A Ferrari-powered Hesketh? More likely than you think

As that Dutch Grand Prix unfolded, Hunt’s dry tyres helped him take the lead from future rival Niki Lauda after 15 laps and resist pressure from the chasing Austrian to take his first victory in Formula 1. Lauda’s team-mate Clay Regazzoni completed a podium that left Il Commendatore to wonder why over 20 laps his cars couldn’t achieve an overtake.

The Ferrari 312T’s Tipo 015 had superior power to the Ford Cosworth DFV in the Hesketh 308, but for all its benefits in Circuit Zandvoort’s corners, Lauda and Regazzoni couldn’t get a move done on the straights and Hunt was able to secure a memorable result, finishing over a second clear of Lauda. Perhaps an element of ‘adapt or die’ came into play, then, because for Ferrari this wouldn’t do — he needed to know why.

Harvey Postlethwaite’s design of the 308 had caught his eye. The ‘Doc’ would go on to join Ferrari in 1981, handpicked by the boss, but this first attempt to utilise his skills came six years prior.  Lord Hesketh recalls being invited down to Maranello with the rare offer of Ferrari becoming his team’s engine supplier, significant considering Ferrari had only previously provided engines to F1 cars on four occasions, and none since 1966.

In what he thought of as “the biggest thing to ever happen in my life,” Hesketh flew down to Modena with Postlethwaite to meet with Enzo Ferrari. What they learned was that it wasn’t just a straight offer of an engine. Ferrari was allured by Postlethwaite’s engineering mind and the understanding he had acquired from the time they’d spent in the wind tunnel — more than anyone else according to Lord Hesketh.

So the offer was a Ferrari engine for a Hesketh-designed car, detailed with all its leading mind had learned. An agreement could have given middling Hesketh more straight-line power, but it was never to be, and the team never topped the heights of Zandvoort that had attracted Enzo Ferrari to them.

As it was, Lord Hesketh cited politics as the reason the proposal never came to fruition, the power Ferrari wields with its brand identity as the biggest team in the world. There were concerns in the British camp about conflict of interest — how would it go down if the teddy bear beat the prancing horse with its own machinery? For Lord Hesketh, the threat of sabotage was real enough for this delirious deal never to materialise.

Hesketh only survived another two full seasons in the sport. Hunt departed to McLaren at the end of the 1975 campaign, the same time Lord Hesketh stepped away from the team he founded and Postlethwaite took his services to Wolf-Williams Racing. Without this core trio, results were hard to come by and Hesketh folded six races into the 1978 season.

Of course, Ferrari would go on to dominate decades in F1, and for Hunt and Lauda the competition was only just beginning. But for a brief meeting, things might have all turned out quite different…

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