In honour of the anniversary of Gilles Villeneuve's death, here are some pictures of him with James Hunt. James is considered to have played a role in bringing Gilles to F1, after hyping him to McLaren when Gilles beat James and Alan Jones at a Formula Atlantic race in 1976.
RIP Gilles.
James Hunt and Gilles Villeneuve on 14th July 1979 at the British Grand Prix. Photo by Bob Thomas
James Hunt and Gilles Villeneuve on 23rd January 1982, at the South African Grand Prix. Photo by Bernard Cahier
Report on Gilles attracting attention from F1 after his victory over James, from Autosport
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Hey you 🫵 hand over the James Lore Dump! …..Please 🥹
YOU 🫵 YES I WILL LORE DUMP JIG, THANK YOU FOR ASKING 😼
AKA, James Marlow is the personal assistant to Zach Varmitech. At first, these guys were merely meant to mirror the ship stobotnik and their dynamic because I found it funny and fun, but they kind of grew into their own thing!! Stobotnik below!! Basically Agent Stone x Doctor Robotnik from the Sonic Movie universe.
I like the idea of an eccentric evil doer and their ecstatic assistant who follows them and praises their boss for everything they do. And for a man like Zach, who trusts nobody but himself and his robots, to have one genuine form of human contact break through those walls and becomes a pillar of trust and respect, it’s fantastic to me.
James, for connections to the Wild Kratts world, is the uncle of Jenny! The Kratt Kid! James has an older sister, and this is her child! These two tend to get into little stifles over James working for Zach. Since technically speaking, they both joined their respective roles around the same time, Jenny with the Kratt Kid program and James with Varmitech Industries.
James had worked in Varmitech Industries after he moved out East from Minnesota to Massachusetts, where Zach’s main tower resides. (Seen Below.) James was about the age of 20, and he worked various secretary jobs, inventory, etc. Eventually, he got promoted at age 23 and asked to take the one job nobody was able to keep. The personal assistant for Zach Varmitech himself. Nobody was able to keep the job for more than a week, the longest anyone lasting about a month or so. James, stubborn and ambitious, took the job in stride.
Now Zach, for what it’s worth, does not believe in the role of personal assistant. He’s got his own army of robots. He doesn’t want some meaningless groveling sycophant to ooze out human error at any chance they get. He doesn’t want another person in his space. So, like the absolute jackass he is, he makes the job a living hell. He makes it hard. He throws challenges at the assistants and isn’t very kind to them. This is why nobody can last more than a week.
Yet James persists. Which aggravates Zach to no end. The Zachbots do exactly what they’re told when James orders them around, the Zachbots seem to like James, and James has yet to actually mess anything up. For what it’s worth. James seems to be perfect. Too perfect. And Zach doesn’t like it. So he keeps James to the wayside, going along with canon antics while James stays back at headquarters taking calls and scheduling stuff for Zach. Zach only really taking James to places when he can’t have his robots but needs a bodyguard.
It takes time, but before you know it, the two of them are a unit working together, and James is having the most fun he’s ever had in his life. He’s joining Zach’s antics, he’s lowkey helping the Wild Kratts out by pointing out animals to them, and James is even helping Zach escape his father’s whims and the Villain Society (because turns out! the villain seminars are very dangerous elite parties and once you’re in, it’s very hard to get out!), all the while encouraging Zach to really shine in his technology.
James is just always like. “Don’t let the little critters limit you Zach, you can be more. Your inventions are changing the world!” And of course, since it’s feeding Zach’s ego, he listens.
James essentially makes Zach mellow out a bit and become a bit more competent while still being an overall whiney failure of a man. But now he has company and isn’t so alone in this world anymore!!
I plan to actually make a comic for these guys, even if it’s a bit ambitious. But RAGHGG.
James is also meant to be a character foil to Koki! as well!! He respects her a TON!!
