Rush to Glory: FORMULA 1 Racing's Greatest Rivalry (36 page)

Lauda sat on the pit counter, cross-legged next to Daniele Audetto, watching events unfurl. As he remembered later: “It was a miracle; after 12 hours of solid downpour, the rain stopped, about a quarter of the way into the race. If I had only held out that long, driven slowly, and avoided being hit, there would have been no problem putting my foot down, which was necessary to clinch the title. As it turned out, fifth place would have been enough. Sadly, hanging on patiently was more that I could manage that day.”

Three other drivers—Emerson Fittipaldi, Carlos Pace, and Larry Perkins—also withdrew after a couple of laps.

As Hunt sped past the finish line for the third lap, he was shown the McLaren board, which read: N
IKI
O
UT
. Straightaway he knew why, but Hunt took no pleasure in his rival’s demise. Lauda’s behavior that season had earned his total respect.

Hunt maintained his lead, and surprisingly Vittorio Brambilla was now in second place in his March-Ford. On lap 22, Brambilla actually tried an overtaking maneuver on Hunt, but as he drew alongside, he inevitably lost control of his car and missed Hunt’s by a few millimeters. He went off the circuit in a shower of mud.

As Brambilla departed into retirement, the conditions started improving with every lap. By lap 23, the two McLaren-Fords led 1-2, with Mass tucked up in second place, guarding Hunt’s flank. The cloud cover was lifting, taking with it the rain, and a strong breeze was beginning to dry out the track. Speeds picked up accordingly, and the gaps between cars shrank appreciably.

Lauda was standing in the pits when the rain stopped and was astonished at the rapid change in the conditions. He said, “I don’t blame myself; it was the right decision. The rain stopping—unforeseeable—was my personal bad luck. I consider that I had bad luck not that I made a mistake.” He believed the organizers had been very wrong to start the race: “It could easily have been fatal in the first laps with dead and injured and the race abandoned. The possibility of catastrophe was just too great.”

Lauda now realized that if Hunt finished fourth or above, he would lose the championship. But it was not over yet.

The drying track meant the wet-weather tires were unsuitable for the new conditions and were starting to overheat. As the track dried, Caldwell kept out a permanent pit sign with
COOL TYRES
written on it. He needed Hunt to drive through the puddles to get the tires home. Jochen Mass immediately understood, and he began searching for the puddles to drive through.

Hunt was so focused and preoccupied with winning the grand prix that he failed to give any consideration to the state of his tires. He either ignored the sign or didn’t understand it. With remarkable candor, Caldwell told Hunt’s biographer Christopher Hilton: “James handled the race very badly. He disobeyed clear instructions. In previous races we’d suffered the same problem: You went from a wet track to a dry track, and the wet tires overheat. They’ve so much more rubber on them, and when they begin to slide around in the dry, the rubber boils and starts to rip off. The sign was to get the drivers to drive in puddles on the straight bits of the track. That kept the temperature down, and while you’d get less grip, the tires certainly lasted longer.

“We hung this out to James and Jochen, who were traveling in line astern. Jochen saw the sign and immediately turned right, nearly hitting the pit wall in a big cloud of spray. Then, lap after lap, they came down the straight together: James running clear and open in the dry, Jochen in the wet. In the end, we were waving this sign over the pit wall.”

Mass continually sought out the wet areas of the track to keep the tire temperatures down. As the pace of the race dropped dramatically, his tires kept in good condition. Mario Andretti was also searching out the puddles.

While all this was going on, Niki Lauda decided not to wait for the result of the race, and he left the circuit to go to the airport. Win or lose the championship, he did not want to be part of the post-race hoopla, as he called it. He told Marlene he wanted to catch the earlier flight. When Mauro Forghieri realized what Lauda was doing, he said he would come as well. While Lauda walked away to get in the minibus that would take him, his eyes were glued to the track. But as the bus drew out of the circuit, he put it to the back of his mind, closed his eyes, and dreamed he was already home. On the car radio they listened to the Japanese commentator until they approached the terminal. As Lauda remembered: “A quarter of an hour later, the race result was announced, and at that very moment our car went into the underpass near the airport and we couldn’t hear.”

