FIA forbid teams from using more than two sets of tyres on the practice runs.

That’s what Barristers are for. You’ve got speed limits that say: ’Don’t drive over 70,’ or ’Don’t drive over 50,’ but a Barrister can read the book and say that the signs aren’t enough metres apart or they’re not the right shape and dimensions. With enough money a lawyer could argue you out of anything.

In Formula 1 every team cheats. This particular year we had a standard tyre a bit like they have now. You were only allowed two sets in qualifying but winning the practice is very important so it would have been better to have three sets. To try and stop you from using three sets the organisers from the FIA would come and mark the tyres with radioactive paint a short time before the start of practice. They’d use a decal that was a rabbit or a tortoise or an elephant or something and it would be a different color and shape every race. Lance who was a very good sign-writer and a very good painter and in the truck he had loads of paint of all different colors and a stencil kit. When they came and sprayed the tyre we’d bowl it away into the truck and Lance would get his stencil to the right cut, mix the paint to the right color and copy it onto another set of tyres. So now we had three sets.

The good bit that Ferrari could never get their brains round was we put the fraudulent set on first. Ferrari had lawyers stationed at the pits to check when sets of tyres were changed. They could have been cheating too but we didn’t have the personnel to check on them. Hunt would go off with another set of tyres, then another, then right towards the end of practice we’d change again. Another new set! The Ferrari lawyers would start shouting and pointing and they’d come running with the officials and they’d all gather round the pit roads and James would drive back in and: ‘Seize those tyres!’ they’d say. They ripped them off the car and have a check but ‘bugger… where’s the other set?’ So we’d bowl them over and: ‘Bugger... where’s the third set?’ ’What third set?’ That set was long gone with the marks taken off and put back in the rack. They knew we were doing it but they could never suss it.

• 1943 Alastair's early years
• 1955 Licence to drive
• 1957 Alastair's High School years
• 1959 Evading the police
• 1960 Becoming a mechanic
• 1966 The Tasman series
• 1966 Leaving New Zealand
• 1967 Joining McLaren
• 1967 CanAm Door Catches
• 1967 Monza
• 1968 South Africa
• 1968 CanAm
• 1969 Driving the Formula 1 Cars
• 1973 Fittipaldi joins McLaren
• 1973 McLaren Team manager
• 1974 Montezemolo
• 1975 Hunt replaces Fittipaldi
• 1975 Hunt gets paid little
• 1976 Inventing the Air-Starter
• 1976 Six-speed Gear Boxes
• 1976 Misbehaving in Canada
• 1976 Japan
• 1977 Adidas Uniforms
• 1977 Changing Tyres
• 1977 Leaving McLaren
• 1979 Nelson Piquet
• 1980 Skirts on Formula 1 Cars
• 1981 Leaving Formula 1
• 1982 Making Lists
• 1982 Signing on
• 1982 Creating Space Station
• 1991 Highland Fling
• 1991 Classic Marathon
• 1992 Getting the Austin A35
• 1992 El Salvador
• 1993 Carerra Panamerica
• 1993 Centre of attention
• 1993 Nicest car in rally
• 1993 LeJog
• 2000 London to Sydney
• 2000 Porsche Racing
• 2000 Porsche Crashing
• 2001 Ferrari
• 2001 Inca Trail
• 2004 Berlin - Moscow - Berlin
• 2005 World Cup Rally
• 2007 Norway
• 2008 Liège-Brescia-Liège
• 2008 An Icelandic Odyssey
• 2008 North & West Africa
• 2009 West Coast America
• 2009 London to Casablanca
• 2010 New Zealand Festival of motor racing
• 2010 New Zealand Big Sky Adventure