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After a 6 week sabbatical, A1GP made its return with rounds 7 and 8 at the Taupo circuit in New Zealand, and despite the Ireland driver Adam Carroll dominating practice, qualifying and winning the sprint race, Switzerland and Neel Jani, the reigning A1GP champions hit back with a stunning drive to win an eventful feature race to put the Swiss right back in the title running after a shaky start to their title bid, there was disappointment for Great Britain though, their first choice driver Danny Watts had to pull out of this weekend's action after his partner went into labour with their first child, champ car driver Dan Clarke was drafted in at the last minute by GBR team boss Katie Clements, he tried his best but lacked experience in the car, finishes of 13th and 12th have now all but ended British hopes of ending their title hoodoo.
SPRINT RACE
Ireland dominated qualifying taking pole for both races, Adam Carroll was fast all weekend up to raceday qualifying ahead of Robert Doornbos (Holland) and Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal), as the race got underway, the start was largely uneventful at the front but at the back, Great Britain's weekend went from bad to worse as Dan Clarke was punted off by Brazil's Felipe Guimaraes. Carroll then proceded to increase his advantage over Doornbos, Albuquerque, Loic Duval (France) and the fast starting Neel Jani (Switzerland).
At the pit window, the Ireland team produced their own slick pitwork again to get their driver out in double quick time, but then on his outlap Carroll's bargeboard fell off and Doornbos had an opportunity to take the lead at their stop, but as Doornbos experienced gearbox trouble as he switched off the pit speed limiter, holding up both him and Albuquerque who had pitted at the same time, this meant that not only did Carroll regain the lead but Jani ended up being the big winner in the pitstop reshuffle jumping up from 5th to 2nd, Doornbos dropped to 3rd while Albuquerque dropped back to 7th but he did manage to take Edoardo Piscopo (Italy) for 6th before the race's finish. Carroll managed to hold on to win despite a barrage of pressure from Jani, Doornbos took 3rd with Duval (France), Van Der Drift (New Zealand), Albuquerque (Portugal), Piscopo (Italy) and Fairuz Fauzy (Malaysia) completed the top 8 point scorers.
FEATURE RACE
Carroll got a good start from pole position for the 47 lap feature race but Doornbos was under pressure right from the off from Neel Jani who got a blinder of a start from 4th on the grid, he took Doornbos on the outside of the 1st corner and then took advantage of Albuquerque's problems behind Carroll to steal 2nd place. Carroll then showed his class to pull away from Jani, setting a string of fastest laps in the early stint until he was the first of the leaders to make their first pitstop, the usual quick work from the Irish crew got Carroll out back in front once everyone else had done likewise. There was an uneasy incident however during the first pit window as Guimaraes (Brazil) and Cilvio Piccione (Monaco) clashed forcing the latter to use up their pitstop for a new nose.
It was then pretty much status quo at the front with Carroll again setting a succession of fastest laps to increase his lead over Jani but that was all about to change at the 2nd round of pitstops on lap 22, despiteanother impressive stop by the Ireland team, Carroll suffered a problem trying to get away from the pitbox, a fault with the car's anti-stall system caused Carroll to stall his car and the stoppage was all that Jani needed to overtake the hapless Carroll after his own stop.
After that, Jani, despite a safety car period and worries from the team over the radio about falling oil pressure in his engine, he coasted to his 2nd win of the season ahead of Carroll and Albuquerque who ended up with the fastest lap bonus point, John Martin (Australia) produced a great drive to take 4th, Doornbos (Holland) took 5th with Duval (France), Karthikeyan (India), Piscopo (Italy), Adrian Zaugg (South Africa) and Fauzy (Malaysia) completing the top 10.
There are high hopes for the next round at Gauteng in South Africa at the end of February where we should finally see a full grid of 23 cars with Pakistan, Canada and Germany expected to finally make their long awaited first appearances with the new car.