Meanwhile, Jochen Mass was getting frustrated because, having preserved his tires, he caught up with Hunt and could easily have passed him and won the race. But he knew he couldn’t win the world championship with what was at stake, although Hunt still could have been champion from second place. In the end, it didn’t matter; a frustrated Mass lost concentration on lap 35 and glanced a barrier, bending his front suspension and being forced to retire.

So by two-thirds of the race distance, Hunt was still the comfortable leader. But his tires were degrading fast and he was slowing. Patrick Depailler’s six-wheeled Tyrrell-Ford started to catch him up. The six-wheeler’s tires were coping well as Hunt’s rubber deteriorated rapidly. Depailler soon passed Hunt, and so did Andretti.

Andretti’s tires were in great shape, as the wily American kept them cool by driving through the standing water. Like Hunt, Depailler hadn’t done so, and his tires were worn out. Within two laps, his Tyrrell-Ford was forced into a pit stop for six new tires, and Andretti took the lead.

There was now a tricky decision to make, and the McLaren team decided to leave it to Hunt whether or not to pit for new tires. Depailler did pit, and that lifted Hunt to second and Andretti to leader, making his decision even trickier. As Caldwell recalled: “We had two signs for bringing drivers in. The first said I
N
and was compulsory. The second sign was an arrow offering the opportunity to come in if the driver wanted to. Both signs were well recognized; James knew them, so there was no doubt about what we were doing.”

Because of the changing conditions, the arrow was up from lap 25, and the mechanics waited on full alert with four new tires and the jacks primed and ready to lift the car. Mayer said, “Only James knew the true state of his tires. We didn’t because we couldn’t.”

Although Caldwell and Mayer felt Hunt should decide when to stop, Hunt thought the opposite and began gesticulating furiously each time he passed the McLaren pit.

Inevitably, Hunt’s front left tire wore through the canvas and began leaking air, slowly deflating. But still Hunt stayed out. A tire change pit stop would have cost at least 35 seconds, and Lauda would win the title by default if Hunt finished fourth or lower.

The call for a tire change could have been made much earlier by the pit crew, but it was now too late.

It was a very tricky situation for team principal Mayer and team manager Caldwell. Whatever they did, it could be the wrong decision. It seemed better not to tempt fate, so they didn’t make a decision at all.

Hunt said afterwards: “The team had all the information about the rate of tire wear. They’d seen what happened to other cars, and they should have told me what to do. Instead, in response to my frantic requests for information, they hung out the arrow like a huge bloody question mark.”

But fate was to prove kind to James Hunt that day, although he didn’t realize it at the time. On lap 68, as he came off the last corner, his left hand front tire blew out the rubber that had finally worn through. It was the perfect position to have a blowout, and Hunt simply turned his car into the pit lane, controlling it masterfully.

The decision had been made for them. The McLaren team mechanics, who had been anxiously waiting lap after lap, were ready. When he stopped, Caldwell and a mechanic didn’t bother with a jack—they physically lifted up the car for the tire change. Caldwell played it safe and put four new wet tires on the car instead of slicks. The four new tires went on in 27 seconds, and Hunt spun his wheels and got back in the race. As Hunt drove down the pit lane, the Ferrari mechanics went wild, believing he had lost the race. They waved their arms and cheered with undignified pleasure.

During his stop, Clay Regazzoni passed Hunt to take second, Alan Jones passed to take third, and Depailler passed to be fourth. But Regazzoni and Jones were on old worn tires, and Depailler soon went past both of them to be second.

In his head Hunt knew his pit stop had been too long, and he thought he had lost the championship. Now he would need a miracle to get the third place he needed. A red mist descended, and on fresh tires and with nothing to lose, he drove for his life. From a man pacing himself to the finish, Hunt was now racing to win. He gave it everything he could: “I went out in midfield, but of course everyone was on different laps. It was one of those confusing races. I had flown round the track at huge speeds as one would, as I was on a set of fresh wets and everybody else was on bald wets. And the track was dry, so even those who had changed a few laps earlier were a lot slower because they were already overheating. The only thing I could do was shut my eyes and floor it, and pass as many cars as I could.”

