James Hunt was the most charismatic of men. He put everything into his sometimes turbulent life and took everything out.  School boys in the 1970's wanted to be James Hunt and school girls wanted to date him. He rebelled and succeeded, in a world where that normally doesn't happen. The fans loved James Hunt, few would suggest he had more talent than his contemporaries, but he overcame all the obstacles and fears to win the drivers' championship. If you were James Hunt's friend he was a joy, if he had taken against you he was relentless in his distain. 

James Hunt was born into an upper middle class family, privately educated, intelligent multi-talented. He played tennis and squash to a high standard and could play with some distinction both the trumpet and piano, and despite his unruly behaviour was studying to be a doctor when, on his 18th birthday he saw his first race, a small club race at Silverstone, and decided immediately he was going to become World Champion.
 
His mind set, he prepared his own racing Mini, taking two years, during which time he did odd jobs, having no financial support from his parents who disapproved of his plans. The car failed to pass scrutineering at his first race because the driver's seat was an old lawn chair.
 
His lack of early race experienced resulted in him crashing a lot, but he still moved into faster cars. He had many near very serious accidents; he crashed his Formula Ford and sank in the middle of a lake. He might have drowned had he been wearing the requisite seatbelts he couldn't afford to buy.
 
His frequent accidents earned him the nick name, 'Hunt the Shunt', but he was starting to win races in the respected Formula Three races. James Hunt, perhaps surprisingly from his persona suffered terribly with fear, he would normally vomit before a race and his shaking in the car would be very noticeable. But when racing he would still race on the limits even though he was petrified.

He met and became friends with and Lord Alexander Hesketh. Hesketh was a British aristocrat who having inherited a fortune was speeding it on having a great time. Hunt was a playboy eccentric himself and his unconventional behaviour, such as dining with his Alsatian dog, Oscar, at expensive Mayfair restaurants endeared him to Alexander Hesketh. Hesketh formed his own race team and hired James to race for them. The 'Good Lord', as James called him, decided that more fun was to be had in F1, and when Hesketh Racing first entered the paddock in 1974, much of the established teams thought them a joke outfit - a group of party animals lapping up the F1 lifestyle, having champagne breakfasts and spending more time at five-star hotels with very beautiful women than at the race circuit.
 
The Hesketh team captured the public imagination: the car without any sponsor markings, the teddy-bear badge and the devil-may-care atmosphere overshadowed the fact that they were an extremely competent outfit. James Hunt's Hesketh beat Niki Lauda's Ferrari to win the 1975 Dutch GP. However, at the end of that season Lord Hesketh announced he could no longer afford trying to produce the next British World Champion and James was out of a job.

McLaren had a driver position open, and with no other top drivers available, the team signed Hunt to McLaren for the next season - he was one of the cheapest World Champions ever. Hunt immediately caused a stir by refusing to sign a clause in his contract which stipulated he wore suits to sponsor functions. Throughout his tenure, Hunt attended functions with world leaders, chairmen of businesses and media moguls in t-shirt and jeans and usually barefoot.

He was fast with McLaren, but he still had many temper tantrums, but was less prone than in the past to stand in the middle of the track screaming profane abuse at bemused opponents. Hunt joked that his reputation for road rage made rivals move out of his way: 'because they thought I was barking mad'!

James Hunt was very great friends with Niki Lauda, and they were to battle for the 1976 drivers' title. Hunt had a slow start to the season; he was disqualified and later reinstated as the winner of the Spanish GP for driving a McLaren that was supposedly 1.8 cm too wide. A seventh win at the British GP was disallowed after a row over an accident at the first corner that Hunt had got involved in. Niki Lauda's near-fatal accident in Germany, which caused him to miss the following two races, allowed Hunt to close the gap to the Austrian. As they went to the final round in Japan Hunt was just three points behind. The Japanese GP was torrentially wet, and Lauda retired early on in the race, unable to blink because of facial burns from his accident in Germany. After leading most of the race Hunt suffered a puncture, then had a delayed pit-stop and finally received mixed pit signals from his team. Hunt drove furiously to finish third and become World Champion.
 


Having achieved his championship goal his enthusiasm for racing began to wane. The death of his very close friend Ronnie Peterson at the 1978 Italian GP greatly upset him. James had rushed from his car to pull Peterson out of his burning car after the young Swede had hit the barriers. James Hunt blamed Riccardo Patrese for the crash and would often express his contempt for Patrese when in years later he was commentating for the BBC.  

James Hunt retired mid-way through 1979: 'for reasons of self-preservation'.

His good looks, extrovert personality and unconventional behaviour made the 'Golden Boy' hugely popular with a wide public. He had a commanding presence and spoke impressively in a deep voice with a cultivated accent, saying exactly what he thought. He drank heavily, smoked 40 cigarettes a day, occasionally took drugs, had a madcap social life and a succession of beautiful girlfriends. It was a risk for the BBC to employ him in 1980 to work with Murray Walker on BBC television's Formula One coverage. And indeed, at first, James did not take it seriously (he drank two bottles of wine during his first broadcast) but soon became a highly respected, articulate and opinionated commentator.

In his private life he became a reformed character. He fell in love with a beautiful blonde half his age. On June 15, 1993, she accepted his marriage proposal. A few hours later James Hunt had a massive heart attack and died at the age of 45.

Niki Lauda said: 'For me, James was the most charismatic personality who's ever been in Formula One'. Millions who watched F1 agreed, what other world champion would were a badge on his racing overalls that read; - 'Sex - Breakfast of Champions'.

Watch the video of James Hunt driving at the British Grand Prix in 1976.
 

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