Fuji 1976 – the inside story

Four decades on, the 1976 season – with all its twists and turns – is still fresh in the memory of Alastair Caldwell, a gritty, no-nonsense Kiwi who ran a McLaren race team that would emerge victorious by the skin of its teeth. Here, Caldwell relives some of the highs and lows of motorsport’s greatest unscripted drama.

“Where do you start when dissecting 1976 [mischievous, throaty chuckle]? It was eventful, competitive, political, intense, and almost deadly. It’s a bit of a cliché but if you’d scripted it no-one would’ve believed it. Ron Howard’s ‘Rush’ told its own story, but the reality was even more far-fetched. 

“Until Niki’s accident in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring at the beginning of August, it had been pretty much all about Ferrari. They’d won five of the first six races, thanks to Niki and Clay Regazzoni, and the one James did win – at Jarama [Spain] – he lost because the car was too wide. That was my mistake; we had new Goodyear tyres that were wider than the wheel rims and I failed to take that into account. The M23 was still the same width! We got the points back eventually, but the championship looked pretty hopeless at the mid-point.

“We carried out back-to-back tests between a new-spec M23 and the pre-Spain car at Paul Ricard ahead of the French GP and made a real breakthrough. The only problem was that James couldn’t feel the difference! Various tweaks, such as moving the oil coolers into the sidepods, were really significant, and the car was much better after that. Interestingly, though, James won the French GP in the old car to move up from fourth in the points to second, albeit still with only half Niki’s points.

“And then came Brands [more throaty chuckling]! So much has been written incorrectly about that race and the hoo-ha that went with it. Well, this is what actually happened, in a nutshell: The two Ferraris clashed at Paddock Hill bend after the start and James collided with one of them. He carried on, albeit with a damaged car, and got as far as the back of the pits before leaping out to come and find me. ‘How’s the car?’ I asked him. No need to repeat his response here, but needless to say we got the T-car ready, as did a lot of the other teams who’d been caught up in the melée.

“The rules stated that T-cars were not allowed to be used for restarts – if you couldn’t repair the race car in time, tough. My guys and I had noticed that the race car was in fact repairable so I set them to it while I went up to the RAC stewards and pontificated over the rights and wrongs of using T-cars at restarts. I kept them at it for a while and the delay – remember the patriotic crowd was baying at this point because they thought their man might not be able to take the restart – allowed the boys to finish it off.

“Ferrari was incensed after working out what we’d done. We were back in the race and James won it. We’d eventually lose those points after another tribunal – those RAC boys really didn’t have a clue what was going on.

"The whole complexion of the title battle changed on August 1 when Niki had his shunt at the ’Ring. The guy was properly beat up and the story of the last rites and the smoke inhalation, never mind the burns, is well known. We all wondered if he’d be back, not so much when. That he only missed three races – the German restart, Austria and Holland – was incredible. We just had to get our heads down and get on with it. James won in Germany, with the points gap at 25. That’s one win these days, but back then there were only 9 points for a win. He was fourth in Austria and took another win – his fourth of the season – on his birthday in Holland. The gap was then down to 14.

“Niki came back for Ferrari’s home race at Monza, which was astounding, but the sniping, bickering and politicking kicked into gear again. We were totally stitched up by Ferrari over our fuel, which was 100 per cent legal. I even got put in jail so I couldn’t argue my case with the stewards! As a result James and [team-mate] Jochen [Mass] got put to the back of the grid. James didn’t finish after tangling with another car during his fightback and Niki finished fourth, despite still wearing bandages on his facial burns. They eventually apologised to Texaco, who very stoically and diplomatically put the whole sorry issue behind them.

