By the time the British GP took place, Harold Wilson had resigned and James Callaghan was now leader of the Labour Party. And I thought the last 14 years were crazy...
I will never forget 1976 for many reasons, but two things stick out and one is obviously the F1 championship (including Niki's horrendous injury, I include that in the whole "unforgettableness" of that year. Despite being 10-11 years-old throughout that season and having a typical crush on Hunt, I cried many tears for Niki, and occasionally still do). The other unforgettable thing is, also obviously, the drought. We were lucky in that our water supply came from an underground reservoir, so no shortage of drinking water and no getting it from a standpipe (no unnecessary usage, of course). We were very lucky and acknowledged it. We had no car because my parents were helping my sister go through university, but we were on a good bus route. Whenever Dad wasn't working at the steelworks (he did changeable shifts; starting Monday, for example, two mornings, two afternoons, three nights and the following Monday two days off, restarting the "rounds" on the Wednesday), we'd catch the bus to our nearby beach to swim the tide in. That included early morning swims (getting the 6am bus!). It might seem very trite to anyone reading this now who didn't live through those times, but spending that time with Dad in the cooler sea (even at such early times of the day) was something I treasure and will never forget. He's been gone nearly 10 years and I still miss him 😢. He was my "door" to motorsports and I'm grateful for that along with everything else he did for and with us.
This race just added the extra spice to what was an amazing and bizarre season. James was a superstar. We have never seem anything like since really. But for me, this made F1 very intriguing. There will ever be only 1 James Hunt.
no real surprise Barry Sheene was at the top of his game at about the same time, basically motorcycle racings James Hunt. If those two had ever been on the same race track for any reason and couldnt be found, both of them could be found in the back of an empty garage with a bottle of plonk in one hand and a woman who they *arent* in a relationship with in the other.
Besides horse racing I can't think of another professional sport that regularly overturns results, days, weeks even months after the fact. I know several people who got into auto racing as a fan in sports bars but got fed up with this exact thing and literally changed the channel for good. .....I haven't a solution but this has gotten worse in EVERY motorsport over the years.
until you go and say something 'microagressive' and then suddenly woke companies declare your win for something 'officially overturned' because you upset people who are unemployable and cant afford to pay to be a part of the thing theyre whining about in the first place no matter how much you pander to them.
My mum fancied James Hunt. As an aside, 1976 was a bit interesting regs wise. The first 3 World Championship Grands Prix were run with the 1975 technical regulations and the new ones came in for Jarama. It was also first season to have 16 World Championship Grands Prix, and could've been 17 if the Argentine GP hadn't have been cancelled.
The other thing I remember about that summer of '76 being so hot and dry that at Wimbledon center court (or if you prefer centre court) had a little bit of green around the edges and the rest was all brown.
He redeemed himself in the following year's race, at least. I think that, with the exception of Button, every average-succesful british f1 driver has won the british gp. That is masterclass.
just in: the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix yet another example, with the poor Fancy Pony (George Russell) disqualified for an underweight car, even though he did a brilliant race, and finished with an emphatic win!
The summer of ‘76 was hot, very hot - no shop nor office had aircon, neither did any car, or van, or bus, or lorry - but mostly it was hot for a *very* long time, week-in, week-out, and (trust me I was there) dragging a barrel to a standpipe at the end of the street just to get some water, any water, and dragging the now much heavier barrel back home, got you very hot indeed!
Brown and Mustard... or brown and piss....take your choice. And add in one of those 70's patterns that looks somewhat like a mix of flowers petals or e. coli. cells.
@@iheanachogoat_1417 this really isn’t the gotcha several people seem to think it is. Given that Russell was disqualified within an hour of the race finishing. Not 6hrs or 2mths
I went to the British Grand Prix in 2006. That was a very hot summer as well. My parents told me about the race in 1976, and both said James won it fair and square according to the rule book, which dad had a copy of. they basically DSQ James on the same grounds that Prost had Senna DSQ in Suzuka.
