James Hunt's 1978 F1 diary part one

The latest AUTOSPORT Legends bookazine focuses on 1970s Formula 1 superstars James Hunt and Niki Lauda and their infamous rivalry.

To coincide with its release, AUTOSPORT is republishing the complete series of 'Just James' diary columns that Hunt wrote for the magazine during the 1977 and '78 F1 seasons.

Part one: January to June 1977

June 15 1978. After Belgium, I had a super busy weekend, starting off with a Texaco photo session with Barry Sheene, who is having almost as unlucky a season as I am. Then it was off to the West Country to open half a dozen Vauxhall dealerships on Tuesday and Wednesday. We were due to test at Donington on Wednesday afternoon, so we called on John Dicken, our ex-Navy helicopter man, who whisked me up to the Midlands circuit, only to find, even in the recent heatwave, rain interfering with our test session. Donington is super convenient for the Goodyear boys from Wolverhampton, and I guess will be used more and more by the Formula 1 teams.

We tried a front mounted wing on my M26 in our efforts to try to reduce the understeer aggravation that has plagued us all season. We gave it a whirl, but it was an open day with cars of vastly varying performances on the track, so I don't think it was a fair test. I was really impressed by the track manners and general discipline of the club racers present, which was a vast improvement on some of the Formula 1 drivers we have to contend with.

I got back into good shape after a long weekend at home in Spain, playing squash daily with Mike Nathanson, who is a professional player, and is therefore able to run me 'til I drop. Bearing in mind the driver problem in Belgium, I was pleased to find, when we arrived in Madrid late on Thursday, Patrick Tambay, limping perceptively, but otherwise looking fit and well after a week's rest at Teddy Mayer's house in Esher.

There were smiles all round in the Marlboro McLaren pit during the first practice session, when, after struggling for the first hour, we suddenly tumbled the right combinations and for seven glorious minutes we were on pole before the Loti got their act together. I had put on the same rubber we hoped to run in the race, made a few minor wing adjustments, and got a relatively clear lap. I was hardly surprised when, during the last 20 minutes of practice, both Ronnie Peterson and Mario Andretti bumped me off pole with times which made them nearly one second faster than the rest of the field.

Carlos Reutemann also pipped me by a couple of hundredths according to the official timekeepers - but not Michelle Dubosc, whose timekeeping is often more accurate. Mario told the press later, had he got a clear lap, he would have been in the 15s - the trouble is, it was probably true!

De Villota left McLaren with a lot of work to do © LAT

During the second practice session, no one was going any quicker, because of the heat - the only real excitement was afforded by Spaniard Villota the Pilota, who managed to collect me. Villota had spun coming out of the very fast right hand corner before the pits, and instead of holding the car on the brake, had let it roll back across the track, right in front of me. I tried to go inside, but couldn't make it, and even though I locked up my brakes, still hit him at close to the ton (100mph). The impact pushed the right hand front wheel back alongside the cockpit and demolished the front bulkhead, but I walked back to the pits, nursing nothing worse than a sore hand. I was immediately accosted by a delighted Rat, who rubbished me rotten, and I retaliated by pinching his Parmalat cap. The light-hearted chase that ensued had the pitlane paparazzi trying to make the story into 'James Hunt sensation - 150mph punch up; attacks World Champion'.

After looking at the damage to my car, and judging by his unhappy expression, I reckon Teddy Mayer will charge Villota at least $100,000 if he wants to buy a McLaren again!

We spent a delightful Saturday evening at the private residence of the King of Spain. His Royal Highness, Juan Carlos, is a keen racing buff and asked his old friend Jackie Stewart to invite a few of us along to dinner. When Jackie discovered that, out of ten drivers invited, the smartest attire eight could come up with was jeans, and the other two, sports jackets, the plans were hastily changed to a buffet supper around the pool, with just a few close members of the family.

The King's pet cheetah was one of the stars of the party, especially when he got his claws caught in Hottie's skirt, and had it down to her knees - luckily she was wearing knickers, which had been one of the rules of attire as stated by JYS, though I don't think he had foreseen that eventuality. Juan Carlos is a very modern monarch, and everybody really appreciated the casual atmosphere.

