CHENNAI: A visit to the paddocks at the Madras Motor Racing Track over the weekend is like getting into a time machine and travelling to a Grand Prix weekend in the 70s. The first thing that catches your eye will probably be the sight of a tall man with fashionably careless blonde hair, walking around bare-feet with his race suit hanging open at the waist, his bare torso glistening in the sun. From a distance, he looks like a ghost plucked from the pages of some old racing magazine and let loose on unsuspecting racers at the MRF Challenge. A closer inspection though will lead to the rather disappointing conclusion that James Hunt has not miraculously come back to life.
The name of the car reads Hunt, but it is the 1976 Formula One world champion’s son Freddie who is attracting all the eyeballs at the MMRT. The similarities with his illustrious yet notorious father do not end with the striking physical resemblance, says Freddie. “I’m pretty similar to him. I used to party a lot as well, but I’m learning from my mistakes.”
His career though couldn’t be more different. At 27, the season past was a relaunch of sorts for Freddie. His last season in single-seaters came in 2009 and he was on a three-year break from racing. But M&N team owner Jose Pottamkulam Oota approached him with an offer he could not refuse — to team up with the son of his father’s greatest rival, Niki Lauda, at the MRF Challenge. “Mathias (Lauda) is a great guy and it was fun teaming up with him. We have become good friends now. It has been a superb experience driving at the MRF Challenge and I am not ruling out returning next year,” he says.
Freddie though is not looking to emulate his father’s F1 heroics and is looking to make a name in endurance racing. “F1 was originally the plan for me, but things change. I’m a bit too old for it now. I’m 27, while (Max) Verstappen is 17. Also I don’t like the politics of Formula One. It’s not what it used to be,” he opines.
And what would a conversation with Hunt jr be without a mention of ‘Rush’ — the 2013 film based on his father’s and Lauda’s legendary rivalry in the 1976 season! “I liked the film. It was fairly accurate, but not completely so. But I understand that it is a movie and not a documentary, so they have to change some things. It did help in bringing that rivalry to the attention of a younger audience.”