Under his helmet, he was silently cursing his tires, his team, his general luck, and, most of all, the weather.

The McLaren pit board told him he had rejoined in sixth place. He needed to make up three places in eight laps. He flung caution to the wind and passed Regazzoni’s Ferrari and Jones’s Surtees-Ford easily.

As neither had changed tires, they were easy meat for him, just as they had been for Depailler. He swept down the short hill at the back of the pits and simply drove round the outside of both of them on the tight left-hander, the only slow corner on the track. Hunt thought he was fourth but didn’t realize that McLaren lap scorers had made a mistake: Hunt had been fifth when he left the pits. He was now third but didn’t know it. He then went after Depailler as fast as he could.

The tension in the pits heightened, as the other teams were well aware he was third. To them it seemed impossible that Hunt could have changed his tires and been back in title contention again. McLaren finally worked it out, and on the penultimate lap, the mechanics hoisted the P
3
sign over the pit counter. The last lap was a nail-biter for both men. As the checkered flag dropped, Mayer was certain that Hunt had finished third and was the new world champion, but Caldwell still wasn’t so sure. In the cockpit, Hunt had no idea.

As the checkered flag came out, three cars flashed past—Andretti, Depailler, and Hunt. Although Depailler and Hunt were both a lap down after their pit stops, it all added to the drama, as at the end Hunt was 100 meters (328 feet) behind the Frenchman’s Tyrrell-Ford. There was no doubt as to the winner. Andretti had made it through on one set of tires to win; he had preserved his tires perfectly and proven what a fine driver he was.

Hunt was livid as he drove the slowing-down lap, believing he was fourth and that he had lost the championship by one point. He was furious that Mayer and Caldwell hadn’t pulled him in for an earlier pit stop for new tires. He held them entirely responsible for losing the championship.

Hunt came down the pit lane blipping the throttle, furious and ready to vent that fury. He climbed out of the car and made a grab for Mayer, planning to punch him out for his stupidity.

Caldwell could see Hunt was angry, and so he disappeared back to the garage. By this time he was exhausted by the drama and fed up with Hunt and thought:
I’m not putting up with this crap. Why should I get abused?
In truth, Caldwell wasn’t sure whether Hunt had finished third or fourth and couldn’t bear the tension. He would wait for others to clarify it.

With Caldwell absent, Hunt vented on Mayer. Although Mayer could hear Hunt, Hunt still had his helmet on and his ears were blocked, so he couldn’t hear Mayer. Knowing Hunt couldn’t hear, Mayer made three-finger gestures at his driver and smiled. Confused by the sight of a team owner who didn’t look like he’d just lost the championship, suddenly it dawned on Hunt that he might be champion after all. Mayer stood there shouting, “You’re world champion” over and over again.

Behind him, Colin Chapman and the Lotus mechanics were climbing over the pit wall onto the track to congratulate Andretti, who had snatched the lead 10 laps from the end to win the race that he had started from pole position. It was the team’s first and only win that season.

A confused Hunt held back any celebrations until it dawned on him that he had indeed finished third and was world champion. As Mayer told him what had happened, Hunt said, “I want proof.” Hunt would not allow himself to believe it until he had seen the lap charts and had confirmation from the officials that there were no protests on hand.

By this time, Hunt was engulfed by well-wishers, and no one could see him or his car as people pressed congratulations. But all he wanted was official confirmation that he was third, and he kept shouting, “I want proof; I want proof.” His supporters lifted him onto their shoulders but then, in the chaos, promptly dropped him. As Hunt picked himself up from the floor, he demanded a drink and glared at Mayer while he drank it.

Hunt was sick with worry after all the disappointments, protests, changes, and disqualifications during the season. He said afterwards: “I was absolutely determined not to think that I was world champion and then get disappointed, because there were 300 good reasons why something should have gone wrong. It was only really when I checked the laps and when the organizers said I was third—and there were no protests in the wind—that I allowed myself to start half-believing it. ”