The 1976 championship without misfortune

[mnmracer]

The 1976 Formula One world championship was so epic that it inspired a Hollywood movie and several documentaries. The methodical reigning champion Nikia Lauda vs. the hard partying playboy James Hunt. The controversy surrounding Hunt's post-race disqualifications and the inspiring fight of Lauda for his life and to come back after just 6 weeks.

In the end, Niki Lauda was only one point short of James Hunt. With as much as has happened that year, I decided to see how things would have turned out if not if for misfortune. Of course, it would be impossible to eliminate the biggest misfortune of the year, Niki Lauda's near-fatal crash at the Nürbürgring, but let's see how things go.

What counts as misfortune: mechanical failure, being crashed in to by another driver, undeserved penalties
What does not count as misfortune: wrong tactical choices, crashing their own car, penalty by the driver’s own doing

note: In the 1976 championship, only the best 7 results of the first 8 races, and the best 7 results of the last 8 races counted towards the championship. This will be reflected in the championship standings following the French Grand Prix and the Japanese Grand Prix.

note 2: The championship standings after each race reflect the final season results, any later disqualifications already take into account.

Brazilian Grand Prix
Lauda benefitted when Regazzoni had a slow puncture early on in the race, however, Regazzoni's later race pace did not seem to indicate he would have otherwise fought for the podium. Although James Hunt's race came to an early end when his throttle stuck, a problem which had caused him to drop from second back to seventh. Considering Jean-Pierre Jarier's pace though, it is unlikely Hunt would have helt on to second place, so a third place would have been likely.

1976 standings: Lauda 9pts; Hunt 0pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 9pts; Hunt 4pts

South African Grand Prix
Lauda took his second victory of the season, in front of Hunt. No changes in the context of this article.

1976 standings: Lauda 18pts; Hunt 6pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 18pts; Hunt 10pts

United States Grand Prix West
James Hunt retired from 3rd place in lap 3 when Patrick Depailler turned into the Brit trying to overtake him. Although it was too early to consider Hunt for the victory, this definitely cost him 2nd place, which also moved Lauda up one place on the podium. Thus, I reïnstate Hunt in 2nd, with Lauda in 3rd.

1976 standings: Lauda 24pts; Hunt 6pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 22pts; Hunt 16pts

Spanish Grand Prix
Controversy when race winnner James Hunt was initially disqualified when his car was found to be 18mm too wide. McLaren appealed this decission and won, argueing that the car was found legal before the race and the hot tires had expanded. The FIA approved the appeal and reïnstated the original results, with Hunt winning in front of Lauda.

1976 standings: Lauda 30pts; Hunt 15pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 28pts; Hunt 25pts

Belgian Grand Prix
While Niki Lauda took his third victory of the season, gearbox problems cost James Hunt a third place podium finish.

1976 standings: Lauda 39pts; Hunt 15pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 37pts; Hunt 31pts

Monaco Grand Prix
James Hunt was having a horrible weekend in Monaco, qualifying only in 14th place, spinning before finally retiring with an engine problem. As Hunt was nowhere near the points when he retired, it doesn't affect the championships standings.

1976 standings: Lauda 48pts; Hunt 15pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 46pts; Hunt 31pts

Swedish Grand Prix
Both Ferrari and McLaren were struggling for speed in Anderstorp, but Mario Andretti's retirement from the lead, as well as Chris Amon's suspension failure moved up both Niki Lauda and James Hunt two spots.

1976 standings: Lauda 52pts; Hunt 17pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 48pts; Hunt 31pts

French Grand Prix
When Lauda suffered his first mechanical retirement of the season, James Hunt took victory. In the context of this article, this means Niki Lauda gets first place back, with James Hunt finishing second.

1976 standings: Lauda 52pts; Hunt 26pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 55pts; Hunt 37pts

British Grand Prix
The British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch was cause for more controversy, when James Hunt was stripped of his win after illegally restarting the race in the spare car. As this was brought on only because of an accident out of his control, I'll let him take part in the race, but note that it were gearbox problems that helped James Hunt take the lead from Lauda. As such, I give Lauda 1st, and Hunt 2nd.

1976 standings: Lauda 61pts; Hunt 26pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 64pts; Hunt 43pts

German Grand Prix
Every Formula One fan at the time knows where he was at the time of the German Grand Prix, the race that almost cost Niki Lauda his life. For the purpose of this article however, it is undoable to 'undo' this horrific crash, so Hunt wins, with a heavy heart, the German Grand Prix.

1976 standings: Lauda 61pts; Hunt 35pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 64pts; Hunt 52pts

Austrian Grand Prix
The McLaren was struggling around the Östenreichring, with James Hunt taking only 4th place.

1976 standings: Lauda 61pts; Hunt 38pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 64pts; Hunt 55pts

Dutch Grand Prix
Although Hunt was hot on the Swedes tail, it was oil pressure problems that made pole sitter Ronnie Peterson drop back from the lead, into eventual retirement. We'll have to give this one back to Peterson than, setting James Hunt back to second place.

1976 standings: Lauda 61pts; Hunt 47pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 64pts; Hunt 58pts

Italian Grand Prix
James Hunt was sent to the back of the grid because of 'fuel irregularities', which they were cleared of one week later. As such, in this article James Hunt is given back his 9th place on the grid. Starting near the front, Hunt would not have had his race-ending collision with Tom Pryce, but as he wasn't setting the track on fire either, it's hard to place him. All things considering, I'm giving Hunt 6th place, behind Lauda and Scheckter.