The King's daughter, Princess Helena, who recently suffered a nasty accident when her ponytail got caught in the sprocket of her go-cart and virtually scalped her, became an instant Niki Lauda fan after he had consoled her by saying, 'you look almost as bad as me'. Up to that time, the poor girl had been so embarrassed by her injury that she hadn't wanted to be seen in public at all.

Hunt tries McLaren's experimental wing © LAT

I came back in time to watch the race on TV, and it was interesting to see a lot of other things happening that I obviously couldn't see from the car. On the grid, I was delighted to find myself alongside, and not behind, Reutemann, for a change. After a lot of deliberation we had decided to run soft compound tyres, and we had set the car up with a lot of oversteer, in order to spare the front tyres as much as possible - the McLaren is generally easy on rear tyres. The starting lights flicked from red to green in a trice. I had been waiting five years for that to happen, and took full advantage, slipping between the Lotus pair and even rubbing a wheel with the stationary Ronnie. Ron had been transfixed by three policemen who were still on the track when the lights had changed.

Mario and I arrived at the first corner virtually side by side, but I managed to get the inside line and enjoyed a brief five laps in the lead. It was immediately apparent that the Lotus had the legs on everyone. I reckoned that if my tyre gamble was going to work, I could have another go at him at the end of the race, so I waved him by.

I held the gap around 3.5 seconds, but, by mid-race, it was up to seven seconds when I spun, through a combination of heavy steering and exhaustion, the result of controlling the constant oversteer, the Lotus disappeared into the distance. Alastair Caldwell is currently working on a new rack to try and reduce the physical effort required to steer the M26. I was soon easy prey for Ronnie Peterson, who had been doing one of his charging through the field numbers, after being asleep at the start, and my 20-second advantage was soon eroded.

When I stopped to change all four tyres, near the end of the race, I was virtually all-in, and very grateful to Patrick Tambay, who sloshed water all over me, before I rejoined the fray. Patrick had driven a brave, clutchless race, because of the pain from his burnt left ankle and he was holding down a safe 12th place, until he got a fistful of neutrals and spun, stalled and couldn't restart.

When I got out of the car at the end of the race, I was completely shattered. It was the hardest race of my Formula 1 career and I hadn't had blisters on my hand like that since Monte Carlo in 1973, which was my first Formula 1 drive.

Carlos Reutemann's accident was almost certainly caused by a broken half shaft and he was very lucky to get away with only minor concussion, to judge by where his car finished up. Judging by Ronnie's recent test times at Anderstorp, the Lotuses will be going like mythological bolts of lightning from Mount Olympus - appropriately enough.

For those of you who are interested - I am pretty concerned about my Prix Citron chances. I hear that Jody Scheckter scored maximum points at Jarama when he had a head-on with Bernard Cahier about the photographers on the track. I'll keep you up to date on the scores as the season goes on.

May 18 1978. After the Long Beach race, I spent a couple of days in Beverly Hills along with Patrick Tambay, staying at the same hotel as my former wife Suzy plus spouse, who were there for the Academy Awards. The hotel in question was so discreet that we only knew the other was there the day before we left.

Then we flew down to Bogota, Colombia, on a Philip Morris goodwill tour of Latin America. The enthusiasm for motor racing in some of these countries is incredible, and the President of Colombia, a charming gentleman of obvious British education and manner, was interested to see what future there might be for a Grand Prix in Bogota.

The flight to Santo Domingo set the tone for the tour: the greasy-looking gentleman in front of us had his nine-millimetre automatic pistol removed from his shoulder-holster by the security people, I found the wiring of the aircraft a jumbled mass under my seat, and one our fellow passengers was accompanied by 32 fighting cocks who announced the dawn from their Marks and Spencer carrier bag pens.

We passed the next couple of days in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, meeting the local authorities and ever enthusiastic local drivers. I must say, we received a genuinely warm welcome wherever we went, and some of the questions asked by the local press showed a keen knowledge of Grand Prix racing.

