader, Niki Lauda, in the Ferrari,

'and Britain's James Hunt in the McLaren.

'It's going to be a fantastic race.'

In Britain, it's three in the morning.

Hunt's parents and friends are watching the live satellite

broadcast in a TV studio, but his sister, Sally,

is at home, glued to the radio.

We switched on the radio very early in the morning

and I can remember walking round the house

with the radio clamped to my ear.

The tension was amazing.

'Who is going to reach the corner first?

'James Hunt takes the lead in the Japanese Grand Prix

'and fifth, that's Niki Lauda.'

Hunt takes the lead but for the other drivers following,

the water spray is dangerously reducing visibility to almost zero,

and all the cars are skidding and sliding in the heavy rain.

'Brambilla going through and Hunt has leapt round. They haven't let him through.

'Side-by-side, and Brambilla spins!

'And he missed Hunt by inches.

'And Niki Lauda had pulled into the pits in front of us.

'The world champion has gone into the pits.'

Niki stopped - "It's too dangerous, I stop."

'Yes, this amazing 1976 World Championship series

'is maintaining its drama,

'because Niki Lauda, leading the World Championship,

'is out of the race,

'but, amazingly enough, there's nothing wrong with his car.'

I tell him, "Niki, what you have to say

"is that you have a technical failure or something."

"No," he said to me, "tell them that it is too dangerous to race."

When you are a normal racing driver, and you are not affected

by an accident,

you have reserves.

So that means your level of risk-taking

is higher

than, like in my case, you've just come out of death

and had everything happening to you.

Then, a couple of races later,

you have to face this more-difficult situation

with the water and rain and risk going up,

and at that time, I was not prepared to take this extra risk,

because of the accident.

Emotionally, for me, it was impossible to tell Niki

to go back to race,

because you see his eyes were really terrorised.

Lauda is out of the race.

But he will still become World Champion

if Hunt fails to score enough points.

Then the rain stopped and the water

disappeared on the circuit

and the circuit got better - by coincidence, basically.

But I was not racing and I would still do the same today.

Hunt must finish third or higher to take the championship,

but as the track dries out, his wet-weather tyres begin to overheat.

One of the techniques you could do was cool them down

by running in puddles deliberately on the straits.

So we put this sign out - "cool tyres",

but James refused to acknowledge or do this.

"Cool the tyres! Cool the tyres!" And he's down the middle

of the road, oblivious.

Eventually, he wore all the rubber off them,

all the canvas, down to the air.

And he had TWO flat tyres.

With five laps to go,

he came into the pits.

We thought perhaps it would all go wrong for James.

'And Hunt is in the pits in second place,

'and if he drops below fourth,

'if he goes out,

'his World Championship will be in danger.

'What an incredible change of fortune...'

Because he had two flat tyres,

we couldn't jack the car up very well,

so the car was too low to get the jack underneath,

so a mechanic and I had to pick up the left front of the car,

so it took us 24 seconds or something

to change the tyres.

'And James Hunt gets away.

'And now he is in fifth position

'and out of the contention.'

With the championship seemingly beyond his grasp, Hunt,

the sportsman, throws caution to the wind and makes his charge

for the finish.

'And James Hunt is passing Jones!

'Hunt is fourth and Regazzoni is out of the race,

'so now Hunt moves up to third position.

'And James Hunt IS going to win the World Championship

'if he just keeps going in the place he's in now.

'And he does it.'

James Hunt finishes third.

James Hunt is champion of the world.

THEY CHEER

We were all whizzing about sort of cheering

and excited because James was now World Champion.

'I think the scenes in the McLaren pits will speak for themselves.'

But right now, Hunt himself has no idea the championship is his...

James Hunt came into the pits

in a rage

and as the McLaren team gathered round,

James got out of the car,

pulled off his crash helmet,

started to rant and rave at them,

and Teddy Mayer was holding up three fingers

saying, "James, you're third.

"You're Champion."

And gradually, the penny dropped.

It was an extraordinary moment.

There was a lot of excitement and, "Does he know yet?"

and, "Is it true?"

Suddenly it was true and he was World Champion.

Hunt has won, despite ignoring team orders.

I was not best pleased with him.

You won't see me in any of the photographs.

I'm nowhere near him,

cos I just want to punch him in the mouth.

Even though he IS the World Champion.

'I feel really sorry for Niki

'in that I feel sorry for everybody that the race had to be run

'in such ridiculous circumstances.

'Quite honestly,

'I wanted to win the championship

'and I felt I deserved to win the championship.

'I also felt Niki deserved to win the championship

'and I just wish we could have shared it.'

I said at the same time, at the time there,

if anybody should get the championship,

then I'm happy it's James.

Because I liked him

and we were not buddies but we are at least sympathetic,

so I think we took care of each other

from the heart in a very nice way,

which in these days, the heart was never shown in Formula One.

MUSIC: "Young Hearts Run Free" by Candi Staton

'Hunt, who came into Heathrow early today, said,

'"I don't think I've stopped celebrating since the race."'

We met James coming home.

There was James looking slightly dazed,

he was probably so completely out of it.

He'd drunk quite a lot on the way home.

Very tired and somewhat hung over, thank you very much.

What was the party like?

It was long. But good.

Then we all went off to a party.

I have to say my memory's a bit hazy after that,

because I think I drank more champagne for breakfast than

I ever had before.

Hunt and Lauda would never have such a close race again

but the legacy of the first superstars of Grand Prix

helped shape Formula One into the global TV sport it is today.

The excitement of that season meant

that no self-respecting country

could allow its television service

not to cover Formula One properly.

So suddenly, Formula One was available everywhere.

We had James and Niki coming out of this

as these two titans of their time.

Who could have predicted that?

It was just the most amazing season.

'In life, you need a certain amount of luck.

'The question is how much luck you need.

'I think the luck is the minimum.

'I think human beings can do much more

'for themselves than they think.'

We have to remember only the good things.

That was a good fight.

I don't think I thought of him as my little brother then,

although that's what he was.

I just thought, "It's James, who I love,

"and my friend, and he's achieved what he wants to achieve."

That was very exciting.

'How do you want to do it?

'Go at a steady pace for 70 years

'or flat-out for ten years and then relax,

'and I rather like doing it that way.'

At the time, you said, "If you wrote this as a film script,

"people would say, 'That's ridiculous.

"'You've got to have something believable. You can't have this farcical story.'"

But the farcical story is true.

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