1-193-553 - National Motor Museum/Heritage Images

Lord Alexander Hesketh at the Monaco Grand Prix, 1973. Pictured in the pits at the edge of the circuit. Lord Alexander Hesketh at the headquarters of his team, Hesketh Racing. London, 1974. Hesketh inherited the family fortune in 1971 when he was aged 21. Together with Anthony Horsley, he set up a racing team called Hesketh Racing and bought a Surtees Formula 2 which they began to enter in races for James Hunt during the course of 1973. Hunt's talent persuaded Hesketh to rent a Formula 1 car, a March 731. Hesketh hired Harvey Postlethwaite, a junior designer with March, to redesign the car's chassis and design a new car for the team. This was the Hesketh 308, that first appeared at the South African Grand Prix, the third race of the 1974 season. An updated version of the car won the Dutch GP in 1975, with Hunt driving. By the end of the 1975 season Hesketh was finding the cost of funding the team excessive, and with Hunt leaving to join McLaren, he sold it.