6:09 but there was one man who brightened up the TV (if you had colour) back then, used to wear gaudy tracksuits and smoke cigars. If only I could remember his name…
@@tokyosmash I shut them for the purposes of recording then open them again when I’m done. In the UK you’ll be hard pressed to find a house with air con.
@@tokyosmash I’ve got about 8in of insulation in the attic to help insulate the place for winter, so having the windows shit not only keeps the heat in but with general living and stuff the air becomes thick and stuffy and gloopy very quickly. So by opening everything up you let all the moist, muggy air out and replace it with fresher air. It’s like nature’s air con. But I did visit some relatives in Oklahoma in 2000 and the upstairs bit I slept in had no AC. This was before heatwaves became common in the UK.
I remember 1976 as being hot and dry. Current airport temperature readings nowadays are affected by all the heat from the runways, concrete areas and buildings
@@AidanMillward we are currently in a wet and windy cycle. I experienced the quite a few hot and dry summers, living in Central Scotland hot and dry isn't the usual but always welcome. Yes, there have been warm sunny summers in the last decade but nothing to get worried about. Great channel, great topic. The rear tyres on the 70's F1 cars were huge, question: did the 70's drivers slide their rear out of corners like modern drivers (on the limit of grip) or was the tyre width to compensate for "less technical rubber" or potential wear issues?
Airport weather readings are taken in the middle of an open area away from paved surfaces and buildings, 6 feet off the ground, and shaded. There’s rules for this stuff
@@dand1585 well why quote airport temperatures if not for a reason? The mainstream want to push the higher temperature narrative. I stay in Central Scotland, a few hundred years ago people grew grapes 🍇. Temperature isn't only due to humans.
Hunt & McClaren stay within every one od the rules in the FIA Rule Book....gets disqualified anyway. F.I.A. truly stands for Ferrari Internationl Assistance.
The factoid about McLarens winning on both sides of the Atlantic is interesting. Can you tell me more about the USAC race? Because I can't find it in my paperwork. 😀
Except, it's wrong. The McLaren M24 that was used for Indycar between 1977 and 1979 was based on the M23, but the two cars differed significantly. For one thing, the M24 had a single 40-gallon fuel tank (per USAC regulations) and was set up for refueling. The engine and gearboxes were different, and the suspension and tub were reinforced for the needs of 500 mile oval races. While they shared aerodynamics, and construction techniques, the M23 and M24 were not the same. But both cars were very successful in 1976
when I know that that is bad for the UK, but we had 6 months of no rain over summer in Perth although we have managed a wetter than normal July which is nice (it hasn't not rained for like 1 day)
in motorsport everybody cheats. but what i found funny is that there was a time when did not rain in England! i been there 4 times and always see rain. cheers mate as always good stuff.
One of those moments when a national fantasy of exceptionalism disappears into a mob of slobbering yahoos and authorities have no backbone to deal with the situation. Had it happened at any other GP the English would have "tut tutted" about foreigners, mob behaviour, and weak authorities but as it happened at Brands they tried to spin various fictions around the event. Great piece.
Let’s not dress this up as a great underdog win, the ONLY reason Hunt won the championship was because Lauda missed races and then wasn’t fit. No Nurburgring crash = no Hunt Championship.
@@bizzlea887 The word legend is thrown around too easily but that’s the right way to describe Lauda. I cannot fathom the amount of pain he must have been in putting that helmet on again while still healing. And I still have no idea how he got his clearly massive bollocks inside his race suit and then into a car
Hunt: I didn't just win the biggest thing in my life so I could get right back to work. Lauda: Why? You have to. To prove to all the people who will always say you just won it because... Hunt: Because of what? Because of your accident? Jesus Niki, is that other people, or is that you? I won, okay? On the all-important day, when it came down to it, we raced on equal terms, equally good cars. And I put my life on the line, and I saw it through. Lauda: And you call that winning? Hunt: Yes. 🗿 - Rush (2013)
Also the scene in Rush when the Italian crowd rushes to congratulate Lauda for finishing 4th in Monza (back when only the top 6 scored points) by lifting him up in their arms like he had just won the championship was one of the greatest scenes I have ever seen in any movie. One of those scenes that leaves people crying tears of joy.