Prior to the Monaco Grand Prix, Marlboro Team McLaren ran three tests at Silverstone, Jarama and Nogaro. The first of these, to try some aerodynamic changes to the car, was reasonably successful, the second in Spain was abysmal, and the third at Nogaro was a great success. Nogaro was chosen because it resembles Monaco in many ways, official lap record holder Patrick Tambay did the testing and the car was set up with subtle differences from Spain. The modifications seemed to work so we arrived at Monaco more confident than usual.

Tyrrell's Patrick Depailler ended up as Monaco winner in 1978 © LAT

Practice went very well indeed. It was a pleasant surprise to find myself among the frontrunners - if you ignore the Michelin-shod cars. Neither the McLaren nor I have ever gone well at Monaco, and our performance was in sharp contrast to the earlier testing at Jarama where we were running slower than two years ago.

After being so competitive throughout winter testing at Paul Ricard, we have been mystified why suddenly we have fallen behind and have been looking at every minute detail - we think we have found the answer. Mind you, Monaco is a very special circuit and what works there doesn't necessarily work anywhere else - so we will have to wait and see.

My race was short but far from sweet. I hope readers will excuse me if I quote from Johnny Rives in the French sporting newspaper L'Equipe, who saw the race repeatedly in slow motion on TV.

'Reutemann saw Depailler rush by on his left, in hot pursuit of Watson. Perhaps Carlos thought that these two were taking too many risks and would never make the corner - mindful that at Long Beach he had miraculously avoided a collision with the charging John Watson at the first corner. Over-cautious, Carlos braked earlier than he would have normally done, and this cost him dearly. The Argentinian's manoeuvre took Lauda and Hunt completely by surprise. In desperate evasion both tried to go round him - Lauda on the left, Hunt on the right.

'Lauda miraculously managed to avoid the Ferrari with his front right hand wheel, but hit it with his rear. The impact was barely visible but Lauda had smashed the Ferrari's wheel, deflating the tyre.

'On the other side James Hunt, after locking up his wheels, was forced to swerve even more violently to avoid hitting the Ferrari. The McLaren got so out of shape that there was no way it could have avoid hitting the guardrails'.

The French Press have never been fans of mine so I think you can take the report as impartial - incidentally it confirms exactly what happened as far as I was concerned. It took ages to get round to the pits where the boys soon changed the front right hand wheel and the nose section, but by that time I had lost a couple of laps. I had a go, and Teddy Mayer reported that during the first 30 laps of the race I was running half a second faster than the leaders which was some consolation. Unfortunately, my front tyres went off due to understeer caused by the front roll bar linkage breaking.

Carlos Reutemann: not impressed © LAT

After the race Carlos went to Watson in the pits and started to give him stick for 'pushing him off'. Watson looked bemused. When the dour-faced Reutemann stalked away, Niki Lauda turned to Wattie and, with a big grin, said 'don't worry John - it was me who had him off!'

That night, after a splendid Olympus party on the yacht, they are one of my new sponsors, we found ourselves at the Tip-Top bar in town celebrating with the mechanics, journalists and, among others, John Watson, Nina Rindt, my girlfriend Hottie, Davina Galica, et al.

The party was not unduly rowdy - true some of the mechs had got a couple of potted plants in the street, and there was some singing, but by Tin-Top standards, it was, relatively speaking, well behaved. Without any warning the Monegasque police charged down on the assembled throng, hitting out with rubber truncheons in the most disgraceful display of police brutality I have ever witnessed. If they had wished to disperse the crowd, they only needed to ask, and had that not worked, linked arms and walk down the street. But to hit girls standing with their backs to them over the head or in the face, is the sort of behaviour that incites riots. The officer in charge, by way of apology, stated that his men had been up all day and were exhausted - so were we.

Hottie revealed a black eye, people were trampled underfoot and Davina Galica was thrown bodily over a guardrail. I was busy getting some drinks at the bar at the time and could not believe my eyes. I was forcefully restrained from leaving the bar to go the aid of my girlfriend.

In France they say, 'En Mai, fais ce qu'il te plait', but I guess that doesn't go for Monaco...

April 13 1978. After South Africa I had a few days at home in Marbella, played a bit of golf and had some squash at the new courts close to my home.

On the Tuesday before the Daily Express Silverstone race we were back in harness working for Philip Morris. This entailed a flight to Geneva, where I was lucky enough to have a really good game of squash with Ed Musicar, an expatriate South African and currently Swiss champion.

