More On: James Hunt Continued From Preceding Page of people who go on and say, oh , it's "McLaren tires" or it's "Ferrari tires" an d they're wrong . They're completely wrong. It's just that McLaren an d Ferrari and on e or tw o other people to a lesser extent have done th e testing to suit their cars to the tires. It's the other wa y round. An d a lo t of th e credit, in fact all the credit, is to th e work that McLaren did last year with Emerson . I mean I don't take an y credit at all, it's them and Emerson. They di d a lot of work on the car last year and they got it very good; they went through some pretty terrible areas to ge t it that way, but they did it in the end. Lyons: Just wh y do you reckon you, meaning yo u and the team, went into a slump after Spain , and why are you out of it now? Hunt: Well. You really would have to as k Teddy hat, An d I don't think he ' d tell you! Because we ' d made a bit of a cockup, and we moved something, and when we realized it and moved it back everything was all right. No, I'm not going to tell you what i t was! It might help other people. I don't think it would, but it might. Suffice it to sa y it was aerodynamic, and it wa s minor, and it wa s a cockup. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the kinds of circuits we were racing on , an d it had nothing whatsoever to do with th e regulations thing, you know, after Spain. Other than th e fact we were pu t into a panic and a lot of work and we didn't have an y time to go testing. And it wa s only testing at Ricard that pu t the thing right. We suspected in Sweden what th e problem very likely was, bu t we couldn't pu it right then, we hadn't th e gear. Th e trouble is , you see, I would ik e to tell everybody what it was because there ' s a strong feeling that we mu st have been ch e a ting in Spain , getting an a d va ntag e, a nd as s o o n as we narrowed th e c a r w e were useless. Bu t i t 's j u s t n o th i n g whats o ev e r t o d o with t h at, at a ll. L y ons : Ce r ta i n dr i vers ge t o u t of t h e o ld He sket h, that is th e Williams , a nd sa y i t' s a b a d ca r , it d oesn' t h a ndle , no g ri p . " I h a d a pretty funny career u p to F 1 a n d I didn't w i n a n y races." Hunt: Well-they ' ve got to se t it up . That's their fault. No ? Getting acarright, within reservations , is a combination of a driver an d a team. The McLaren doesn ' t feel , to the driver , an y better a ca r than the ol d Hesketh did. Th e 308 used to handle just as well , when it was handling well, an d when it was handling badly it wa s just bad as the McLaren is when it isn't handling well. They felt exactly the same, they went through the same motions , you know what I mean? Except the McLaren would appear to be slightly more efficient , it does everything that little bi t faster. Which is faster than a driver ca n detect . I mean , if yo u took me down to a circuit an d se t me in first on e ca r and got me really comfortable with it, lo t of laps , right? Then a week later pu t me into the other on e under the same conditions , an d d i dn't tell me any times and took away from me an y measuring equipment, disguised the us e of th e rev-counter fo r instance-I wouldn't be able to tell y ou which was th e better car. I f you ' re only one mile a n hour faster around the whole track , who ca n tell the di fference , from th e feel? I mean the y g o throu g h the same motion s. Lyons: Why wa s i t that a t the beginn i ng of last y e ar you twice spun ou t of the le a d of a race , at Buenos Aires an d again at Barcel o n a? Yo u seemed to stop doin g th a t, in the popul a r c on c eption any wa y , at Z a ndvoort . Hunt : Yeah . I t wa s inexperien c e. I was, funnily enough , you know , crack i ng under th e pressure. Oddly enough . I wa s so w o rried about it , leading , right? , that I was so busy telling myself to be careful , well you ' re in the lead now , just take it ea s y and be careful-that when I go t to the corner I was still talk i ng to myself and not concentrating! Th e finally I worked out that you had to just si t an d relax and get on with it , just drive normally the way yo u do when you ' re no t leading and not spinning, stop giving yourself a pep talk and not concentrating. I think in a way it wa s a good thing, because it gave me , yo u know, a good lesson. Yo u learn all the time. You see, you ge t a ba d training in Formula Three. In the days when I wa s running in F3 it wa s in a lo t of ways a disadvantage to be leading because it ' s very easy to overtake, you ge t a good tow with an F3 ca r . I f yo u ' ve got somebody right up your chuff chances are he ' ll be coming past you at any moment sometime on that lap. On most of the tracks where there ' s any kind of decent sort of straight they j us t all come screaming past . Whereas in Formula On e things are very much the reverse. It ' s very, very difficult to pass in Fl , because AUGUST 28, 1976 AUTOWEEK PAGE 7 ~ Hunt chats with Mclaren boss Teddy Mayer between practice sessions. of the wings . getting messed up . an d yo u can't ge t very close to th e ca r in front. It took me a while to really realize that despite al l th years spent in F1. It took me a while to reali z e th a t w hen you ' re in the lead of a GP you're really o n to p . A ll t he pr oblems belon g to other people. No matter ho w much faster they can go , no matter that they ' re br e athin g dO ', \ ' n your ne c k . th e y s till ca n ' t fi nd a w ay r o u nd you . You see , you've got to r emember I h a d a p re tt y funny career up to F l an d I didn't win an y ra c es . So I didn't hav e an y p ra ct i c e at winning-and yo u definitely get p r a ct i ce. I' ve g o t a bi t o f practice now , an d etting into t h e mo o d for it. and once you get into the lead an d reali ze y o u 'r e really the guy in charge Yes, under our mail order special you receiveaJack Cotten Super Coil"FREE" when you buy a Speeda tron CD ignition and a set of Ja c k Cotten Silicone Blue Wires. A $143 . 00 list price value for $119.95 . You get the famous Speedatr o n CD and the best set of wires we have bee n a ble 1 0 fi nd, plus a super coil that complete s t he igni t ion s ystem . Check the CD and wires y o u p r e fer o n the co upon and mail with a check - o r s e n d for our fr e e catalog . Offe r good through Dec em be r 31, 1 9 ~ ' 6 . Jon fho mp so ll yo u ge t confidence , and you ' re in mu c h better shape. Once yo u get in the mood and ge t confident th i ng s g ets e a s y . There w as a point a t t h e b eg i n ning of this se a so n th at I b ro k e d o wn , b u t I wa s behind N ik i a nd we were very closely matched. He j u st ha d the edge , bu t-i t w as a t i ny, tiny edge . An d I always said, half of t ha t wa s th e fact that they were in a winning streak and we were no t . I t only needed a tip of th e scales an d we ' d ge t i n to a winning streak and they'd be ou t of it. It ' s a very , very fine balance , an d it only needs to swing a li ttle bi t . That wa s a ll it needed and I wa s no t worried after th e first couple of races, by an y means . And then yo u k n ow it did swing , and no w it s m y jo b t o k ee p i t th a t w ay . ---------- Speedatron point-triggered CD . wir es and coi l. $119 . 95 D Add $25 . 00 lor Opto-Br e akerless CD . Fits all 4 . 6 . and 8 c y lind er e ng i nes . D Meta l c o re w i re . D Ra di o suppre s so r w ir e . D Sp e ed atr o n point tr i gger e d CD o nl y. $ 89 .95 D Sp e ed atr on . O p to -Br e a ke rles s CD o nl y . $ 1 15. 00 D Fr ee ca talo g Sp eci fy m ak e . m o del . n um b e r o f c y l in d e r s. and d isp l a c e ment