DEREK WARWICKGRANDS PRIX - 162
BEST FINISH - 2nd twice
BEST QUALIFYING - 3rd three times
POINTS SCORED - 71
--- F1 CAREER ---
1981 - Toleman Hart - 0pts
1982 - Toleman Hart - 0pts
1983 - Toleman Hart - 14th - 9pts
1984 - Renault - 7th - 23pts
1985 - Renault - 14th - 5pts
1986 - Brabham BMW - 0pts
1987 - Arrows Megatron - 16th - 3pts
1988 - Arrows Megatron - 8th - 17pts
1989 - Arrows Ford - 10th - 7pts
1990 - Lotus Lamborghini - 14th - 3pts
1993 - Arrows Mugen Honda - 16th - 4pts
Some drivers come into Formula 1 with huge talent which then goes wasted due to some wrong decisions or just plain bad luck. And Derek Warwick, a former stock car driver from Hampshire can certainly be labelled as one of those.
After a stint in stockcars, he made the jump to Formula 3 with Toleman, with which he won the British F3 Championship in 1978 and he stayed loyal to Toleman throughout their stint in British Formula 2 before making the huge jump to their ultimate goal of Formula 1 for the 1981 season, it was a momentus leap in more ways than one as Toleman would in future become the Benetton team until they were bought out into their current incarnation, Renault, it also began the Grand Prix design career of Rory Byrne, the man behind many of Michael Schumacher's race winning cars. But it was'nt an easy start for Warwick and his teammate for 1981, Brian Henton, Rory Byrne's first F1 Car the Toleman TG181, was bulky, overweight and used an underpowered Hart turbo engine. out of 22 attempts to qualify, only 2 were successful, Warwick bagging their best qualifying performance 2ith 22nd in Las Vegas, the season finale.
1982 however showed that the team had used 1981 as a year to get used to the new surroundings and then set about improving their car, Hart came up with an all new F1 spec turbo engine and Warwick took as much advantage out of it as he could, the cars began to qualify on a regular basis and things were looking good especially with an all new carbon-fibre chassis in the works. It got even better when Warwick showed his full potential in the improved but still bulky TG181 by running as high as 2nd at the British Grand Prix before retiring, his knowledge of the track a big help when threading through the field, Warwick even posted a fastest lap in Holland that season. Byrne's carbon-fibre car, the TG183, was ready in time for 1983 and was instantly competitive, Warwick only qualified outside the top 14 just once all season and ended the year on 9 points. By now Warwick was attracting attention from some of Formula 1's big fish, most notably Renault with whom Warwick signed for 1984, his replacement at Toleman, a certain Ayrton Senna.
Now this was the opportunity Warwick craved, he was now with a front running team and also Britains new number 1 hero after the retirement of John Watson and early on in 1984, he certainly seemed to implement his talents well, 2 podium finishes meant he was lying 2nd in the championship behind Alain Prost after just 4 races, but then he became the victim of Renault's main achilles heel, reliability. He did recover well though to finish a fine 2nd at the British Grand Prix but then he only registered one other points finish (3rd in Austria) thanks again to the Renault's poor reliability record. So despite 4 podium finishes, Warwick finished an overall disappointing 7th in the championship, but if it wer'nt for the countless DNF's, it could have been so much better. But it was during the post season for 1985 when Warwick's career would take a turn for the worse, he made a decision that probably still haunts him to this very day.
After sacking Jacques Laffite, Frank Williams was looking for a new driver to partner Keke Rosberg and use the all new Honda turbo engine, also he wanted it to be a British driver something Williams never had since his team's re-formation in 1977, so the first man he turned to was Derek Warwick, it was like the opportunity of a lifetime for Warwick being offered the opportunity to join a team very much on the up as their number 1 driver with an all new powerful engine. But he was still contracted to Renault for 1 more year and after last season's promising displays despite the poor reliability, he decided to stay with Renault in the hope they could iron out their car's troubles. Big mistake. after the rejection, Williams proceeded to sign his second choice for the drive, Nigel Mansell, he would go on and have a wonderful relationship with Williams leading to super-stardom, race wins galore and a world title in 1992. Warwick however was left to rue the decision as he suffered a terrible 1985 season, not only was the new Renault exposing the same flaws as the previous season, but it was hopelessly uncompetitive, after finishing down in 14th in the championship, Renault suddenly pulled out of the sport. So just 10 months after being offered a fantastic opportunity, Warwick was now left without a drive and his career in limbo.
