ANOTHER legend could be forged this afternoon in the John Player Grand Prix, tenth round of the 1984 world championship. For five top drivers will be poised to get on terms with Frenchman Alain Prost, who threatens to run away with the drivers’ championship.

Their determination will take them to the limits of bodily and mental endurance. James Hunt has been through it all and knows the demands.

He remembers the effects that 1¾ hours of hard driving can have on a driver, who can lose up to 9lbs in body weight during a race. Drivers have even been taken to hospital suffering from dehydration, despite their legendary fitness.

The physical output during a race is absolutely flat-out, he says, unless the circuit has a decent straight to give you a rest. Even then, driven at more than three miles a minute, the longest straight in Grand Prix racing lasts only 20 seconds.

Brands Hatch affords no such respite during the non-stop search for the most rapid line through its difficult curves and undulations.

So what is it going to be like on that circuit this afternoon? Says Hunt:

‘A Grand Prix car is unbelievably heavy to drive. When its pulling three times the force of gravity through a corner with a bit of banking and a dip, you are on the limit of human strength to actually move the steering.

Frightening consequences

‘You have to use all your muscle just to keep your hands on the wheel, your head and helmet upright, and your feet on the pedals. You can’t brace them on anything because you have to be able to make delicate movements with the controls.’

Yet the circuit, set in the green folds of the Kent countryside, is popular with the drivers.

‘It’s very challenging, and something to get their teeth into. Also, the rescue services give them great confidence because the marshals here are the best in the world.’

However, reckons Hunt, bravery is seldom part of the equation.

‘What is required for motor racing is to be stupid enough to do it in the first place. It’s not frightening to drive a racing car - until you have an accident, and that lasts about one second.

‘Anyhow, if speed scared you, you’d never be that good in the first place. But it is frightening to consider the consequences in the cold light of day.’

Hunt still remembers the feeling of waking on race day. Each driver has to learn to cope in his own way but early in his Formula One career Hunt used to feel sick in the stomach at the prospect of a Grand Prix.

Clean start is critical

‘That was pure nerves, just as it you were lining up for the 100 metres final in Los Angeles.’

Making a clean start is critical. ‘You bust your arse in qualifying for two days, putting in a lot of physical and mental effort to maybe bump yourself up two extra places on the grid. But you can gain six places by making a good start, or lose six with a bad one.

‘Its a bit of a lottery, and the turbo cars are very difficult to get away from the line.’

So it’s difficult to predict a race winner, even when final qualifying times have been posted.

Even with the proviso that he has a weekend free of trouble, nobody starts with odds better than 3-1.

And he names six drivers from which today’s winner should come:

‘Nigel Mansell is getting a lot of flak at the moment. But he’s very determined, a tough fellow psychologically. His driving is certainly forceful and quick. He might have had a couple of wins by now, but he absolutely chucked it away in Monaco. I’m sure he learned from that, and he’ll have the additional stimulus of his home crowd rooting for him. It might be his big day.

‘Elio de Angelis is a talented top-level driver, and the Lotus is very good. Yet there’s a question mark over his total commitment. He suffers from what I’d call “Italianism” - his driving seems to verge on the volatile when that’s not called for.

‘Nelson Piquet, the reigning champion, is outstandingly good. He’s the man of the moment who is in the process of attaining the head-and-shoulders-above-the-others status last held by Jackie Stewart. Engine problems have given him a miserable season. But, when everything worked, he was able to show his form with brilliant wins in Montreal and Detroit.

‘Derek Warwick is good. I said at the beginning of the season that he could be world champion this year. Though he’s made a couple of mistakes which he ought not to have and lost points. He’s quick and has a good car. But Renault is a real chiefs-and-no-Indians team.

‘Niki Lauda is the same as ever - plenty of life in the old dog. He’s fitter than he ever was in the first phase of his career. He is highly motivated and concentrating fully. He doesn’t qualify as well as Prost, but he drives a tactical race. He doesn’t do any charging in the early laps. He lets the others knock each other off, and waits until quarter distance before he really starts to make progress, which is the sensible thing to do.

Uncharacteristic mistakes

‘Alain Prost is definitely a tough guy, very bright and competitive. Both he and McLaren seem on form this week. Yet there is a weakness somewhere there. He’s made two big mistakes uncharacteristic of the rest of his driving. If he hadn’t taken himself and Piquet out at Zandvoort last year, he’d be champion now, not Piquet. And Dallas, two weeks ago, was a carbon copy. Prost had it sewn up, then blew it. Lauda was so busy laughing at this that he forgot to look where he was going.’

"The thing about motor racing

is to be stupid enough

to do it in the first place"

Interview: Tony Howard

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