But that’s just some basic info!! I have so much on these guys but sharing info can be hard LMAO
I met french crush in like june of 2023 through a marauders rp server and she was still dating someone (a very lovely person we're all still friends) and I was absolutely infatuated with evil canadian guy despite his obvious change in personality (drugs basically) so I didn't really think about her that way at this point. Evil canadian guy was the one who introduced me to them so ig I can thank him for that but not really anything else 😒
Late 2023 all of the people from said marauders server convinced me to confront evil canadian guy and then when he didn't change his act (despite promising to) they convinced me to block him. French crush was really lovely to me during this time and I thought I just liked her as a best friend yk, we shared a bunch of interests and it was easy to make conversation
2024 I started realising that I definitely had a crush on her and crashed out about it, we lowkey started fake flirting A LOT and I got all delusional about it before locking in and remembered it wasn't real
Early last year she and her partner broke up because she didn't want to do long distance and she said she's not dating atm (we would be the definition of long distance if we dated) so now I'm just waiting for her to come around/silly/nsrs
We still fake flirt a lot but she does that with all her friends </3
Fifty years ago today, James Hunt took his first win of what became his championship-winning season, and in true James style, it involved a ton of controversy, most/all of which was not actually his fault.
(Photo by Ercole Colombo)
James didn't exactly begin the weekend on a high. He had retired from two of the previous three races, but managed one second place, and that was having secured two poles. His main rival for the title, Niki Lauda, had two wins and a second place to his credit and was looking like he might become the first back-to-back Ferrari champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
Worse still, James's teammate at McLaren, Jochen Mass, was fourth in the WDC standings, and James was fifth, with one point between them. This wasn't good. Mass was considered a solid, safe pair of hands. James, like his nickname at Hesketh, was supposed to be a superstar in waiting. But Mass was driving for number one status - he didn't consider himself a second driver.
(Photographer not known, image from LAT)
In James's favour, Niki had a bit of an accident with a sit-on lawn mower between races and broke his ribs - he was lucky it wasn't more serious, but there was a question over his fitness to race in Spain. He wsa, after an injection of painkillers, but it was potentially a chance for James to make some gains while Niki wasn't at 100%. The Italian press had been calling for a reserve Italian driver to take Niki's place. James had also won the two non-championship races between the US Grand Prix West and Spain, but no points for those, as the names imply.
The Spanish Grand Prix had moved to Madrid permanently in 1976, following the crash at Montjuïc the previous year in which four people were killed - detailed article here.
In advance of the weekend, the regulations on car height and width had changed. Interestingly, the width was set by measuring the McLaren M23, as it was the widest car on the grid. Remember this for later...
(Film director Sidney Pollock chatting with James and Carlos Reutemann. Photo by David Phipps)
It's long been believed that James and Niki enjoyed racing each other because of mutual professional truth - they could race hard and know the other wouldn't do anything misguided. Contemporary sources support this.
James took pole over Niki by three-tenths, but Niki passed him early. James bided his time, aware that Niki likely couldn't drive at full capacity for the entire race, and took the lead on Lap 32. (commentators in the decades since have often said Niki was calculating and smart, while James was passionate and hotheaded. It's worth remembering that Niki thought James was very smart and tactical, as an opponent). Jochen Mass overtook Niki behind James, and was following closely but was instructed to hold position. James was expecting an overtake from his teammate if he made any kind of mistake, but Jochen had engine trouble, so James finished the race almost 31 seconds ahead of Niki in second place.
James Hunt and Jochen Mass at the Spanish Grand Prix, 1976. Photo by Rainer Schlegelmilch
Niki left the track without participating in the podium ceremony, with both his favoured journalist Heinz Prüller, MotorSport Magazine's Denis Jenkinson, and Autosport's Pete Lyons saying he looked pale and unwell (Lyons added "paler than usual", in case anyone might get the impression Niki was liked). Meanwhile, James and Patrick Depailler were presented with their laurels by King Juan Carlos I of Spain.
(LAT Images and Keystone)
Following the race, a consultant on technical regs for FOCA (the teams' association) noticed that the McLaren's tyres were bulging and ordered that the width of the car be checked. Interestingly, interviewed by Autosport for their issue a few days later, the scrutineer (Peter Jowett) said he wished he hadn't said anything. The McLaren was found to be 1.8cm, or 5/8 of an inch too wide. James was disqualified from his race win, and his points awarded to Niki. McLaren protested hard, but the result stood.