In the close season, he was offered the chance to join Lotus as the team's number 2 driver, Warwick accepted without a moments hesitation, but then came a problem, the team's number 1 driver Ayrton Senna found out about the impending incumbant and vetoed the move to sign Warwick because Senna wanted to be the main focus of the team especially after he was run very close in the previous season by Elio De Angelis, it was a clear advertisement of Warwick's credibility, Senna didnt want him at Lotus because he knew how good Derek was. So in the end, Warwick was hounded out, Lotus signed an unknown called Johnny Dumfries and with all the teams full in terms of drives taken, Warwick was out in the cold. He would get an opportunity at Brabham as a replacement for Elio De Angelis who was killed in a testing accident. But you'd probalby wish he had'nt have even bothered, Gordon Murray's experimental car was a disaster, Warwick scored zero points and left in frustration to join Arrows.
And with Arrows, he would enjoy a new lease of life, he was the team's number 1 and the Arrows Megatron (the Megatron basically a re-badged BMW Turbo) proved to be a competitive piece of machinery, he only scored 3 points in 1987, but he never qualified outside the top 13, it would get even better in 1988, after a nice chassis upgrade and the troubles of teams transistioning over to normally aspirated powerplants in preparation for the banning of turbo engines for 1989, Arrows took advantage by keeping their turbo engines and as a result, were one of the shining lights in a season dominated by McLaren, and Warwick was only too happy to use the turbo advantge by scoring 17 of the 23 points Arrows scored, propelling the team to 4th in the constructors championship and Warwick to 8th in the drivers, in this included four top 4 finishes.
After that, his career began to sadly fizzle out, after a strong start to 1989, he suffered in a topsy turvy season in which 39 cars were fighting for just 26 places on the starting grid in every race. After scoring 7 points and finishing 10th in the championship, he sensed Arrows were beginning to lose their way and went off to join Lotus, the team he originally wanted to join back in 1986. But Lotus were a team in rapid decline, the team were badly affected by Martin Donnelly's (Warwick's teammate for 1990) horrific testing accident which practically ended his career, Warwick scored just 3 points all season.
After a 3 year break in which Warwick enjoyed huge success in sportscars, culminating in winning the Le Mans 24 hours for Peugeot in 1992, he returned to F1 with Arrows for 1993, it would prove to be his Grand Prix swansong, scoring just 4 points with his best finish being 4th in Hungary. Afterwards, Warwick began a career in Touring Car racing with some success and then founded Triple Eight race engineering which still goes strong today, running the Vauxhalls in the BTCC and a the Vodafone Ford squad in the Australian V8 Supercar series
BEST FINISH - 2nd twice
BEST QUALIFYING - 3rd three times
POINTS SCORED - 71
--- F1 CAREER ---
1981 - Toleman Hart - 0pts
1982 - Toleman Hart - 0pts
1983 - Toleman Hart - 14th - 9pts
1984 - Renault - 7th - 23pts
1985 - Renault - 14th - 5pts
1986 - Brabham BMW - 0pts
1987 - Arrows Megatron - 16th - 3pts
1988 - Arrows Megatron - 8th - 17pts
1989 - Arrows Ford - 10th - 7pts
1990 - Lotus Lamborghini - 14th - 3pts
1993 - Arrows Mugen Honda - 16th - 4pts
Some drivers come into Formula 1 with huge talent which then goes wasted due to some wrong decisions or just plain bad luck. And Derek Warwick, a former stock car driver from Hampshire can certainly be labelled as one of those.
After a stint in stockcars, he made the jump to Formula 3 with Toleman, with which he won the British F3 Championship in 1978 and he stayed loyal to Toleman throughout their stint in British Formula 2 before making the huge jump to their ultimate goal of Formula 1 for the 1981 season, it was a momentus leap in more ways than one as Toleman would in future become the Benetton team until they were bought out into their current incarnation, Renault, it also began the Grand Prix design career of Rory Byrne, the man behind many of Michael Schumacher's race winning cars. But it was'nt an easy start for Warwick and his teammate for 1981, Brian Henton, Rory Byrne's first F1 Car the Toleman TG181, was bulky, overweight and used an underpowered Hart turbo engine. out of 22 attempts to qualify, only 2 were successful, Warwick bagging their best qualifying performance 2ith 22nd in Las Vegas, the season finale.
1982 however showed that the team had used 1981 as a year to get used to the new surroundings and then set about improving their car, Hart came up with an all new F1 spec turbo engine and Warwick took as much advantage out of it as he could, the cars began to qualify on a regular basis and things were looking good especially with an all new carbon-fibre chassis in the works. It got even better when Warwick showed his full potential in the improved but still bulky TG181 by running as high as 2nd at the British Grand Prix before retiring, his knowledge of the track a big help when threading through the field, Warwick even posted a fastest lap in Holland that season. Byrne's carbon-fibre car, the TG183, was ready in time for 1983 and was instantly competitive, Warwick only qualified outside the top 14 just once all season and ended the year on 9 points. By now Warwick was attracting attention from some of Formula 1's big fish, most notably Renault with whom Warwick signed for 1984, his replacement at Toleman, a certain Ayrton Senna.