It was an hour-long battle and we scored a moral draw - although I just won, I had a freshness advantage, as Ed had already been playing for 15 minutes when I arrived.

As well as thoroughly enjoying the game, I was particularly pleased with my fitness in such a long match - so pleased, in fact, that I celebrated extra-hard at dinner that evening, in the convivial company of Marlboro hierarchy and fellow promotional tourists Messrs Lauda and Agostini, in a subconscious attempt to return things to normal...

The return journey to Geneva that evening nearly ended in tears, as the Swiss police had a routine road check, which is a test to pass even at the best of times! Fortunately, Marlboro's racing consultant, Patrick McNally, found autographed photographs of Agostini and myself excellent substitutes for documents he happened not to have on him.

We set off at the crack of dawn next day with Air Lauda to Marienhamn, an island between Finland and Sweden and a noted escape for Swedish teenagers, who avail themselves of the duty-free booze and lack of licensing laws on the night ferry which connects with the mainland. I had the good fortune to travel on this ferry in 1970 on my way to a race in Finland - a memorable voyage.

On this occasion our stay was brief and confined to business. After participating in a well-attended press conference, the assembled throng were shown Marlboro's film of the 1977 World Championship, starring, naturally enough, their contracted driver and World Champion Super Rat. The film is (aptly enough) entitled The Phoenix.

Hunt and Lauda on jovial terms in 1979 © LAT

When Niki wondered about the meaning of the title, and was explained the mythical story of the bird who was burned to ashes but arose more beautiful than before, he was highly amused, but wanted to know where he had gone wrong.

That afternoon, we flew on to Sweden to continue our promotional tour, unfortunately without Agostini, who had to fly home to Italy to test his Formula 2 car the next day.

After a further 24 hours of press meetings in Stockholm, we were airborne again. This time Air Lauda had additional flight deck crew for the long haul to London. Co-pilot J. Hunt was brought in as relief over the North Sea for his opening shot at the controls of an aircraft - this was no relief to the passengers.

Training for Silverstone continued apace for Niki and me that evening at Tramps, the well-known West End watering hole.

At Silverstone it was just like old times, roughing it at Easton Neston, Alexander Hesketh's little pad nearby. The actual race meeting was not a great success from my point of view, and my first encounter with the new surface was, regretfully, less than love at first sight. In the dry practice I had a lot of difficulty getting my car set-up and never really got competitive with the Lotus and the Brabham.

While appreciative of the grip it afforded and its billiard table smoothness, I found it difficult to 'feel' what my car was doing, and it was almost ghost-like. However, that is something I would never complain of, as it is the same for everybody. Some of the others managed to get it together, and I didn't...

The real problem came on race day. Although it rained fairly hard it was not a downpour, and yet, not only did the track fail to drain adequately, it further demonstrated its ghost-like qualities by looking all the same whether there were large puddles or a normal wet surface.

Although I reserve final judgement on the new track, I am suspicious of its future success, and feel very sorry for the Silverstone management who have put in a lot of money and efforts to improve their facilities. In most other areas, such as the new pits, their efforts are an unqualified success.

Hunt hanging out with Hesketh at the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix © LAT

My race was extremely brief. When I hit the river at Abbey, along with almost every other car in the field I spun - unfortunately the engine stalled and the air starter onboard was not man enough to get a damp engine going again.

I parked next to Clay Regazzoni, therefore providing Mario Andretti with two targets when he spun out two laps later. He jokingly explained afterwards that, in view of the fact he knew I would do the same for him, he chose to hit Clay's car rather than mine.

Apparently Niki Lauda, on his way from Silverstone to Gatwick by helicopter, was forced to make an unscheduled landing in a hastily selected field to attend to a minor problem with the rotor. They were on their way again in minutes, but the whole incident was eavesdropped over the radio by Bernie Ecclestone, who was following in another helicopter and, being only partially informed, was getting anxious.

I returned to London on Easter Sunday, in order to escort my girlfriend 'Hottie' to Brands Hatch for her motor racing debut in the Ladies Celebrity Race in the Bank Holiday meeting. Hottie opened proceedings by hosting a breakfast party for 20-odd supporters (myself included) before setting off for practice, her total track experience being confined to a short session with Tony Lanfranchi the previous week.

