Jody Scheckter: the lone wolf

It’s been said James Hunt recommended Walter Wolf’s new team to Jody Scheckter for 1977 because Hesketh designer Harvey Postlethwaite was in charge of the car – but that’s not what the South African remembers. When Jody made sensational history by winning first time out in Argentina, he recalls Hunt saying, “That’s great, Scheckter’s won the first race, he’s out of the way. He’s not going to be competitive.”

Instead, having run out of patience with Tyrrell and the P34 six-wheeler he never believed in, Scheckter embarked on a remarkable run in a new single-car team that amounted to four consecutive podiums, including a career landmark win at Monaco. In fact it wasn’t until round nine at Paul Ricard that Niki Lauda’s Ferrari relieved Scheckter and Wolf of the championship lead. A string of retirements and too many unforced errors derailed the bid – although a strong finish, including a remarkable third win of the season at Mosport, lifted him back to a distant second to Lauda by the season’s end.

“It was a good car, absolutely,” says Jody. “We had two problems. One was what we thought was a fuel pick-up problem, but it was actually a percolation problem. The team couldn’t cure it. Halfway through a race the engine would just cut out. I was leading at Hockenheim and it started cutting out in the chicanes. The other problem was me. I made some mistakes and crashed. I was leading in Belgium and spun. I could and should have won the title but I never thought about the championship. It was a small team and I just wanted to see if I could be competitive.”

It isn’t Postlethwaite he best remembers working with, but Harvey’s promising number two, Patrick Head. “I worked really well with Patrick,” says Jody. “Then he said, ‘I’m leaving to go to Frank Williams,’ and I said, ‘He’s a w***er, what are you doing? Stay!’ Within a year they were beating us.”