A former McLaren F1 chief who worked closely with James Hunt has slammed the blockbuster film Rush, despite starring in it himself.

Rush was released in 2013, and depicted the fierce on-track rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt during the late 1970s.

Lauda went into the 1976 season as the F1 champion having claimed the 1975 title with Ferrari.

But 1976 saw the emergence of a familiar foe, with his rival from the junior series Hunt having joined McLaren after performing well with Hesketh in 1975.

Hunt and Lauda were then involved in a closely fought championship battle in 1976, in which Hunt was the victor following a near-fatal incident for Lauda at the 1976 German Grand Prix.

Lauda almost lost his life in the days following the incident having suffered some serious burns, but remarkably made a full recovery, and was back racing in F1 by the 1976 Italian GP, before claiming the title in 1977.

Now, Hunt’s former technical director at McLaren – Alastair Caldwell – has described the Rush film depicting their rivalry as a ‘joke’, claiming that the pair always remained good friends away from the track.

Caldwell actually starred in the film back in 2013, having a cameo role as a race official.

“Well, if you watch the film Rush, which is a bit of a joke, really, because it doesn’t actually tell the story, but it’s ‘a story’,” Caldwell told Goodwood’s YouTube channel.

“You’ll see that they crash at Brands Hatch in their early days, in their Formula 3 days, and they shout at each other and blah blah. And this is true, but they came to Brands Hatch in James’s Mini, and they went home in James’s Mini, and they lived together in a Knightsbridge flat. So they were the best of friends, and they always were.

“On the racetrack, they gave no quarter, because that’s the way it was. But in real life, the opposite of the film Rush was true. James and Niki were the best of friends.”

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Lauda’s 1976 crash

The 1976 German Grand Prix is one of the most infamous events in F1 history, and Lauda was fortunate to survive the incident.

Lauda lost control of his Ferrari before the right-hand Bergwerk curve at the Nurburgring track, and crashed into an earth bank, before the car bounced back onto the track, engulfed in flames.

Brett Lunger hit Lauda’s stricken car, while Harald Ertl then hit into the back of Lunger’s car. Lauda’s rivals stopped and helped him out of his burning Ferrari car, but Lauda had suffered serious burns and was rushed by helicopter to the Bundeswehr hospital in Koblenz.

The Austrian racer was left scarred for the rest of his life, but didn’t let it stop him, going on to claim two more championships in 1977 and 1984 and go down in history as one of the greatest ever F1 racers.

Lauda retired in 1985, and in later years worked as a non-executive chairman for Mercedes during their dominant period in the sport led by Lewis Hamilton.

The F1 legend unfortunately passed away in 2019 aged 70 after suffering kidney issues following a lung transplant.

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McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown has put to bed once and for all rumours that team principal Andrea Stella will be moving to Ferrari.

Following the announcement that Gianpiero Lambiase would be joining McLaren, rumours suddenly began to swirl about the future of their current team principal Stella.

Having spent 14 years at Ferrari, Stella was linked to a switch to a team principal role back in Italy thanks to his work transforming McLaren into championship winners in recent years.

When McLaren announced Lambiase would be joining the team, their press release immediately dispelled these rumours by confirming the race engineer would become their chief racing officer to assist Stella in his current role.

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Brown ends transfer rumours

Speaking to Sky Sports, Brown also ended any speculation Stella would be moving to Ferrari, by offering a twist to the Lambiase signing tale.

Rather than Lambiase being Brown’s decision, it was Stella who decided to hire the Red Bull man.

“I can confirm that’s total nonsense. And you know, a team or two stirring… great part of our sport is everyone likes to maybe destabilise teams, but that doesn’t work here,” Brown explained.

“Andrea is very committed to McLaren. We’re very committed to Andrea. Couldn’t be happier. And you’re going to see him for the McLaren outfit. Zero chance [of him leaving].

“They’ll work together. Andrea at the end of the day is the one who hired GP [Gianpiero Lambiase].”

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Former IndyCar star and F1 hopeful Colton Herta says he almost signed for Red Bull’s sister team Alpha Tauri (now Racing Bulls).

Herta completed the switch from American open wheel racing to Formula 2 this year, in a bid to acquire the five extra FIA super licence points he needs to make his F1 dream a reality.

The 26-year-old also signed as new team Cadillac’s test driver for 2026 and will make four FP1 appearances this season, starting at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix in June.

While a driver needs 40 super licence points to compete in F1 full-time, young drivers can obtain a free practice only super licence which they can get with 25 points.

This means, being on 35 super licence points, Herta is eligible to take part in FP1 sessions this year.

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How Herta nearly signed for Red Bull

During a recent appearance on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Herta was asked about the time he nearly signed an F1 contract. Host Tom Clarkson referred to a period in the paddock when they were all led to believe that Herta had signed for Alpha Tauri (now Racing Bulls).

The Alpha Tauri squad was and remains owned by Red Bull, with their former advisor Dr Helmut Marko responsible for signing drivers and was in frequent contact with Herta during this period.

When asked how being on the precipice of signing an F1 contract felt for Herta, he responded: “I really liked the straightforward-ness of dealing with Dr Marko. Sometimes it hurts as a driver, you don’t want to hear some things but sometimes you need to hear them.

“But the good thing about all of that is he’s very straightforward on the possibility of it. One day it was 80 per cent and the next day it’s 40 per cent, we clawed back some so maybe 60.

“There was a very real possibility that I had a contract from them, I was just unable to sign because I didn’t have a super licence. And they were feeling really good at a point that they thought it was going to happen, and then they weren’t sure and eventually I couldn’t really wait too much more.

“I had to sign a new deal in IndyCar, Michael [Andretti] and Dan [Towriss] were very gracious to have me back in IndyCar and so I signed with them, which ended up being the right thing because I would have had no Formula 1 and no IndyCar seat. I don’t know what I would have done then.

“It was a very strange time, it was always day-to-day, it was so hard. Even for me, looking at the reports and thinking ‘man, these people think it’s going to happen, maybe it’ll happen’. And then you call Dr Marko and he’s like ‘well, don’t be so sure and maybe this stuff can happen’.

“I was very gracious at the time of everybody, being able to go into the Red Bull sim. Being able to talk to Dr Marko about the possibility of Formula 1. And a lot of people took a lot of time out of their days to point me in the right direction and help me out.”

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