I was proud of her achievement to be able to spin three times, yet remained unlapped. The Brands Hatch hospitality was generous, as always, and I personally had one of the most relaxing and enjoyable days I have had at a race meeting for a long time.

And so to Long Beach. After arriving on the Tuesday, I took two quiet days adjusting to the time change preparing for practice. The highlight of practice was timekeeping, the honourable timekeepers depending on an errant machine, without resorting to the normal procedure of covering with normal hand timekeeping.

Andretti was quickly on the pace - in contrast to Hunt, who struggled © LAT

They managed to get not just one time hopelessly wrong, but half a dozen at least. As a result, after much discussion it was agreed by the Stewards and the constructors to take an average of the various teams' own timekeeping. Fortunately these related closely to each other and, as nobody was trying to pull strokes, the 'Great Debate' only took three hours.

My own practice, on both days, was something of a struggle, McLaren seeming to have no answer to the edge provided variously by twelve-cylinder engines, Michelin tyres (which seem to be working well) and the superb Lotus chassis.

Practice went reasonably well for Patrick Tambay and myself, but the best we could do was to scratch along at the back of the leading bunch. Our strategy for the race, therefore, was to get the cars as well balanced and easy to drive as possible and try to go for a steady finish, relying on others' potential misfortunes.

Alas, I managed to provide the first of these, by making a stupid mistake on the fifth lap and putting myself out of the race. Coming on to the pit straight I clipped the barrier on the apex of the corner and knocked my right-hand front wheel askew. Another ignominious chapter in my performances at Long Beach in particular, and street racing in general.

I was utterly distraught at my own stupidity at a time when the team is making superhuman efforts to get me back on the leaderboard. My team-mate, Patrick, further added to our disappointment, after having driven a very steady race, by getting into a couple of barging matches right at the end when he looked all set for fourth place.

And so to Monte Carlo which, unfortunately, has never been a happy hunting ground for me or the Marlboro-McLaren team. We are all in a very determined mood and, although we are unlikely to be competitive, we will be trying desperately for a points finish.

March 16 1978. We arrived in South Africa, courtesy of South African Airways, a full two weeks before the race, for one of the most serious tyre-testing sessions ever after Michelin's resounding victory in Brazil.

There were literally hundreds of tyres from Akron and Wolverhampton, sporting totally new numerical coding. There was method to Goodyear's madness, for they confounded everybody, including several team managers - fortunately our technician, Derek Decker, is really ace, and had the situation well under control.

We managed to cover an enormous mileage, but our test sessions were rudely interrupted by engine troubles: one day we broke a valve spring and the next we blew a brand new engine 'high, wide and handsome', to quote Teddy Mayer.

The first scheduled practice session never took place, as the organisers had failed to replace some guardrail and several of the safety features were not up to scratch. The CSI representative had rightly taken a firm line, and practice only started after the work was completed, which gave us time for a relaxed lunch at the team's colonial-style hotel, the 'Sleepy Hollow'.

Most of the other teams were staying at the famous Kyalami Ranch, whose management had managed to enrage its regular clientele by drastically increasing its prices, and even charging an entrance fee to non-residents stupid enough to pay.

I was staying in considerable comfort, far from the madding crowd, with Abe Segal, the former South African Davis Cup tennis player, who kept me on my toes banging me round the court.

As usual, the South African newspaper reporters seemed much more interested in my off-circuit performances rather than my training times. This year, at least my nocturnal activities were not followed, for which I was grateful...

Lauda took pole, but it was Andretti who made the better start and led early on © LAT

When practice finally got underway, Niki Lauda was immediately very impressive in the new BT46, which is obviously a very good car. Brabham designer Gordon Murray has managed to minimise all the disadvantages of a heavyweight engine with its high centre of gravity in the new chassis, and enable the driver to make fuller use of Alfa's current 50bhp advantage.

Mario Andretti was also very fast in the JPS Lotus, as was to be expected, while Marlboro-McLarens filled the entire second row, with my team-mate Patrick Tambay impressively fast - on full tanks the following day, 'The Frog' was quickest at one point.