this is one of those situations where neither outcome would have been "correct" by the letter of the law because, similar to (sorry that i'm about to blow up the comment section) abu dhabi in 2021, the FIA's regulations were self-contradictory, and depending on which part of the regulations applied, you could make an honest argument for either outcome. taken in good faith, the regulations regarding lapping the course to return to the grid and not receiving outside assistance were _supposed_ have applied hunt - except a red flag stops the race and nullifies race conditions, rendering those regulations moot even though they're _intended_ for exactly that situation. mclaren were probably guilty of malicious compliance with the regulations, but the FIA were guilty of making up the rules on the fly based on what they felt _should_ happen rather than applying the regulations. couldn't possibly happen these days, of course.
I think what made me most upset when I had first learned about this whole thing, was that they knew it was technically against the rules and would be an issue later, yet still gave in and let him race. If it were today, then, eh, not too big of a deal but back then (as we saw at the very next race with Lauda) there was a real chance of dying each race for all drivers. They kinda just let him risk his life for a couple hours only to turn around and tell him there was no point to it.
By the time the British GP took place, Harold Wilson had resigned and James Callaghan was now leader of the Labour Party.
And I thought the last 14 years were crazy...
The moment u started talking about the 1976 heatwave, the video cranked up to 20 m8! 🤣🤣
I will never forget 1976 for many reasons, but two things stick out and one is obviously the F1 championship (including Niki's horrendous injury, I include that in the whole "unforgettableness" of that year. Despite being 10-11 years-old throughout that season and having a typical crush on Hunt, I cried many tears for Niki, and occasionally still do).
The other unforgettable thing is, also obviously, the drought. We were lucky in that our water supply came from an underground reservoir, so no shortage of drinking water and no getting it from a standpipe (no unnecessary usage, of course). We were very lucky and acknowledged it.
We had no car because my parents were helping my sister go through university, but we were on a good bus route. Whenever Dad wasn't working at the steelworks (he did changeable shifts; starting Monday, for example, two mornings, two afternoons, three nights and the following Monday two days off, restarting the "rounds" on the Wednesday), we'd catch the bus to our nearby beach to swim the tide in. That included early morning swims (getting the 6am bus!).
It might seem very trite to anyone reading this now who didn't live through those times, but spending that time with Dad in the cooler sea (even at such early times of the day) was something I treasure and will never forget. He's been gone nearly 10 years and I still miss him 😢. He was my "door" to motorsports and I'm grateful for that along with everything else he did for and with us.
Ferrari Bias and what Frank Brough said in a interview with Hunt in 1976 "Decided by Politics"
That deciding the winner hours after the flag is thankfully a thing of the past.
Or not
*As it turned out....* - Jeremy Clarkson
except it isn't as of Sunday 28th July!
I'm here after George Russell's DSQ from his spa win
The timing of this video couldn’t have been more perfect
This reminds me of the disqualification of the Texaco Sierras at the 1987 Bathurst 1000. I remember this dragged out for awhile.
Finally get round to this video just minutes after Russel DQ really makes the opening segment seem more topical.
This race just added the extra spice to what was an amazing and bizarre season. James was a superstar. We have never seem anything like since really.
But for me, this made F1 very intriguing. There will ever be only 1 James Hunt.
no real surprise Barry Sheene was at the top of his game at about the same time, basically motorcycle racings James Hunt. If those two had ever been on the same race track for any reason and couldnt be found, both of them could be found in the back of an empty garage with a bottle of plonk in one hand and a woman who they *arent* in a relationship with in the other.
