Juan Manuel Fangio was the Formula One king, winning five world championships in the early 1950s — before protective gear or safety features were used.
The new decade brought a record number of entries for the start of the season. Expectations were high that the champions of 1979, Ferrari and Jody Scheckter, could be beaten. Enter Team Williams and Alan Jones - the new force in a bright new era for Formula One racing. But it took the entire 1980 season before the victory was in the bag. Jones took the opening race, but then faltered. Brabham’s Nelson Piquet took advantage in the interim, completing a spectacular double in the Dutch and US GPs to lead the championship with two races remaining. It was up to Williams and Jones to pull out all the stops to seize the title.
1977 saw Niki Lauda start the season, scarred but fit. And determined to put his horrific accident in '76 behind him. Despite Lauda's poor start and total of only 3 wins for the season, he picked up points at all but three GPs, and was rewarded for his consistency with his second championship victory. Lauda chose not to complete the season, and instead, Ferrari gave the drive to a young and ambitious Gilles Villeneuve.
1976 saw reigning Champion Niki Lauda start as the favourite in his Ferrari, as nearest rival Emerson Fittipaldi made the patriotic switch from McLaren to the Brazilian-funded Copersucar team. This left a hole at McLaren, filled by the ambitious, British hopeful, James Hunt, to set the scene for a dramatic season of racing. 1976 will probably be best remembered for 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 Japan that decided the title.
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