Remembering James Hunt’s 10 F1 wins

1975 Dutch Grand Prix – Zandvoort

James Hunt’s F1 career got off to a fast start, but after several podium finishes with Hesketh through 1973 and ‘74, a maiden Grand Prix win still felt out of reach as Ferrari and McLaren dominated.

After a steady start to the 1975 season, Ferrari’s Niki Lauda went on a three-race winning streak at Monaco, Zolder in Belgium and Sweden. Hunt, who had risen through the junior ranks alongside Lauda, was keen to join that winners’ circle sooner rather than later, but a run of five retirements had stifled his chances.

When he qualified third on the grid for the Dutch Grand Prix, he was in the mix with genuine pace at the front of the field for the first time. The wet conditions also looked to play into Hunt’s favour on race day. After a delayed start, it was a cagey opening few laps from the entire field as they acclimatised to the rapidly changing conditions.

Hunt got his eye in quickest and made the alarmingly early call to stop for slick tyres first. Unlike Lauda and Clay Regazzoni, who had a World Championship to think about, it was a call the Hesketh driver could afford to make, and it paid off massively as he closed in and hit the front on lap 15.

On a dry track, however, the status quo resumed and Lauda’s Ferrari was the fastest car on the circuit once again. He quickly closed the gap to Hunt, but the Briton’s resolve was firm. Despite a relentless challenge from the Championship leader, he managed to keep hold of the lead to claim his first F1 win.

1976 Spanish Grand Prix – Jarama

After Emerson Fittipaldi walked away from McLaren at the end of 1975, Hunt received a golden chance to race with a Championship-winning team. It was a hurried arrival, with little time to get accustomed to his reengineered car, yet he was immediately up to speed in the M23.

Hunt qualified on pole for the opening two rounds but fared less well in races, finishing only once — behind Lauda, at Kyalami. Things had to improve at round four in Spain.

All teams were now required to meet new regulations that included stipulations on the dimensions of the car, but the McLaren remained fast and Hunt put it on pole once again.

That Lauda was suffering broken ribs following a tractor accident gave Hunt an extra flicker of hope, but it didn’t last long. He immediately lost out at the start and was consigned to following in his wheel tracks for the opening laps.

It was clear that Hunt was the faster of the two, though, and he kept up with Lauda all the way until lap 30 when he made the decisive move to retake the lead. From there he pulled out a lead for the remainder of the race and crossed the line 30 seconds clear, proving he was well and truly in the fight.

Celebrations were cut short, however, when scrutineers found the McLaren to have contravened the new regulations. The M23 was 15mm too wide and Hunt was thrown out of the final result.

The decision left his season in tatters, and two further retirements in the subsequent races left him with a grand total of six points, 45 behind Lauda. McLaren appealed, and it would be two months until Hunt was reinstated as the winner of the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix.

1976 French Grand Prix – Paul Ricard

Arriving at Paul Ricard for the 1976 French Grand Prix, Hunt was effectively out of the Championship running, but the fact remained that he was still arguably at the centre of the fastest package in F1 at that time. He put the McLaren on pole again, a whole 2.2 seconds quicker than his team-mate Jochen Mass, and nearly 0.3 seconds clear of Lauda.

As would become a theme of the season, it was Lauda who again made the better to start to lead into the first corner, but this time his advantage lasted only eight laps before an engine failure put him out of the race.

Hunt inherited the lead ahead of Regazzoni, but things got even easier for the McLaren driver when the second Ferrari also pulled off with engine trouble. From there, he needed only to see off the attention of Patrick Depailler in the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34. As long as his car kept going, there was never any doubt that he had the speed to hold on for victory.

Hunt eventually took the chequered flag with a lead of 12.7 seconds to complete one of the more straightforward victories of his career. Even a worrying vibration Hunt reported from his front-right tyre did nothing to disturb a composed and competent drive.

1976 German Grand Prix – Nürburgring

Hunt finished first on the road at the previous round at Brands Hatch but was yet to learn he would be stripped of that victory. By now he had also been reinstated as the winner at the Spanish Grand Prix, so arrived at the fearsome Nürburgring with a spring in his step, only 23 points behind Lauda.

As had become commonplace, he started from pole, completing the 14.19-mile Nordschleife 0.9 seconds quicker than Lauda. Continuing a less agreeable theme, he again lost the lead at the start to Regazzoni.