At first I thought that you uploaded this video after Russell's DSQ.
Nice timing and nice video.
"We want Hunt" could almost have been James's motto.
@@mikesummers-smith4091 giggity
I thought it was "Sex - The Breakfast of Champions"
Just one letter out.
@@JohnSmithShields I 'C' what you did there!
Nobody says 'we want Hunt' these days. Quite the opposite.
Poor unpopular Jeremy... interviewers can't even get his name right. xD
Aidan is the oracle. This video is more relevant than he expected I'm sure 😂
Hamilton, er Sir Lewis' win this year was a gift to the UK, and he deserved it. Just a kind of parallel to Hunt's race, but with a better ending.
Besides horse racing I can't think of another professional sport that regularly overturns results, days, weeks even months after the fact. I know several people who got into auto racing as a fan in sports bars but got fed up with this exact thing and literally changed the channel for good. .....I haven't a solution but this has gotten worse in EVERY motorsport over the years.
until you go and say something 'microagressive' and then suddenly woke companies declare your win for something 'officially overturned' because you upset people who are unemployable and cant afford to pay to be a part of the thing theyre whining about in the first place no matter how much you pander to them.
My mum fancied James Hunt.
As an aside, 1976 was a bit interesting regs wise. The first 3 World Championship Grands Prix were run with the 1975 technical regulations and the new ones came in for Jarama. It was also first season to have 16 World Championship Grands Prix, and could've been 17 if the Argentine GP hadn't have been cancelled.
The other thing I remember about that summer of '76 being so hot and dry that at Wimbledon center court (or if you prefer centre court) had a little bit of green around the edges and the rest was all brown.
Centre - yes
Center - hell no
Excellent job sir.
76 was hot when i was 5, i still remember it, dad was building a shed
Imagine if they had a scene based on the 1976 British Grand Prix in Rush. Would have been incredible to watch.
i’m pretty sure they did a scene, granted it wasn’t for long.
It was glossed over very quickly in the film
Did this video just remind me that I needed to replace my copy of Rush? Yes it did.
He redeemed himself in the following year's race, at least. I think that, with the exception of Button, every average-succesful british f1 driver has won the british gp. That is masterclass.
That was great! Thanks
just in: the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix yet another example, with the poor Fancy Pony (George Russell) disqualified for an underweight car, even though he did a brilliant race, and finished with an emphatic win!
that was a damn well deserved win. youre not supposed to be able to one stop Spa.
AMAZING ❤
The irony of this coming out and discussing spa dsq as the first example 😂
Ohhhhh boy look what you did!!!! Lmfao 😅😅😅😅 couldnt script this shit better
The summer of ‘76 was hot, very hot - no shop nor office had aircon, neither did any car, or van, or bus, or lorry - but mostly it was hot for a *very* long time, week-in, week-out, and (trust me I was there) dragging a barrel to a standpipe at the end of the street just to get some water, any water, and dragging the now much heavier barrel back home, got you very hot indeed!
yeah,people forget there was basically no such thing as air conditioning in the uk then
@@jsnsk101but you somehow get used to the heat
great video.
Brown and Mustard... or brown and piss....take your choice. And add in one of those 70's patterns that looks somewhat like a mix of flowers petals or e. coli. cells.
how do you know what our front room carpet looked like 😲
Orange, with context.
Haha this kinda foreshadowed Russell's win on Sunday and him being DQ himself.
Well well well this has aged well🤣🤣
@@iheanachogoat_1417 this really isn’t the gotcha several people seem to think it is. Given that Russell was disqualified within an hour of the race finishing. Not 6hrs or 2mths
I went to the British Grand Prix in 2006. That was a very hot summer as well. My parents told me about the race in 1976, and both said James won it fair and square according to the rule book, which dad had a copy of. they basically DSQ James on the same grounds that Prost had Senna DSQ in Suzuka.
