James Hunt's Formula 1 World Championship title was confirmed 50 years ago today, and the British racer marked the occasion in his characteristic playboy style. Hunt won the 1976 championship, beating legendary rival Niki Lauda after a season packed with dramatic moments.
While the former F1 star was celebrated for his seven-year career on the grid, during which he won 10 Grand Prix races, Hunt was best known for his love of partying and his seductive nature. The Brit emerged as a sex symbol in the 1970s and reportedly engaged in notorious behaviour at the peak of his career.
Claims of 5,000 Women and Air Hostesses
Hunt allegedly slept with as many as 5,000 women during his life, a figure that reportedly included 35 air hostesses during his title-winning season. After his death in 1993 from a heart attack at the age of 45, his son Freddie spoke openly about his father's party lifestyle and his reported drug use.
Freddie told The Times: "I can't vouch for the number of women but I know that Dad wasn't a junkie. He just liked getting loose at parties. He took coke, but he wasn't a cokehead. We do behave quite similarly. Then again, my mum was pretty naughty too."
Son's Account of the Lifestyle
Commenting on his father's womanising abilities, Freddie added: "There were witnesses. There was a fresh supply of hostesses. They would come to the hotel, stop over, then get on the plane the next day. There was a different one every night."
Hunt first married Suzy Miller two years before his F1 title win, but she left him a year later for actor Richard Burton. He then married his second wife, Sarah Lomax, in 1983, and had two children with her, including Freddie.
Personal Life and Final Years
The couple separated in 1988 but continued to live together until divorcing a year later due to adultery committed by Hunt. He found love again just before his death in 1993, with waitress Helen Dyson, who was 18 years his junior. He proposed to her but died the next day.
According to reports, Hunt enjoyed a very active sex life, allegedly bedding 33 British Airways stewardesses in just two weeks at one point. The Surrey-born star reportedly fed his "gigantic appetite for sex" by inviting air hostesses to his suite before taking to the grid at the Tokyo Grand Prix.
Patrick Head, co-founder of Williams F1, allegedly walked in on Hunt with a local woman in the pit garage when Head was a young car designer. Despite this unusual preparation, Hunt went on to win the championship and "drained the aircraft of alcohol" as he returned to the UK to celebrate his victory.
