by Tom Rubython
Niki Lauda was somewhat bemused in Long Beach by the strange orders of his team manager, Daniele Audetto. Audetto told him he had done too much winning and to let his teammate, Clay Regazzoni, take victory this time. Lauda was completely shocked and said to Audetto, “Are you mad? These points will be needed to win the world championship.”
At the Spanish Grand Prix, Niki Lauda put on a very brave face but was wracked with pain from a set of badly broken ribs. He was pumped full of painkilling drugs to enable him to compete.
Niki Lauda felt a real affinity with five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio. In America Lauda tried out one of the Mercedes Silver Arrow cars driven by Fangio in his heyday.
James Hunt was recognized as a genuine Formula One star by midseason in 1976. His off-track earnings were growing and overseen by his accountant brother, Peter (left).
Jochen Mass (left) thought he would be team leader of the Marlboro McLaren team in 1976, and so did everyone else. But from the very first race in Brazil, he was blown away by James Hunt, and any such notions were quickly laid to rest.
The McLaren-Ford M23 was magnificently dominant at Jarama in Spain for the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix, with Niki Lauda trailing round in second place. Hunt won on the road and stood on the podium and sprayed the champagne, but he also had to win again in the appeals courtrooms of Paris.
Niki Lauda was the king of Monte Carlo, while James Hunt languished in the also-rans. The new Ferrari 312T2 was an absolutely magnificent car, especially in baking-hot weather, such as at Monaco that year. The temperature seemed to make a huge difference in how the car performed. During the heat wave in Europe in 1976, it over-performed. But in the coolness of the autumn in North America and Asia, it wasn’t so successful.
James Hunt was a sponsor’s dream, and he did more for the Marlboro cigarette brand than any other individual in history. Out of the car, he always had a cigarette in his mouth. Interestingly, he did not smoke Marlboros. Every night he emptied cartons of Rothmans cigarettes into Marlboro packets to keep his sponsors happy.
By midseason, high airboxes had been banned, and Alastair Caldwell came up with a novel twin-intake airbox that met the letter of the regulations.
The Ferrari 312T2 was designed by Mauro Forghieri, who had returned to Ferrari in 1974 to form a triumvirate with Lauda and Luca di Montezemolo to restore Ferrari to the top of Formula One. It was wildly successful and yielded two world championships, which could easily have been four with better luck.
The chaotic scenes in the pit lanes as the British Grand Prix forms up the grid again after its aborted false start. But it would be a good 90 minutes before a restart.
The start of the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, with Niki Lauda on pole and James Hunt beside him. The serene start was soon disrupted by Clay Regazzoni, behind on the second row.
Jody Scheckter (left) and Roger Penske (right) were great friends with James Hunt during his championship season. The friendships lasted for the whole of Hunt’s life.
On the grid again for the restart of the British Grand Prix. A hostile crowd would not allow the race to be restarted without its hero, James Hunt. The crowd got its way.
Luca di Montezemolo (middle) and Piero Ferrari (right) both came to Brands Hatch to give Niki Lauda moral support at the British Grand Prix. But the politics of the team saw them take very little part in what went on.
Niki Lauda was dominant during the first half of the 1976 Formula One season and very fast at Brands Hatch. But at the British Grand Prix, he ran into James Hunt at his very best.
The Ferrari 312T2 as driven by Niki Lauda in 1976 is one of the most valuable cars in the world. If one were to come up for sale, the asking price would be $20 million plus.
Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley were both great friends of James Hunt in 1976. Mosley in particular was very close to him, and the two had come to motor sport through very different routes. Ecclestone’s interest was, as ever, fiduciary. He saw Hunt as the key to Formula One’s television future, and so it proved.
Niki Lauda had a shock at the French Grand Prix. Expecting to sweep James Hunt aside, he found a newly competitive McLaren team and then ran into severe engine problems, forcing a rare retirement.
Teddy Mayer sits on a wheel guarding James Hunt’s McLaren-Ford M23 on the grid of the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. Mayer had to stop the stewards from wheeling the car off the grid, which they wanted to do.
Niki Lauda looks on in bemusement as James Hunt stands bolt upright on the podium for the playing of the national anthem at Brands Hatch after he had won the British Grand Prix.
James Hunt celebrates his British Grand Prix victory by showering the crowd with Moët & Chandon champagne.
The last photographs taken of Niki Lauda, conferring with Clay Regazzoni, in the Ferrari 312T2 before his accident at the German Grand Prix. It could clearly be seen that Lauda was not happy competing on the Nürburgring. He did not think it was safe.
Niki Lauda had few doubts that he would be world champion racing driver again in 1976. He was at the top of his form, and his Ferrari 312T2 car was one of the greatest cars ever built in Formula One. But he suffered from management problems in the team, which disturbed his happiness and caused him periods of great self-doubt.
Danielle Audetto (center) talks to Niki Lauda before he goes out to race in the German Grand Prix. Lauda had just signed a lucrative new contract for the 1977 season and didn’t have much time for Audetto’s management and motivation methods.
Niki Lauda, from second on the grid, makes a bad start at the German Grand Prix and falls farther behind the Tyrrell of Jody Scheckter.
Niki Lauda did not compete at the Austrian Grand Prix because of injuries received at the previous race in Germany. However, his presence was everywhere in big posters erected by the organizers to celebrate their national hero, including a big one opposite the Tyrrell-Ford pit area at the Österreichring.
James Hunt tried his best to take full advantage of Niki Lauda’s absence from his home race in Austria, but he could not stop a resurgent John Watson from scoring his first victory.
John Watson tried desperately to win two grand prix on the trot in the Netherlands. But unreliability stopped him in his tracks as he chased down James Hunt’s McLaren in Holland before retiring.
James Hunt with a local journalist in the pit lane at the Austrian Grand Prix.
James Hunt wins the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on his birthday weekend, on Sunday, August 29, 1976. The celebrations in the sand dunes followed.
James Hunt gets offline and onto the dirt as he drives to victory at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
Niki Lauda, the reigning champion, led the world championship from the first race to the last, until almost the very last lap of the season. But “almost” became the crucial word in the Austrian’s dictionary.
Niki Lauda led the world championships for 274 days. It was not until the very final few minutes of that 10-month period that James Hunt moved ahead of him and won the world title by a single championship point.