Contrary to popular belief, Ferrari didn't seek an investigation or protest. The measurement issue was discovered without Ferrari input. Luca Montezemolo was present for the measuring and was reported to look stony-faced, which he is quite good at.
The result was controversial for a few reasons.
The McLaren had been scrutineered before the race and found to be legal. The point was made that if it had been found illegal then, the team could have applied for, and likely would have got, permission to race anyway, on the grounds that the extra width conferred no performance advantage. There were those who felt the lack of performance advantage meant that no penalty should apply.
James with McLaren Managing Director, and direct successor of Bruce McLaren, and lawyer (usefully), Teddy Mayer, at the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix. Photo by David Phipps
Another issue was that the technical breach was the team's fault, but the driver's championship standing was also affected. James had no ability to change the width of the car. It was suggested that the team could pie a fine and lose Constructors' Points while James retained his driving points, but Niki naturally enough responded to this, saying that if the only punishment for breaking regulations was a fine, they would all be broken.
This race is also believed to have been the first time in F1 history that a driver was stripped of a race win on a literal technicality, and it wasn't popular.
Following the race, Niki had 33 world championship points, more than three times that of his closest challenger, Patrick Depailler, with 10. Behind Clay Regazzoni and Jochen Mass, James had six points, and was fifth in the championship standings.
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Hello! Thank you so much for sharing all these amazing things about James&hisfriends! I've seen on some sites that Ronnie Peterson and Jody Scheckter were described as his close friends, but I can hardly find any further details or anecdotes about their friendships. I was wondering if maybe it's because James didn't have that long of a career as a driver? Anyway, I'm just really curious about the dynamic between James and his fellow racers. Do you perhaps know any good stories about them?
This is such a good question! Apologies it's taken so long to answer but once I saved it as a draft, it disappeared from my ask box so I completely forgot about it!
I think you're right that James's short career means there are fewer stories about him, and also the fact he died so young. He was only a retired driver for fourteen years, so to put that in context, you're talking Mark Webber, Pedro de la Rosa, Kamui Kobayashi today. They're still considered quite recent drivers and don't tend to give long interviews about their racing anecdotes and stories, because their experiences are still well remembered by many current fans. Niki, by contrast, lived long enough to become a historic figure in the sport, and RUSH (2013) meant he was interviewed a lot, especially about James. James just didn't get to have a long reflective period. And Ronnie, of course, also wasn't around to share stories. It was a sad era in so many ways.
However, more cheerfully, to the subject of friendships. There will be a reference to funerals and deaths under the cut.
Jody Scheckter
I'll start with Jody, because he's more straightforward and doesn't die.
James moved to Spain once he started making serious money racing, because the tax regime there was far better than in Britain (a lot of drivers lived in Monaco, Switzerland or Spain at the time, as they tend to live in Monaco or Switzerland today). James was lonely in Spain - he didn't much like the rich expat lifestyle, because in spite of his glamorous image, he was always a very middle class regular guy in most ways. He didn't make a huge number of friends and missed England (as well as his close group of school friends).
Jody Scheckter moved to Spain around the same time as James and they became good friends, according to Scheckter himself. James gave Jody the nickname Fletcher, after a bird in a famous book who kept crashing into things. (James had a tendency to give people nicknames though he never liked nicknames for himself. He didn't even like being called Jamie as a child). James only seemed to give nicknames to people he liked (Ratty, The Good Lord, the Wiener) so that's fairly good evidence that he was fond of Jody.
James is also quoted in Gerard Donaldson's biography (that's the good one, ignore Tom Rubython) and in Against The Odds, cowritten with Eoin Young, speaking about Jody:
I like Fletcher because he has an exceptional intelligence and wit. He's very funny. It used to take a long time to get it out because he's not an educated guy and because of his intelligence, he was aware that he lacked education [...] I like people with good minds: I find it stimulating, and Fletcher has an exceptionally sharp brain.