“The next turning point of our year was the pair of North American races at Mosport and Watkins Glen. James really misbehaved – on every predictable level – the night before the race in Canada and went out and won it from pole the next day with a steaming hangover. He did exactly the same at Watkins Glen a week later, too. Ferrari were nowhere in both races – Niki was eighth at Mosport and scraped a podium at the ’Glen. It all meant the two of them headed to Japan separated by three points. It was nine-six-four-three-two-one for the top-six finishers, so everyone had done the maths…

“That incredible weekend in Japan actually started almost two weeks before when I arranged – against specific orders from [team boss] Teddy Mayer – a test at Fuji the week before the race. You weren’t allowed to test in race week so I booked the car onto the only Japanese Airways flight and sent it over there. We had a bit of trouble with the car at customs in Japan, so once that was all sorted we did the test on the Saturday.

“James managed five laps before the gearbox failed, so it was all a bit of a waste of time. What it did mean is that James and I, and the two mechanics who came out with us, were able to fully ingratiate ourselves into Japanese culture, on every level. James was fully relaxed come raceday and if I tell you that an entire fleet of Air France and British Airways airhostesses was staying in our hotel you can work out the rest! ‘Hello, I’m James Hunt!’ ‘Yes, we know who you are…’ is pretty much how it went, night after night.

“Once we got to the track, we played endless mind games with Ferrari. We spread a rumour that the Fuji track was breaking up and I got the lads to tape up all the ducts, vents and grilles on the cars. Niki liked to wander up the pitlane and spy on us. He saw what we’d done and ran back to Ferrari and created a panic. They copied us and, sure enough, come practice our car was back to normal. They were rattled, which was good.

“The weather on raceday was grim. The start was delayed while they waited for the rain to ease. What’s interesting is that James and Niki, his Nürburgring shunt fresh in his mind, argued that there should be no race. They were adamant, which would have meant no opportunity for James to overhaul Niki’s points lead.

“I was pushing for the race to go ahead, helped by Bernie Ecclestone in fact. In the end the drivers agreed they would do a few laps and come in, which is exactly what a spooked Niki did. James changed his mind once he got out there and carried on.

“And then I got really, really angry! For some reason – and I never managed to sit down and ask him what the hell he was playing at – he totally ignored his pitboard. There were no pits-to-car radios in those days; you had to read the board. He routinely ignored our instructions about when to pit and to drive in the puddles to keep the soft tyres cool on the drying track. Jochen managed it, as did plenty of other drivers. I just don’t know what was going on in his head that day. Maybe he was in some sort of trance!

“He wore both left-side tyres to the rims, which meant that when he eventually pitted we couldn’t get the jack under the car. We had a contingency for one flat, but not two. The bloody thing was scraping along the ground! Only five people were allowed to touch the car then, so it was a struggle. McLaren have more people doing the pitstop nowadays than we had in the entire team.

“Somehow we got him out on a new set of wets as they warm up quicker and there weren’t many laps left anyway. Despite his best efforts not to finish third – the minimum he needed to win the title – he did. It was utter chaos. You may have seen the video where he comes in at the end gesticulating at Teddy because he didn’t know where he’d finished or if he was champion. I’m nowhere to be seen; I was absolutely fuming!

“An interesting aside is that if Jochen, who was quicker than James that day and running ahead of him, hadn’t gone off by himself on one of the rivers running across the track at half distance, I’d have to have got him to let James past for the third place he needed. That could’ve been interesting. James’ life was made easier by Regazzoni, who’d already been told he wouldn’t be driving for Ferrari in 1977, letting him by with no fuss.

“So in the end James was champion which was pretty amazing. We didn’t have a huge party that night as we were staying in the middle of the countryside with no night life. We made the best of it though, drinking the hotel dry. A couple of the boys spotted some sort of cable-laying machine outside so they fired that up and wrapped the hotel in cable so no one could get in or out. They climbed up the outside and went to bed via a window, leading to chaotic scenes in the morning – not helped when they realised all the foam and water fire extinguishers had been let off in the rooms!

“And that was that. It had been a fantastic season and the tiny McLaren team as it was in those days had done a stunning job in the face of all the crap that had been thrown at them. I remain hugely proud to have been a part of it and look back on it with massive affection. You really couldn’t have made it up.

“Thanks James, but what the f**** was going on at Fuji?!"

Photography courtesy of LAT