The delayed race start took place in uncertain conditions, and all except Jochen Mass seemed to make a mistake starting on wet tyres. The German claimed a comfortable lead as most of the field pitted for slicks by the end of the second lap.

After his stop, Hunt rejoined in third while Lauda had fallen back, stuck among a gaggle of slower cars. The Austrian was desperate to make up for lost time but never made it round another lap. His accident as he entered the Bergwerk at the far side of the circuit has become etched in motorsport legend. After a lengthy delay to tend to the severely injured Lauda and clear the circuit of his mangled Ferrari, the field was set to restart the race.

With Lauda’s condition uncertain, Hunt focused on the task at hand. In extraordinarily difficult circumstances he seemed in a class above the rest, completing 14 laps to take the chequered flag nearly half a minute ahead of Jody Scheckter.

Hunt joined an esteemed list of drivers who had won around the Nordschleife in his typically gutsy fashion. In the wake of Lauda’s accident, he was also the winner of the final F1 race run at the Green Hell.

1976 Dutch Grand Prix – Zandvoort

After an impressive run of results, Hunt was intent on pushing on to win the World Championship. Lauda was out of action but importantly out of danger following his horrific crash, so Hunt simply had to take advantage of the opportunity.

It wouldn’t be plain sailing. The Penske team, with a young John Watson at the wheel, had taken a stunning victory and two podium finishes since introducing the promising PC4, while the Tyrrell P34 and the Lotus 77 were also showing race-winning potential.

Hunt qualified second behind Ronnie Peterson’s March but lost out to Watson at the start and could only watch on as the leading pair set a searing pace. He had a front-row seat as Watson and Peterson engaged in a fierce duel, and as they fought for position Hunt slowly began to close the gap.

He made his first move on lap seven as Watson made a mistake at Tarzan, then took the lead from Peterson on lap 12. Peterson’s pace dropped substantially after that but Watson, keen to continue his brilliant run of form, continued to assail Hunt.

It was a titanic battle as the Penske driver made numerous attempts to overthrow the leading McLaren, but it all came to nothing when, on lap 47, Watson was forced to retire with a gearbox failure. His demise gave Hunt some much needed breathing room, for a while at least.

Regazzoni, motivated to protect his absent team-mate's Championship lead, put in a spirited effort, setting numerous fastest laps to real in the leader. But Hunt held on to win by less than a second and claim his fifth Grand Prix victory on his 29^th birthday. In doing so he closed the gap in the standings to just two points.

1976 Canadian Grand Prix – Mosport Park

Following victory at Zandvoort, Hunt endured a disastrous flurry of events that saw him crash out of the Italian Grand Prix on lap 11 while Lauda made a remarkable return to racing. He also learned in the build-up to the 1976 Canadian Grand Prix that he had been disqualified from the British Grand Prix, a race he had won several months earlier. Not only that, but it was Lauda who inherited the victory, so Hunt’s Championship deficit had now grown to 17 points.

It was a sucker punch for Hunt, who after such an inspired run of form arrived at Mosport Park knowing that victory was essential if he wanted to retain any chance of claiming the crown.

He made the perfect start to the weekend by taking pole position as Lauda could manage only sixth, with the Marches of Peterson and Vittorio Brambilla, Depailler’s Tyrrell and Mario Andretti’s Lotus between them. Yet again, however, Hunt was displaced at the start as Peterson broke clear at the front.

Hunt was patient in pursuit and reclaimed the lead on lap eight. From there he never looked back. He pulled out a comfortable lead on Peterson and the Swede eventually dropped out of contention, but Depailler behind couldn’t challenge Hunt either. The eventual gap at the chequered flag was six seconds, as Hunt put in the kind of performance he so desperately needed to keep his Championship hopes alive.

1976 US Grand Prix – Watkins Glen

Heading to Watkins Glen for the 1976 US Grand Prix, Hunt was eight points behind Lauda in the standings and would need to take consecutive victories for the first time in his career if he wanted to go into the final round within touching distance of the title.

His impressive qualifying form continued as he lined up on pole position for the eighth time that year, and again he was able to put several cars between himself and Lauda on the grid. But again he failed to retain the lead into the first corner. This time it was Scheckter who got the better of him, and Hunt could do nothing stop the South African from stretching out a lead.

He trailed Scheckter’s six-wheeler for the first half of the race, but after 20 laps the leader began to struggle with his car. Hunt’s chance came when the pair came across the first of the backmarkers, and Scheckter was badly impeded on the approach to the long backstraight.