This is really cool photo at 5:26 and, hang on... he's drinking a can of Fanta?
Well, it’s been today since something like that has happened.
Must admit your Wiki info is pretty good 👍 pretty you didn’t actually grow up in the 70s then I’d take your advice to heart.
6:09 but there was one man who brightened up the TV (if you had colour) back then, used to wear gaudy tracksuits and smoke cigars. If only I could remember his name…
So, who from mercedes told you to post this mercedes???? A foreshadowing of todays spa gp if ever i had seen one 😂😂.
DSQ is back
“I’ve got all my windows shut, I’m boiling in here”
No conditioned air?
@@tokyosmash I shut them for the purposes of recording then open them again when I’m done.
In the UK you’ll be hard pressed to find a house with air con.
@@AidanMillward I couldn’t do it, my man. I live in Tennessee, it’s satans armpit here right now
When the air outside is hotter than that inside... better to keep the windows closed to stay cool. Keeping the curtains closed helps a lot also.
@@tokyosmash I’ve got about 8in of insulation in the attic to help insulate the place for winter, so having the windows shit not only keeps the heat in but with general living and stuff the air becomes thick and stuffy and gloopy very quickly.
So by opening everything up you let all the moist, muggy air out and replace it with fresher air. It’s like nature’s air con.
But I did visit some relatives in Oklahoma in 2000 and the upstairs bit I slept in had no AC. This was before heatwaves became common in the UK.
@@ibex485wow a man with a brain, im actually Shocked
I remember 1976 as being hot and dry. Current airport temperature readings nowadays are affected by all the heat from the runways, concrete areas and buildings
@@CawKee thing is as well is that 1976 was seen as one of those rare things that happened. Now it’s nearly every year we get a few days above 30.
@@AidanMillward we are currently in a wet and windy cycle. I experienced the quite a few hot and dry summers, living in Central Scotland hot and dry isn't the usual but always welcome. Yes, there have been warm sunny summers in the last decade but nothing to get worried about. Great channel, great topic. The rear tyres on the 70's F1 cars were huge, question: did the 70's drivers slide their rear out of corners like modern drivers (on the limit of grip) or was the tyre width to compensate for "less technical rubber" or potential wear issues?
Airport weather readings are taken in the middle of an open area away from paved surfaces and buildings, 6 feet off the ground, and shaded. There’s rules for this stuff
@@dand1585 well why quote airport temperatures if not for a reason? The mainstream want to push the higher temperature narrative. I stay in Central Scotland, a few hundred years ago people grew grapes 🍇. Temperature isn't only due to humans.
@@CawKee What "higher temperature narrative?" Its literally getting hotter pretty much every year.
ok britbongs, thats just your average mild summer for us. sheesh.
Which is where, exactly?
Ah yes, the good old Ferrari International Assistance.
Thanks
I'd still like to a remake of the lost storytime videos. Now you have 100k subs maybe you could afford it.
Most famous season? 1982 and 1994 would like to have a word with you.
Funny you say this after Spa 2024 😂
Hunt & McClaren stay within every one od the rules in the FIA Rule Book....gets disqualified anyway. F.I.A. truly stands for Ferrari Internationl Assistance.
11:18 Aiden DOES have a point. "We want X" chants are usually reserved for wrestling events.
Good video, Aiden. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
Well well well
Ferrari using dirty tactics again
The '76 British GP just proved that Ferrari had had FIA in their pockets decades before Schumacher arrived.
The factoid about McLarens winning on both sides of the Atlantic is interesting. Can you tell me more about the USAC race? Because I can't find it in my paperwork. 😀
In 1976 Johnny Rutherford won Indycar races at Trenton and Indianapolis driving for McLaren.
@@mannacler Neither were on 4 July, though.