Long after James's death, Scheckter had this to say about him in 2013:
I liked James. We were in Spain together, when he was in a fancy place and I was down the road in a farmhouse. I was very friendly with him, but didn’t agree with a lot that he did. When he was World Champion, it was all hip and great, whatever he did and however badly he behaved. When he stopped being World Champion it was just bad manners, and he didn’t get away with it so much. He lived more in a short life than most do. He had a very short, good career, but it was the stuff he was doing off the track that made you nervous.
After the 1977 Long Beach Grand Prix, James wrote this in his Autosport column:
Jody is driving with more confidence than I've ever seen from him. the Wolf team have worked very hard on their car and they all deserve the success they are having. Jody is thoroughly enjoying giving two fingers to all those (including me) who thought he had made the wrong decision at the end of last year. I hope they continue their success -- as long as they don't have too much -- because it's terrific to see Jody in such good humour again.
There is a fun story here about James and Jody giving writer Hugh Salmon (a friend of James's younger brother) a lift. I'll let it tell itself rather than copying from another blog.
Ronnie Peterson
This is the sadder story.
James and Ronnie knew each other since their Formula 3 days. Gerard Donaldson describes Ronnie as James's best friend in F1 apart from Niki. When James got on the podium for the first time in F2, in Oulton Park, the first two people to congratulate him were Ronnie and Niki.
(photographer not known)
I did a round-up post for Ronnie's birthday of photos of him with James, which is here. He also has a tag.
I also love this photo of James pretending he's about to grab Barbro Peterson's butt, while Ronnie watches and laughs.
(photographer not known)
When James married Suzy Miller, Ronnie and Barbro were among the guests. So were a lot of F1 drivers, but Niki was a notable absence (since he had to borrow a tie for his own wedding, Niki seems like Not A Wedding Kind of Guy, generally).
Ronnie and Barbro at James's wedding, 18th October 1974
There aren't many stories out there about James and Ronnie but it is generally known that Ronnie, James, Niki and Wattie were all good mates and got on well.
Sadly, James was involved in the crash that killed Ronnie. He wasn't responsible, and in spite of James's efforts to blame Riccardo Patrese, with cooler heads it was eventually concluded no one could be held responsible.
There is an interview of James speaking about Ronnie's crash, made a day or two after Ronnie's death. I don't think it should have been filmed because James was grieving so I won't link to it, but just letting people know it exists.
James (along with Niki, Wattie, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jody Scheckter and Åke Strandberg) was one of the pallbearers at Ronnie's funeral, which is traditionally a role for close friends or family. It is also generally believed that Ronnie's death was a factor in James's seemingly snap decision to retire the following year, and Niki's later the same season.
James Hunt looking adorable at the 1976 US Grand Prix in Watkins Glen. This is the weekend in which he and Niki Lauda had a loud argument in the dining room of their hotel, then ate dinner together, cleared the air and requested adjoining rooms. On the morning of the race, Niki burst into James's room in his racing overalls, announced he would be World Champion that day, and left immediately, putting James into what he later called "an enormous twitch right through breakfast." Photos by Eric Schweikardt
For British people of a particular micro-generation, James Hunt is associated as much with being a commentator with the BBC as being a driver - maybe even more so. His driving career in F1 (or as he genteel-y called it, Grand Prix racing) lasted six years, his commentary career for more than twice that.
It's a lovely second chapter in James's life. After being a championship-winning driver, he found another element of the sport he loved and managed to become an iconic figure at that, too. And most of the reason his commentary career is so well remembered is his legendary partnership with Murray Walker.
(There is scope for a few posts about James's commentary career, and I may come back to it in future to talk about money, or activism, or controversies, but today it's all about James and Murray).
I can't emphasise enough how big a figure Murray Walker is in British F1. He was the unmistakable voice of the sport for decades, commentating on every race from 1976-2001 (though he worked full-time in a regular person job until the early 80s). He was a huge character who lived a long life and was revered by fans, not in spite of his quirks and limitations but because of them. His screw ups on the mic were legendary to the point that he was nicknamed Muddly Talker (Mike Doodson, writing about their partnership in Motorsport magazine, blames James for that one, and he was a chronic nicknamer). Murray commentated alongside Martin Brundle later in his career, but it's the Murray Walker and James Hunt partnership that's considered the golden age of F1 commentary in Britain.
