This is the DVD review of the 1976 Grand Prix Season - Hunt for the Title - which saw James Hunt crowned as the 1976 F1 Drivers Champion.
The reigning Champion, Niki Lauda in the Ferrari, started the 1976 season as the favourite for the Championship. His nearest rival, Emerson Fittipaldi, made the patriotic switch from McLaren to the Brazilian funded Copersucar team. This left a hole at McLaren... it was filled by the ambitious British hopeful with the playboy image, James Hunt, to set the scene for a dramatic season of racing.
Tyrrell stole the limelight early on in the season, not for their results, but through the unveiling of their revolutionary six-wheeled P34 - it certainly was a unique sight to F1 fans. Hunt quickly adapted to life at McLaren and, unfazed by Lauda's early dominance, continued to pick up valuable points and podium finishes.
The 1976 season however will probably be best remembered for Niki Lauda's horrific accident at the Nurburgring that nearly ended his life and saw him rushed to hospital with major burns. His resilience and dedication to racing saw him make a remarkable recovery, returning six weeks later to ensure a thrilling climax to a season that ended with only one point separating 1st and 2nd place in the championship. Again it was the last eventful race in the rain in Japan that decided the title.
The 1976 Formula 1 season is perfectly summarised in this 52 minute DVD using archive footage from Brunswick Films. The review is a wonderful piece of Grand Prix nostalgia in which the dashing James Hunt, driving for McLaren, thrillingly clinched the 1976 Formula One Drivers Championship on the final Grand Prix of the season.
Brunswick Films were one of the few producers filming Formula One in the days before global TV coverage, multi-camera angles and official season review DVDs and videos. The previously unseen footage from their famous archive has been utilised to create a review packed with on-the-limit driving (including an in-car lap of Brands Hatch), great close-ups of the major personalities and intriguing paddock-side discussions that give the sense of a story unfolding as the season progresses – the story of ‘car wars’ and the battle between set-up, streamlining and engine power. It's very much a film of its time.