Now this was the opportunity Warwick craved, he was now with a front running team and also Britains new number 1 hero after the retirement of John Watson and early on in 1984, he certainly seemed to implement his talents well, 2 podium finishes meant he was lying 2nd in the championship behind Alain Prost after just 4 races, but then he became the victim of Renault's main achilles heel, reliability. He did recover well though to finish a fine 2nd at the British Grand Prix but then he only registered one other points finish (3rd in Austria) thanks again to the Renault's poor reliability record. So despite 4 podium finishes, Warwick finished an overall disappointing 7th in the championship, but if it wer'nt for the countless DNF's, it could have been so much better. But it was during the post season for 1985 when Warwick's career would take a turn for the worse, he made a decision that probably still haunts him to this very day.
After sacking Jacques Laffite, Frank Williams was looking for a new driver to partner Keke Rosberg and use the all new Honda turbo engine, also he wanted it to be a British driver something Williams never had since his team's re-formation in 1977, so the first man he turned to was Derek Warwick, it was like the opportunity of a lifetime for Warwick being offered the opportunity to join a team very much on the up as their number 1 driver with an all new powerful engine. But he was still contracted to Renault for 1 more year and after last season's promising displays despite the poor reliability, he decided to stay with Renault in the hope they could iron out their car's troubles. Big mistake. after the rejection, Williams proceeded to sign his second choice for the drive, Nigel Mansell, he would go on and have a wonderful relationship with Williams leading to super-stardom, race wins galore and a world title in 1992. Warwick however was left to rue the decision as he suffered a terrible 1985 season, not only was the new Renault exposing the same flaws as the previous season, but it was hopelessly uncompetitive, after finishing down in 14th in the championship, Renault suddenly pulled out of the sport. So just 10 months after being offered a fantastic opportunity, Warwick was now left without a drive and his career in limbo.
In the close season, he was offered the chance to join Lotus as the team's number 2 driver, Warwick accepted without a moments hesitation, but then came a problem, the team's number 1 driver Ayrton Senna found out about the impending incumbant and vetoed the move to sign Warwick because Senna wanted to be the main focus of the team especially after he was run very close in the previous season by Elio De Angelis, it was a clear advertisement of Warwick's credibility, Senna didnt want him at Lotus because he knew how good Derek was. So in the end, Warwick was hounded out, Lotus signed an unknown called Johnny Dumfries and with all the teams full in terms of drives taken, Warwick was out in the cold. He would get an opportunity at Brabham as a replacement for Elio De Angelis who was killed in a testing accident. But you'd probalby wish he had'nt have even bothered, Gordon Murray's experimental car was a disaster, Warwick scored zero points and left in frustration to join Arrows.
And with Arrows, he would enjoy a new lease of life, he was the team's number 1 and the Arrows Megatron (the Megatron basically a re-badged BMW Turbo) proved to be a competitive piece of machinery, he only scored 3 points in 1987, but he never qualified outside the top 13, it would get even better in 1988, after a nice chassis upgrade and the troubles of teams transistioning over to normally aspirated powerplants in preparation for the banning of turbo engines for 1989, Arrows took advantage by keeping their turbo engines and as a result, were one of the shining lights in a season dominated by McLaren, and Warwick was only too happy to use the turbo advantge by scoring 17 of the 23 points Arrows scored, propelling the team to 4th in the constructors championship and Warwick to 8th in the drivers, in this included four top 4 finishes.
After that, his career began to sadly fizzle out, after a strong start to 1989, he suffered in a topsy turvy season in which 39 cars were fighting for just 26 places on the starting grid in every race. After scoring 7 points and finishing 10th in the championship, he sensed Arrows were beginning to lose their way and went off to join Lotus, the team he originally wanted to join back in 1986. But Lotus were a team in rapid decline, the team were badly affected by Martin Donnelly's (Warwick's teammate for 1990) horrific testing accident which practically ended his career, Warwick scored just 3 points all season.
After a 3 year break in which Warwick enjoyed huge success in sportscars, culminating in winning the Le Mans 24 hours for Peugeot in 1992, he returned to F1 with Arrows for 1993, it would prove to be his Grand Prix swansong, scoring just 4 points with his best finish being 4th in Hungary. Afterwards, Warwick began a career in Touring Car racing with some success and then founded Triple Eight race engineering which still goes strong today, running the Vauxhalls in the BTCC and a the Vodafone Ford squad in the Australian V8 Supercar series
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