The first practice session dictated grid positions, as a strong wind and changing surface saw very few people improve in the final timed runs. An exception to this was Riccardo Patrese, a sign of things to come.

Teddy Mayer had predicted that Gilles Villeneuve would be faster than Carlos Reutemann at Kyalami, and sure enough the Canadian was ahead on the grid. Gilles and Patrick had made a bet at the beginning of the season that whoever succeeded in blowing off their team-mate first would be treated to dinner by the other. I was delighted to assist Patrick lose his wager...

The pre-race warm-up taught me several things about my car, and we had time to reset the wings and ride heights and make several other adjustments which made the M26 feel really good on full tanks.

When the lights turned green, I got away cleanly and was running a comfortable and easy fourth behind Mario, Niki and Jody Scheckter, determined to preserve my tyres on this occasion. Sod's Law intervened on lap four, when my engine blew itself apart, and I was reduced to the role of spectator.

Patrick Tambay must have put his car into gear too early and overheated the clutch, for, as the field got away, he was left sitting on the grid. I should think the memory of the entire field screaming past him left and right, while he sat there like a dummy, will be a lesson he won't forget in a hurry.

But Patrick then proceeded to drive up through the field in the most mature manner. At three-quarters distance he had caught and passed both Ferraris, and looked set to finish in the points when he suddenly disappeared off the charts.

A few minutes later, Patrick arrived back in the pits looking rather crestfallen with the back of the car showing signs of a brutal encounter.

Reutemann ended his race in the catch fencing after hitting oil © LAT

Apparently the oil flag had been out at Crowthorne corner after Rupert Keegan had liberally anointed the track with oil. Everybody knew exactly where the oil was, and were back on full throttle when Villeneuve's Ferrari dropped a rod, letting forth a stream of Agip on the racing line.

The lads arrived at full chat and, with no extra warning from the marshals who were still holding the same oil flag, proceeded to transform Crowthorne into a breaker's yard. Patrick was in good company, however, with Carlos Reutemann and Jody also in the scenery. Those drivers who did get through had massive moments.

Patrese fulfilled his early promises and was again extremely promising in the Arrows. It must be a hell of a good chassis, for the Italian was quick from the outset, and was very unlucky to go out with engine trouble - he wasn't on his own in that.

Although the Arrows was superior to any other chassis at Kyalami, it still has to prove itself on the other tracks, and it's worth remembering that the Tony Southgate-designed Shadows were stunning a couple of years ago in South America, but this later proved to be something of a flash in the pan.

Spectating, I must confess that with the championship in mind I would have been happier to see Patrese winning from Depailler and Peterson. Ronnie's victory will put maximum strain on the Lotus team. The Swede has got to be a good bet around the streets of Long Beach and (particularly) Monaco.

At one time, it looked as if the USA West Grand Prix was problematic because of the financial ducking and diving necessary for Chris Pook to get it together, but the latest news is very optimistic and I'm delighted, as California has a lot to recommend it.

February 16 1978. I flew down to Buenos Aires the week before the race - earlier than most of the others - in order to get well and truly acclimatised.

Ferrari were testing like fiends from the beginning of the week, as Michelin had a load of new tyres to try. On the first day of official practice we were struggling and not among the frontrunners as I could not get my Marlboro McLaren balanced to my liking - there was too much understeer in the slow corners with the front end just refusing to bite.

We were better on the second day but the track was slower, and I found myself third fastest behind the JPS Lotuses of Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson, but overall back on the third row alongside my old adversary Niki Lauda.

The actual race was pretty dull as far I was concerned with a very relaxed Mario Andretti winning as he chose - his Lotus ideally suited to the track. As for me, I had a lot of hard work with the same understeer problem encountered in practice, coupled with a bad vibration caused by a chunked front tyre which put the wheel out of balance.

A missed gear saw Patrick Depailler by me but, as my tyre trouble didn't get any worse, I was able to catch up nearer the end of the race when Depailler got involved with Niki Lauda, and was not too unhappy with my fourth place.

What was extraordinary was the abnormally high number of finishers in what is traditionally a high retirement GP, which made my new team-mate Patrick Tambay's sixth place all the more meritorious.