It's telling that no one was permanently recruited to James's vacant role after he died; Murray returned to commentating solo for years, with occasional guests, before working with Martin Brundle.
Because Murray and James had something special.
Which included wine, an almost-punch-up, refusing to share notes, some swearing, endless complaints, quite a few lies, a sneaky joint, and ultimately, mutual respect and genuine fondness.
James's first experience of commentary was at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1980. His leg was in plaster after a skiing accident, and he famously, according to Murray, arrived
"...in his frayed denim shorts, his shoeless feet, his right leg in a cast from ankle to crutch, and clasping a litre of rosé. I won’t go so far as to say he was drunk but he was, well, full.
He then proceeds to put his plaster cast in my lap and get stuck into the rosé. God knows why, but our producer actually sent out for a second litre bottle halfway through the race. It all made for a pretty difficult situation. But James had the knack of surviving incidents like that."
From that start, it was hard to believe they would become so iconic.
The BBC only gave them one mic, so they couldn't talk over each other. This meant a *lot* of arguments and fights over it. From time to time, both James and Murray would separately approach their boss, Jonathan Martin, to complain the other one was hogging the mic. Jonathan would promise to talk to the alleged hog, would do nothing, and then the complainant would come and thank him and say the problem had got much better. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
Murray Walker, Mike Doodson and James Hunt
In a radio interview, Murray told this story:
"I was standing up and James was sitting down and I was giving it plenty.
James saw the old boy had been talking long enough and he gave the microphone wire a terrific tug. The microphone flew out of my hands and into his.
I had my fists back to give him a fourpenny one because I was absolutely incandescent with rage."
Luckily, the producer caught Murray's attention and gestured at him not to hit James, and he didn't.
Murray also points out in a lot of interviews about James that they belonged to different generations. Murray was born in 1923 and James in 1947; they literally could have been father and son.
Murray was known for being high-energy, wild and excitable. James, in his commentary career, was much more chill. Murray spent the entire weekend roaming the paddock for information; James sat in the Marlboro motorhome and waited for gossip to come to him. Murray felt that as a non-racing driver, he had no right to criticise drivers in his commentating. James criticised everyone - so much so that he had to apologise to drivers on air from time to time. I love one clip of James apologising to Senna with Murray beside him like a dad bringing his son to say sorry for breaking a window. James does not consider this interaction to require a shirt.
(I can't find a non-Meta link for it, but if you google "James hunt Senna apology" and select video results, it should be the second one)
Some of James and Murray's best moments together:
James swearing
"Flames!!"
James teaching Murray to drive an F1 car
There is a long video on YouTube (well, 12 minutes plus) of Murray and James discussing the 1992 season before it began. Sadly this would be the last season James would witness in its entirety. I think it's worth a look because in my opinion, it shows James at his best. At this point in his life he was in a committed and happy relationship with Helen Dyson, he was an involved father with his sons, he wasn't misusing alcohol (he does have a glass of wine in this video, but he wasn't drinking to excess in his final years) and he had fully settled into a respected role as an expert and commentator. It also shows the deep mutual respect and liking that had grown between James and Murray.
As James died while their partnership was ongoing, he isn't on record reflecting or speaking about it much, so we don't really know firsthand how he felt about Murray. It is fair to guess that his feelings were extremely warm, since Murray was asked to speak at James's memorial service. It feels like the close people planning the service would have only invited people to speak who were important to James.
Murray participated in a documentary about James, called The Real James Hunt, which has a lot of flaws. The documentary used Murray's quote about his impression of James during his racing days (not good) and didn't use the rest of the interview. Murray complained about this publicly, saying it misrepresented his opinion of James by only featuring his impression from before he and James worked together. He also felt the documentary downplayed James's commentary career. I wrote about that documentary here, before I knew anything about Murray's feelings on it, and my impressions at the time are pretty much the same as Murray's. Murray was on good terms with James's sons until his own death, so luckily it's fair to assume no one close to James was upset by what Murray said on camera.
Murray's final tribute to James is lovely, but be warned, it is sad to watch. I think it shows how Murray had genuinely come to like James as well as respect him, and that there was real grief when he died. The grief of a friend.