1976 standings: Lauda 64pts; Hunt 47pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 67pts; Hunt 59pts

Canadian Grand Prix
James Hunt took victory from pole position while Lauda was struggling for speed. He also developed fuel problems while in 5th place, which we will return to him.

1976 standings: Lauda 64pts; Hunt 56pts
Alternative standings: Lauda 69pts; Hunt 68pts

United States Grand Prix
James Hunt took the second victory in a row in North America, while Lauda finished in 3rd. Nothing happened to either of them in the contex of this article though.

1976 standings: Lauda 68pts; Hunt 65pts
Alternative standings: Hunt 77pts; Lauda 73pts

Japanese Grand Prix
Having only just survived his horrific crash at the Nürbürgring, the appauling conditions at Fuji were reason enough for Niki Lauda to retire from the race, which meant that James Hunt only needed 4th place to win the world championship. Both Hunt and Depailler lost a lot of time when their tires deflated, it made no difference to the race result in the end.

1976 standings: Hunt 69pts; Lauda 68pts
Alternative standings: Hunt 81pts; Lauda 73pts

Conclusion
There is little doubt that had it not been for his horror crash in Germany, Niki Lauda would have been the 1976 world champion. Taking some other things into account as I've done here though, gives a little more context to the 1976 season and the 1 point difference James Hunt had over Lauda in the end.

[FoxHound]

Let me not sound too harsh, i appreciate the background work.
But, a pointless thread.

As if a problem was solved without the problems.
Let history be a lesson in not trying to decipher "what if" when we know the reality. There is nothing positive to be gained here.

[bdr529]

Let me not sound too harsh, i appreciate the background work.
But, a pointless thread.

As if a problem was solved without the problems.
Let history be a lesson in not trying to decipher "what if" when we know the reality. There is nothing positive to be gained here.

I completly agree the " what if " game is pointless
except for 2008: what if Hamilton didn't pass Timo Glock, then Massa would have been WDC

[Roland Ehnström]

I liked it, I found it a quite interesting read. It was a great season, and Rush was better than expected. =D>

[hollus]

Mechanical DNFs in the 70s were not "misfortune", they were a statistical fact of life racing prototypes. You almost expected at 50% DNF rate.

[f1316]

I agree with both sides: it's both interesting AND pointless

[mnmracer]

I agree with both sides: it's both interesting AND pointless

Good thing I write it for just one of those sides .

[Primus]

I liked the article. Thank you for the interesting read mnmracer.

[Richard]

I can see why you might exclude external factors but disagree about mech failure because that is within the team's control. In my mind mech failure should be the same as driver failure.

[Stradivarius]

I can see why you might exclude external factors but disagree about mech failure because that is within the team's control. In my mind mech failure should be the same as driver failure.

I agree to this and I would also like to add that the reason for mechanical failures in formula 1 is pretty much always performance related. The closer to the limits you go, the more performance you gain, but at the same time you increase the risk of failures. To save weight, parts are designed to take the expected load and not much more, and to reduce air drag, cooling surfaces are kept at a minimum, just to mention some obvious examples. The tolerances/margins may vary.

At the same time we know that different teams with different people have different philosophies in terms of reliability and performance. The same actually goes for the driver with respect to their willingness to take risks. Some drivers always try to overtake, being as aggressive as they can, while other drivers are more careful, not making an aggressive move right away. This is an evaluation the driver needs to make, not only considering the risk of making a mistake himself, but also taking into account the risk of the opponent making a mistake which makes him the innocent victim. So if you always excuse the aggressive driver for incidents where others get the blame for a collision and give him back the points he lost, it is not fair towards the less aggressive driver who successfully stayed out of trouble.

[bdr529]

I remember back then a mechanical failure was more often then not caused by the driver in the first place,
engine is damaged becauce the driver over reved it, the engine lets go becauce driver misses a gear change,
broken suspension because the driver hit a curb, guardrail or better yet getting airborne at a few tracks.
All pretty common retirements in the 70's

[Sombrero]

It was a well know fact back in the days : "The engine/gearbox blew up just like that...".

[Miguel]

To analyse the misfortune of 1976 without taking into account Lauda's almost lethal accident is an act of extreme hypocrisy. Lauda abandoned the German GP, missed the next two, and arguably lost a ton of speed for the rest of his career, not just the final 1976 races.

You might as well have said "Lauda was lucky not to die", substract all his points onwards, and award the title to Hunt for an even bigger margin.

[R_Redding]

Hunt was stripped of his win after illegally restarting the race in the spare car.

Not quite right.
Crash on the first lap.... the race was stopped...... the rules were that you must complete the circuit and pit..... Hunt used one of the access roads off the track that was a lot quicker. That technicality was used to have Hunt stripped of his points.

Rob

[mnmracer]

Hunt was stripped of his win after illegally restarting the race in the spare car.

Not quite right.
Crash on the first lap.... the race was stopped...... the rules were that you must complete the circuit and pit..... Hunt used one of the access roads off the track that was a lot quicker. That technicality was used to have Hunt stripped of his points.

Rob

There's a lot of different stories regarding that race but I looked into it.

Hunt's car was badly damaged after the first-corner accident, so it was not as much a choice of convenience, as one of not driving your broken down car another 2.5 miles to the pits. But that was irrelevant, because the rules as laid out before the race were that in case of a restart, drivers were not allowed to use their spare car. When the crowd found it this meant Hunt would not be able to restart the race, they got rowdy and started throwing stuff onto the track and at marshals. Because of this, the decision was made to allow Hunt to start anyway, but Ferrari later complained to the FIA that this was in violation of the rules as determined before the race, and the FIA agreed with that.