Andretti won the 1978 season opener 'as he chose' © LAT

I flew up from Buenos Aires, which is a mighty expensive city, to Rio de Janeiro courtesy of Niki Lauda, who was travelling in great style in his new Lear Jet. There was plenty of action in Rio already gripped in pre-carnival hysteria, but I still found time for some golf, and came firmly to the conclusion that sunbathing on Ipanema beach has to beat Europe in the clutches of mid-winter.

The new Rio track is particularly well designed and certainly no expense has been spared. It offers plenty of variety and has several difficult corners, and from what I could see the safety facilities seem excellent.

But being a modern track it is featureless and therefore unattractive. My only criticism is the age old one - it is very difficult to pass other cars. Every circuit needs a long straight preceded by a fast corner so one can get a really good tow.

In sharp contrast to practice for the previous race, training for the Brazilian GP went like clockwork. The first couple of days only the Lotuses looked a serious threat to my M26 which was going really well.

The choice of tyres for the race was difficult because we had two set-ups, both of which appeared to be pretty similar - other teams were in the same quandary. In the final practice session I actually stopped 20 minutes before the end as I was pretty sure my time would keep my front row position - even if Ronnie Peterson did manage to pip me for pole.

The first indication that things were not going to plan came when Michelle Dubosc, our faithful timekeeper, reported Carlos Reutemann's Ferrari to be running a clear two seconds faster than anyone else during the pre-race warm-up.

Hunt in famously relaxed mode ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix © LAT

To begin with, we wishfully hoped that the Ferrari had not been running full tanks, but Carlos confirmed this was not the case in the race in no uncertain way. The Ferrari literally disappeared into the distance, while I managed to pass Ronnie Peterson into second place, but almost immediately the heat got to my tyres.

After being successively passed by Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi, a rapid stop for front tyres saw me back in the race behind Riccardo Patrese in the new Arrows who was pressing Jacques Laffite whose Ligier was also in tyre trouble.

Trying to pass was frustrating as we were running a couple of seconds slower than the leaders. I lost concentration and spun, to find my car was stuck firmly in the sand. I made a similar error two years ago at Monaco - this lack of concentration when running down the field is something I intend to correct. Absolute concentration is necessary in an F1 car whether you are running fast or slow, but it is not always easy to maintain when you are running at half-speed.

We were trying a water-cooled jacket from an ice-cold water container because of the incredible cockpit heat. We tried a similar system 18 months ago, but it still needs development before it will prove really effective.

The Michelin victory aroused a great deal of interest world wide even outside of motor racing circles. Particular note was taken at Goodyear's HQ in Akron, Ohio, but I don't think they should panic yet.

The new Michelin tyres sent down to Rio the day before the race happened to suit the track perfectly, as they were able to handle the exceptional heat better. On other tracks the problems will be different so it is premature to assume that Michelin will be able to maintain the advantage they showed in Brazil.

Goodyear's situation is more difficult in that they have historically furnished tyres for all GB runners, and therefore have to produce large quantities if they change a compound or construction, while Michelin, with only Ferrari and on occasion Renault to service, can produce 'one-off' sets of tyres.

The next stop for the Marlboro Team McLaren is South Africa. We will try the M26 on a huge variety of new rubber Goodyear are shipping down to reinforce their current range as the tyre-war approaches the all important European offensive.

January 5 1978. Since my last column, I have been running around like a blue-ass fly despite my attempt to spend as much time at home trying to organise my recently purchased house.

The most constructive part of my running around was devoted to two test sessions at Paul Ricard. In the second of these, we tried our new 'Batmobile', the M26½, for the first time. But the brunt of our work was done with the standard M26.

This was very constructive in that we tried a number of things, none of which proved any better than the standard set-up, so we ended up running the car just as we had at the end of last year.

This was an excellent morale-booster, as our times related to other people were relatively competitive, thus underlining the fact that Marlboro-McLaren M26 is a pretty good car and had obviously lost nothing sitting in the workshop for the past couple of weeks.

I should add that this is quite often the way testing goes, because even when you are not going faster you are eliminating the things that make you go slower - so you are always learning. And we did get in some pretty useful tyre testing. With the possibility of a new tyre war with Michelin, courtesy of Ferrari, these tyre tests may prove significant once the season gets underway.

