Taking them seriously

After James Hunt had won the 1974 BRDC International Trophy, a non-championship race at Silverstone, against the majority of the regular F1 field, most observers started to take him and his unorthodox Hesketh team, more seriously. Hopes were high for their 1975 season.

Picture-above: James Hunt, Hesketh 308B, qualifies third for the 1975 French Grand Prix held at Le Castellet, and finishes an excellent second, just 1.59s shy of winner Niki Lauda and his Ferrari 312T.

Indeed, the Hesketh team captured the public imagination as a car without sponsors’ markings considered by ‘the Boss’ vulgar, a teddy-bear badge and a devil-may-care team ethos, which belied the fact that their engineer, Harvey Postlethwaite and his mechanics, were highly competent professionals.

James finished sixth in Brazil, first race of the 1975 F1 season, and retired with a broken engine in South Africa. In Spain and Monaco, Hunt was highly competitive, but twice retired after colliding with a barrier, causing his retirements.

Hunt’s first win came at the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort (picture-below), where in treacherous conditions, he held off Niki Lauda’s Ferrari, to claim a very popular victory. He finished fourth in the championship that year, but Lord Hesketh had run out of funds… and he soon signed a contract with McLaren for the 1976 season that will prove legendary.