Except, it's wrong. The McLaren M24 that was used for Indycar between 1977 and 1979 was based on the M23, but the two cars differed significantly. For one thing, the M24 had a single 40-gallon fuel tank (per USAC regulations) and was set up for refueling. The engine and gearboxes were different, and the suspension and tub were reinforced for the needs of 500 mile oval races. While they shared aerodynamics, and construction techniques, the M23 and M24 were not the same. But both cars were very successful in 1976
when I know that that is bad for the UK, but we had 6 months of no rain over summer in Perth although we have managed a wetter than normal July which is nice (it hasn't not rained for like 1 day)
in motorsport everybody cheats. but what i found funny is that there was a time when did not rain in England! i been there 4 times and always see rain. cheers mate as always good stuff.
Thanks for all the entertainment! Plus the intro/outro music is the coolest on UA-cam 🙂
Awful music! Are you deaf?
I remember as a kid watching rush and asking dad "why do they want james hunt to hunt james hunt" (english is not my mother language)
Brands Hatch is terrible in anything higher than a low level formula car you say. Four words. Johnny Herbert. Henry Surtees
Ironically Hunt should have stayed disqualified from Spain and should have kept this win. Imho.
One of those moments when a national fantasy of exceptionalism disappears into a mob of slobbering yahoos and authorities have no backbone to deal with the situation. Had it happened at any other GP the English would have "tut tutted" about foreigners, mob behaviour, and weak authorities but as it happened at Brands they tried to spin various fictions around the event. Great piece.
70s was brown. now everythings grey
Let’s not dress this up as a great underdog win, the ONLY reason Hunt won the championship was because Lauda missed races and then wasn’t fit. No Nurburgring crash = no Hunt Championship.
How huge are Lauda's balls for going through all that and still getting back into a car in the same season....that's an underdog story right there
@@bizzlea887 The word legend is thrown around too easily but that’s the right way to describe Lauda.
I cannot fathom the amount of pain he must have been in putting that helmet on again while still healing.
And I still have no idea how he got his clearly massive bollocks inside his race suit and then into a car
Hunt: I didn't just win the biggest thing in my life so I could get right back to work.
Lauda: Why? You have to. To prove to all the people who will always say you just won it because...
Hunt: Because of what? Because of your accident? Jesus Niki, is that other people, or is that you? I won, okay? On the all-important day, when it came down to it, we raced on equal terms, equally good cars. And I put my life on the line, and I saw it through.
Lauda: And you call that winning?
Hunt: Yes. 🗿
- Rush (2013)
Also the scene in Rush when the Italian crowd rushes to congratulate Lauda for finishing 4th in Monza (back when only the top 6 scored points) by lifting him up in their arms like he had just won the championship was one of the greatest scenes I have ever seen in any movie. One of those scenes that leaves people crying tears of joy.
Good thing nobody here is dressing it up as an underdog win then.
Belgium 2008 was stolen from Lewis. And to me Brazil 2008 was karma for this.
this is one of those situations where neither outcome would have been "correct" by the letter of the law because, similar to (sorry that i'm about to blow up the comment section) abu dhabi in 2021, the FIA's regulations were self-contradictory, and depending on which part of the regulations applied, you could make an honest argument for either outcome.
taken in good faith, the regulations regarding lapping the course to return to the grid and not receiving outside assistance were _supposed_ have applied hunt - except a red flag stops the race and nullifies race conditions, rendering those regulations moot even though they're _intended_ for exactly that situation.
mclaren were probably guilty of malicious compliance with the regulations, but the FIA were guilty of making up the rules on the fly based on what they felt _should_ happen rather than applying the regulations. couldn't possibly happen these days, of course.
Hunt was robbed by Ferrari and Ferrari international association 😂
I think what made me most upset when I had first learned about this whole thing, was that they knew it was technically against the rules and would be an issue later, yet still gave in and let him race. If it were today, then, eh, not too big of a deal but back then (as we saw at the very next race with Lauda) there was a real chance of dying each race for all drivers. They kinda just let him risk his life for a couple hours only to turn around and tell him there was no point to it.