For our second outing at Ricard, we brought the M26½, but, as our time at the track was very limited and I had a lot of testing to do for Goodyear with the regular car, the run in the new car was no more than an exploratory outing, which was all that was intended.

Hunt on testing duty at Paul Ricard © LAT

There are two technical aspects which our designer Gordon Coppuck has had a go at: the aerodynamics, and the functioning of the rear suspension.

The technical details have already been described in the motoring press by experts far better qualified than I, but it is interesting to note that Gordon and Colin Chapman have arrived independently at similar solutions to the same problems.

This caused a great deal of excitement among the press and enthusiasts as the two cars were unveiled within hours of each other at the French circuit. These 'experts' totally failed to consider the simple fact that two top designers should be thinking along the same logical lines on development, and proceeded to utter of industrial espionage!

Anybody who chooses to copy another designer in Formula 1 is unlikely to spend a lot of money building and developing their own replica until such a time that the original prototype has shown itself to be an improvement - it is a lot cheaper to let someone else do the development work for you than to run parallel.

Throughout our test sessions, we had two cars, and my new team-mate Patrick Tambay was working hard in the other. As we all suspected, he was most impressive, both from the point of view of speed/consistency and his concise and constructive comments on the car's behaviour (an essential ingredient for F1). He was so impressive in the first test session, when we just had the M26s there, that he was entrusted with the brunt of the testing on the new car.

Patrick was not the only person to drive the M26, as we had the pleasure of strapping Jackie Stewart into my car. Jackie is currently engaged on a very interesting project for Elf, driving all the different F1 cars he can get his hands on and putting the whole thing together as a TV film.

His years of retirement do not seem to have blunted that outstanding talent, and in most cars his times were quite competitive enough to embarrass the current drivers. Unfortunately in our case, despite the fact that McLaren had him over to the factory for a fitting and had gone to the trouble of making him a special seat, it turned out that the fitting was not successful, and Jackie was never comfortable in the car.

Tambay and Stewart were also involved in pre-season tests © LAT

This was a disappointment, for apart from anything else Jackie was making interesting and instructive comments and suggestions to improve the cars he drove. Unfortunately, comfort in an F1 car is the number one prerequisite, and therefore Jackie was unable to drive at sufficient speeds to make a proper evaluation.

This was a great shame, because I am a firm believer that two heads are better than one, and was looking forward to hearing his comments on the M26.

As I mentioned earlier, my globetrotting continues unabated, even in the off-season. Apart from several trips to London for the usual end of season functions and work for sponsors I have also had journeys to Austria, Germany and Yugoslavia for Racing Car Shows and Switzerland, France, Belgium and Scotland for my sponsors.

My travel has not been made any easier by a spate of fog and some serious airline incompetence. During the past fortnight, I have been stranded twice for over 24 hours; on both occasions the airline was the same and neither accommodation nor information was provided. It meant I had to cram three and a half day's work into one and a half, which was a pity for everyone concerned...

I recently had a very enjoyable stay in Mexico City, where it was intended that I should drive one of Fred Opert's Formula Atlantic Chevrons. Even before we got there, we knew there was little chance of my racing, as the meeting didn't have an international permit. We went nonetheless, as I had work to do for the local Texaco and Marlboro people, and I didn't want to let the organisers down in case they got a special licence for me at the last minute.

Hunt was able to let his hair down in Mexico © LAT

From the moment we arrived in Mexico, we were looked after like kings, and everywhere we went we were accompanied by a couple of plain-clothes policemen toting UZI submachine guns and AR15 automatic rifles (complete with racing stickers on their butts!).

They even came with us on Mexico's famous big dipper, reputed to be the biggest in America. Given any sort of excuse, we also had a couple of police motorcycle out-riders to speed our way through the metropolis's dense and difficult traffic.

The circuit is almost in the centre of the city, and part of a huge sports complex. If the necessary work was done to bring it up to today's safety standards, it could be made into a superb Grand Prix circuit again.

Mexican hospitality is really something else, and I would dearly love to race there if they managed to get it all together - and one thing they certainly don't lack is enthusiasm.