James Hunt was a charismatic Englishman with a reputation in his early days for destroying racing cars, hence his early nickname 'Hunt the shunt'. In the early seventies he joined forces with aristocrat Lord Alexander Hesketh, and made his debut in F1. In their debut season of 1973 Hunt finished runner up in the title race. Victory came their way in 1975, in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort, where Hunt beat the Ferrari's in his Hesketh 308. Hesketh withdrew from F1 at the end of the year and moved on to McLaren, following the departure of Emerson Fittipaldi. In 1976 Hunt had a titanic battle with Niki Lauda in the Ferrari. Lauda was lucky to esccape with his life from a fiery crash at the Nurburgring, and missed several GP's as he recuperated. It was enough to let Hunt back in, and the title race went to the wire in Japan at a very wet Mt Fuji. Lauda retired early on due to the horrendous conditions, and left Hunt to finish in 3rd place, enough to clinch the title. Hunt won 3 more GP's for McLaren then made an unsuccessful switch to Wolf in 1979. The team was uncompetitive and Hunt departed mid season and retired from F1. Sadly he died in 1993 after suffering a heart attack.
Nationality - British
Born 29 Aug 1947
Died 15 June 1993
First GP Monaco 1973
Total GP's 92
Wins 10
Poles 14
Fastest laps 8
Total points 179
eams
Hesketh
McLaren
Wolf
Claim to fame
World Champion 1976
