"It gave notice that we weren't complete idiots"

Hesketh Racing lit up the Formula One scene 50 years ago, but there was depth to the team's talents beyond its playboy image

- JAMES PAGE

The New Year celebrations had barely faded when the great and the good of the Formula One Constructors' Association gathered at Olympia in London. They were there to give their side of the story in a dispute with race organisers, who had recently formed their own 'union' Grand Prix International. With less than a month to go before the start of the 1973 World Championship, battle lines had been drawn and it all boiled down to one thing: money.

The Constructors' Association included all of the top teams and, in effect, offered the organisers a 'package deal': we'll come to your race if you pay us a certain amount. If you don't, you get none of us. With costs going up, it said its members needed much more start and prize money to survive, and Grand Prix International said it couldn't afford it. Its argument was that much-needed improvements to both safety and spectator facilities at its circuits simply didn't leave enough in the pot.

Over the winter of 1972-'73, it seemed that the situation had reached an impasse. It was typical of a turbulent decade in which the sport moved away from old-style Grand Prix racing towards the modern, trademarked entity. known as Formula One. Great road circuits were being replaced by sterile autodromes, and financial necessity dictated that famous team names were now officially prefaced by those of their sponsors - John Player Team Lotus, Yardley McLaren and Marlboro BRM.

Into the middle of it all came Hesketh Racing, a team with zero commercial backing but money seemingly to burn, a confidently stated ambition to make James Hunt World Champion, an unashamed desire to enjoy themselves in the process, and a car that would take on a grid full of mobile billboards finished in nothing more than virginal white with patriotic flashes of red and blue.