The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes

Tyre technology has come on a bit since James Hunt used a sharp knife to cut grooves 
in his bald road tyres. I was reminded of this when reading George Russell’s thoughts on the latest Formula 1 rubber. Russell was talking about the detailed preparations necessary for Montreal, some 55 years on from Hunt’s desperate efforts to get his first car race-worthy for a club meeting at Snetterton.

The scrutineer refused Hunt an entry for a car built up from the stripped shell of a crashed Mini. Inadequate tyres were not the main problem. Neither was the front passenger seat being, would you believe, a deckchair held in place by bits of Meccano. The official took objection to the complete absence of windows in this so-called saloon car; a serious deficiency exacerbated by the driver saying – in all seriousness – that the regulations made no mention of the car needing windows in the first place.

When the scrutineer reasonably pointed out that this was akin to James claiming the non-appearance of the term ‘steering wheel’ meant there was no need for one, Britain’s future world champion was homeward bound with his tail between his legs.

As it turned out, Hunt would become a master of nursing tyres – particularly on a damp but drying surface – and changing them at exactly the right moment. The 1976 German GP on the Nurburgring Nordschleife was a good example.

Among the many anomalies associated with this giant of a track was a single pre-race exploratory lap proving very little because,
 by the time you’d got back to the start/finish area, the weather in 
the Eifel mountains had probably done an about-turn. That was the case as a stiff breeze suddenly brought enough rain to have officials declare a wet race, leaving the 26 starters with no choice but
 to remove their dry tyres.

Jochen Mass was the only exception, the German driver using his local knowledge to remain on slicks despite the field being lost in spray as it disappeared into the Hatzenbach forest. Hunt was leading Ronnie Peterson as they rounded Karussell and continued the climb to Hohe Acht, where James noted the track was not quite so wet. With the rain seeming to ease, slicks would be worth a gamble. But Hunt didn’t want Peterson to reach the same conclusion.

Hunt's tactics in the 1976 German GP showed incentive

Photo by: Sutton Images

Heading towards the end of the lap, James let Ronnie through and then distracted the new leader by sitting on the March’s gearbox and appearing ready to dive down the inside at the first corner. With Peterson hard on the throttle and watching his mirrors, Hunt suddenly dived into the pits. Such a strategy would be made irrelevant minutes later when Niki Lauda crashed his Ferrari with seemingly fatal consequences.

Hunt won the restarted race and the nine points helped towards the second drivers’ championship for McLaren. Marque founder Bruce had been killed while testing at Goodwood six years earlier but, had he still been around, McLaren would have approved of Hunt’s 
tactics. As a highly regarded test driver for Firestone, Bruce knew all about tyres. Indeed, one particular experience is simply unbelievable by today’s standards.

In 1966, at the height of the battle between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans, Bruce was sharing one of the mighty seven-litre Ford GT40 Mk IIs with Chris Amon, running Firestones, as opposed to the rest of Ford entry being on Goodyears. Such a strange situation developed a potentially ruinous twist just before the start when a shower of rain made intermediates the only choice.

Can you imagine if this year’s Le Mans-winning Toyota had started on Michelins and finished on Pirellis? Social media would have gone berserk. Autosport’s report of the race carried not a single word

But here’s the thing: the Ford project was so new that they had been unable to test Firestone inters at anything like the speeds expected at Le Mans. McLaren, taking the first stint, was about to hit 200mph on Mulsanne with 
tyres he knew nothing about. 
It puts in perspective today’s drivers moaning about being in the dark after failing to get in a quick lap towards the end of FP3 thanks to someone hitting the wall.

It didn’t take long for the Firestones to either chunk or lose their tread. After a couple of pitstops, McLaren and Amon were a lap behind in eighth. If you think that’s bad, just wait until you hear what happened next.

Amon: “The decision was made to switch our car to Goodyear.” Then, with classic Amon understatement, he added: “This was a bit tricky because Bruce and I were contracted to Firestone. You can imagine that Firestone weren’t too impressed by this. After we switched, Bruce said to me: ‘We’ve nothing to lose. Let’s drive the doors off it.’

“By next morning, we were in the lead [and would eventually be declared winners after the Ford management made a controversial attempt at a dead heat with the GT40 of Ken Miles and Denny Hulme, which had done the lion’s share of leading].” The advertising blurb shouted: “Victory to Ford and Goodyear!”

McLaren and Amon switched from Firestone to Goodyear during 1966 Le Mans race, creating contractual difficulties for the drivers

Photo by: Sutton Images

Can you imagine if this year’s Le Mans-winning Toyota had started on Michelins and finished on Pirellis? Social media would have gone berserk. Autosport’s report of the race carried not a single word. And neither did Bruce McLaren’s column, nor the editor’s gossipy review the following week. Not even John Bolster, the punctilious technical editor, had spotted the switch.

To be fair to an outraged Bolster, he had not been allowed access to the Ford pit. Having thanked all the entrants for their hospitality and cooperation, Bolster finished his column thus: “I must exclude a certain American pit. They employed a fat fellow who was grossly offensive, and one hopes that, as relative newcomers to racing, they will either learn to behave or get out. I have nothing further to say on the subject.” 

Amen to that – even though he would probably be rendered permanently speechless today if he wandered down the F1 pitlane.

Few noticed Amon and McLaren's unusual mid-race tyre supplier switch, including Autosport's correspondent

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images