That allowed the McLaren to close right up and take the lead on lap 37, but amazingly he missed a gear four laps later, also while attempting to clear traffic, and Scheckter was able to get ahead once again. Hunt finally made the decisive move on lap 46, a carbon copy of his previous overtake, and this time he made it stick.

With searing pace, he opened an eight-second lead over Scheckter during the final 11 laps of the race to score a vital victory, his final of the 1976 season. It was a truly impressive performance in the circumstances, a victory at that paved the way for Hunt to become the World Champion.

1977 British Grand Prix – Silverstone

As World Champion, Hunt had a new maturity about him in 1977, but his McLaren was not as strong as it had been.

There was no hiding the increasingly pressing need for him to return to the top step of the podium. He was fortunate that several drivers: Lauda, Andretti, Scheckter and Carlos Reutemann, had been sharing the spoils at the front, because there was still time for him to mount a respectable title defence.

The British Grand Prix marked the second half of the ‘77 season, and Hunt had managed just two podium finishes up to that point. There was no better place to return to winning ways than his home Grand Prix.

He got off to the perfect start by taking pole, but again struggled off the line and fell to fourth by the time the field emerged from Copse corner. He settled into a consistent pace with the leading pack, but gradually began to make progress, overtaking Lauda, Scheckter and finally Watson to retake the lead.

It was an uneventful race for Hunt from then on, as Watson and then Scheckter fell out of contention with mechanical issues, promoting Lauda to second place, albeit some 18 seconds behind when they took the chequered flag.

In modern parlance you’d say Hunt controlled the race. It was far from spectacular, but for sheer dominance over the rest of the field it was certainly one of his more accomplished drives, one worthy of an F1 World Champion.

1977 US Grand Prix – Watkins Glen

Although horribly unreliable, the McLaren M26 had developed to become one of the fastest cars in the field during the second half of the 1977 season. Hunt had retired from all four races since his win at Silverstone and was well and truly out of the title race, but he stuck it on pole for the US Grand Prix ahead of the two Brabhams of Hans-Joachim Stuck and Watson.

At this point, it’s no shock that he lost the lead at the start as the field navigated tricky conditions, and Stuck was seemingly in a class of his own as he swept out into a commanding lead. Hunt was offered a lifeline on lap 15, however, when Stuck’s car suffered a gearbox fault and crashed out of the race.

Having been gifted the lead, it was another comfortable performance from thereon in for Hunt, as he eased away from Andretti behind to lead by ten seconds.

There was, however, cause for concern on the McLaren pit wall in the closing stages. As the track dried and drivers eased off to try and conserve their tyres, Hunt was given the signal to slow. While many of those around him did the same, Andretti in his Lotus continued to press hard in pursuit, and with a lap to go the gap was down to just over a second.

McLaren panicked and urged Hunt to pick up the pace, but the reigning Champion was aware of the danger and picked up his pace just enough to hold off the charging American and claim his ninth Grand Prix victory.

1977 Japanese Grand Prix – Fuji

The 1977 F1 season ended in strange circumstances. Lauda had sealed the title with two races to spare and opted not to attend the final two rounds of the season after falling out with Ferrari, so it was left to Hunt and Andretti to fight over the final win of the year.

The Lotus in Andretti’s hands was now the fastest car on the grid, but Hunt was still no slouch in his vastly improved M26. The pair were separated by a tenth of a second on the front row as Hunt just missed out on pole. In a stunning reversal fortune however, it was Hunt who made the best getaway to lead from Scheckter and Mass.

Andretti dropped back into the midfield after an awful start and crashed out on the opening lap while trying to recover lost ground. With that, Hunt’s list of worthy challengers was reduced to zero, and he proceeded to scamper off into the distance in what proved to be an utterly unventful and drama-free affair.

Hunt’s tenth and final F1 victory was probably his simplest. He came home a comfortable winner, more than one minute ahead of Reutemann’s Ferrari.

McLaren’s decline worsened continued in 1978, and not even the great James Hunt could reverse the team’s diminishing fortunes. After failing to score another victory through that season, and seeing a move to Wolf fail to pay off Hunt retired mid-way through the 1979 season. In six years he won ten Grands Prix, engaged in one of the most astonishing rivalries in F1 history, and became a World Champion. As careers go, no one did it quite like Hunt.

Goodwood will celebrate ‘The James Hunt Years’ at the 83^rd Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport. The event takes place on the 18^th & 19^th April 2026. Tickets are on sale now for GRRC Members and Fellows.

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