June 27, 2005
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A-Z – Winners – Champions – Origins – Equipment – Training – Techniques – After Racing – Rivalries – Tragedies
Niki & James – boys will be boys
Niki Lauda was born in 1949, the son of a wealthy Viennese family with extensive banking and transport interests. He started in motor racing without much support from his family and like Hunt he reached the top of his chosen profession through sheer determination and single-minded effort. When he arrived on the racing scene he was, at first, seen as aloof and somewhat unemotional. However his quick wit soon endeared him to many fellow racers.
One man with whom Lauda hit it off straight away was James Hunt. James was a popular figure within the motor racing community. The Wellington-educated son of a London stockbroker, Hunt was a jeans and t-shirt sort of man, with an extrovert nature and a taste for mischief. Hunt began his racing career in 1969. His first drive came in Formula 3 and he remained within the series until 1972. Lauda started out in European Formula Vee competitions, tried Formula 3 and eventually invested in a rented drive with the fledging March team in the 1971 European F2 Championship. This led to the first meeting with James in Hunt’s only F2 outing of the year. They met at Brands Hatch, where they ended up arguing over who would get the better of the two available engines.
Lauda managed to raise sufficient sponsorship for a March F1 drive in 1972 but he spent the year in an uncompetitive car that many thought may end his career before it really began. Hunt stayed in F3 before being fired half-way through the season after he’d crashed one two many cars with his aggressive driving style. He managed to secure the support of the somewhat eccentric Lord Hesketh who backed Hunt in a number of F2 races that year, several of which saw James in competition with Lauda.
Hesketh had long had ambitions of taking a stab at the big game and in 1973 he backed Hunt’s entry in F1. Lauda had managed to engineer a drive with BRM and had managed to score his first championship points in the Belgian Grand Prix, where he finished fifth. Monaco saw the two friends on the same F1 grid for the first time. Lauda ran an impressive third before retiring with gearbox problems, while Hunt ran fifth before his machine also gave up shortly before the finish. As the season went on Huny improved. He finished fourth at Silverstone, third at Zandvoort and second behind Peterson at Watkins Glen. His first season left him with 14 points and a eight place in the championship. Lauda’s start was less impressive; 17th with just the two points from Belgium.
1974 saw Hunt still driving for Hesketh while Lauda moved to Ferrari, and it was in the impressive 312B3 that he scored two Grand Prix victories. Hunt could only manage a handful of third places. The next year was not a great deal better although James finally broke his duck with a win at Zandvoort. For Lauda it could not have been a better year; five wins and only one race in which he did not score points left him with what was to be the first of three world championships. Hunt’s frustation was becoming apparent to everybody. It was equally obvious that Hesketh had little chance of raising sufficient sponsorship to continue. For a while it looked as if James’ career may not realise its full potential.
The breakthrough came when former champion Emerson Fittipaldi announced he would be quitting McLaren to drive for his brother’s Copersucar outfit. Hunt was offered the vacant seat and grabbed it with both hands. The stage was now set for the two friends to slug it out with comparable equipment in what was to be one of the World Championships exciting seasons.
Lauda started the scoring with two wins and two second places. The bookmakers had him as clear favourite to score back-to-back titles. He was then beset by massive reliability problems that sidelined him in France and saw him totally outpaced by Hunt in the controversial British race at Brands Hatch. The race was red-flagged after a major pile-up at Paddock Bend on the first lap. Initially the stewards prevented James from taking the restart, claiming that he had not been running at the time the flags went up. The crowd were vociferous in their support of Hunt and the stewards changed their decision. The race was a hard-fought battle that ended in a win for James, that put him on 35 points to Lauda’s 58. Then came the Nürburgring. Lauda crashed heavily early in the race and his car burst into flames. The race was stopped and Lauda was airlifted to a hospital in Cologne, where his situation was so desperate that he received the last rites. Despite his obvious concern for his friend, Hunt took the restart and promptly won the race.
Lauda then displayed an incredible recovery that put him back in the cockpit within just eight weeks. Despite having his head swathed in bandages he took the start at Monza where he scored three points. At this time Hunt’s championship challenge received a set-back when the FIA disqualified him from his British win. The points now stood at 64-47 in favour of Lauda, with just three races to go.
Hunt fought back and scored what are acknowledged as his two best-ever wins. That meant that the season, and the title, would be decided in Japan at the Mount Fuji circuit. Hunt qualified second; Lauda was third. Raceday saw the track in the eye of a torrential rainstorm and Lauda, his resolve weakened by his valiant battle with his injuries, withdrew after just a handful of laps. The prospect of racing on a flooded track just did not seem worth it. Despite a late puncture, Hunt brought his car home in third place behind Andretti in the Lotus and Depailler’s Tyrrell. He won the title by a margin of just one point.
The following year it was all change again. Lauda took his second world title with Hunt back in fifth place. For 1978 Lauda joined the Brabham-Alfa team but could only coax fifth place in the championship from the unreliable machine. Hunt also had a poor showing and decided to switch to the newly founded Wolf team for 1979. A poor start to the season led him to retire from racing after the Monaco Grand Prix. Lauda follwoed suit quitting half way through practise sessions in Montreal.
Lauda’s retirement was spent building his fledging airline, Lauda Air although the lure of racing became just too great and he returned to the cockpit in 1982 to drive for McLaren, with who he won his third championship in 1984. Hunt stayed off the track but maintained his involvement with racing by joining Murray Walker in the commentary box.
The two men remained close friends until Hunt’s death from a heart attack in 1993 at the tragically early age of 45. When told the news Lauda said simply “Shit. James was one of the really great guys.”