WORLD CUP OF MOTORSPORT AFTER ROUND 4 (TOP 12): 1. Ireland 65pts, 2. Switzerland 52pts, 3. Portugal 49pts, 4. France 41pts, 5. Holland 38pts, 6. New Zealand 35pts, 7. Malaysia 31pts, 8. Australia 30pts, 9. South Africa 17pts, =10. Great Britain 16pts, =10. USA 16pts, 12. Monaco 9pts
DRIVERS STANDINGS (TOP 12): 1. Adam Carroll 65pts, 2. Neel Jani 52pts, 3. Filipe Albuquerque 49pts, 4. Loic Duval 40pts, 5. Fairuz Fauzy 31pts, 6. John Martin 30pts, 7. Earl Bamber 29pts, 8. Robert Doornbos 21pts, =9. Jeroen Bleekemolen 17pts, =9. Adrian Zaugg 17pts, 11. Danny Watts 16pts, 12. Marco Andretti 13pts
TONY BROOKSGRANDS PRIX - 39
WINS - 6
POLE POSITIONS - 3
POINTS SCORED - 75
--- F1 CAREER ---
1956 - BRM - 0pts
1957 - Vanwall - 5th - 11pts
1958 - Vanwall - 3rd - 24pts
1959 - Ferrari - 2nd - 27pts
1960 - Yeoman Credit Climax - 11th - 7pts
1961 - BRM - 10th - 6pts
One of Britains finest and most accomplished Grand Prix drivers of the era, Tony Brooks from Cheshire, was one of a great handful of the early seeds of what would become a British domination of the sport in the 1960's, Brooks was one of the early components of that future success, unfortunately for him, he retired from the sport just as his career was about to take off.
At the age of 24 he signed up to BRM on a part time bsis for the 1956 season after some promising showings in the lower classes, and was due to make his debut at that years Monaco grand prix, unfortunately for him, he had to pull out before the start of qualifying after suffering engine problems. He would make his debut in the only other race he was entered for that year, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, he managed to haul his bulky and heavy BRM into an impressive 9th on the grid out of 28 starters, he ran well too until suffering an accident shortly before the half way mark, the great Juan Manuel Fangio would go on to win the race which still holds the record of the longest world championship grand prix ever run at 101 laps taking just under 3 hours to complete.
The promise was there and for 1957, Brooks got the chance to join the ambitious Vanwall project run by Tony Vandervell, he would be joined by Stirling Moss and Stuart Lewis-Evans creating the first serious championship effort by an all British outfit, and Brooks began to shine, gaining a podium finish in his first drive in the car with a 2nd place at Monaco (in officially his 3rd race), and he would go on to claim victory in the very next race he entered, the British Grand Prix, a win he shared with Stirling Moss after Moss suffered engine trouble, it was the first ever world championship win for a British car, and with it occuring at the British grand prix with 2 British drivers at the wheel, it made the victory all the more sweeter. Brooks ended up finishing 5th in the championship on 11 points, Moss went on to finish as runner up to Fangio while Lewis-Evans's consistency helped him finish a respectable 12th, all in all a good first full season for Brooks and Vanwall.
Then came 1958 and with the reigning champion Fangio retiring and Maserati in financial trouble, Vanwall sensed that this was a great opportunity to properly fight for a world title and focused their efforts on their lead driver Stirling Moss, and with the bigger efforts by Vanwall producing a much improved car, Brooks benefited greatly, in a championship dominated by British drivers (who ended up filling the top 5 in the championship) Brooks managed to take 3 excellent wins in Belgium, Italy and most of all, he became one of the great few to have won a grand prix on the famous 14 mile Nurburgring Nordschlife track, his efforts along with Moss and Lewis-Evans (who was tragically killed at the final race that year in Morocco) helped Vanwall win the first ever constructors championship although Moss missed out on the drivers crown by a single point from Ferrari's Mike Hawthorn, ironically Moss would have been champion if he had'nt got a result re-instated for Hawthorn after accusations of cheating.
But soon after 1958, Brooks was without a drive, Vanwall would be scaling back their efforts due to the failing health of Mr Vandervell, he did though bag a drive with the most famous name in the business, Ferrari alongside the American pairing of Dan Gurney and Phil Hill, Brooks managed to put together his own title challenge against the Australian Jack Brabham in a rear-engined Cooper (a revolutionary concept at the time) and former team-mate Stirling Moss also in a Cooper but racing for a privateer team. 2 victories at Monsanto Park in Portugal and the infamous AVUS track in Germany meant victory at Sebring in the USA with Brabham 5th or lower would give him the title, unfortunately, the Cooper team had the best cars of the weekend by far and loced out the top 2 in the race with Bruce McClaren winning ahead of his team-mate Maurice Trintignant, Brooks prevented a Cooper clean sweep of the podium by finishing ahead of Brabham who took the title.
After being dropped by Ferrari, Brooks got himself a drive with a privateer squad called Yeoman Credit Racing (later to become Lola) who were making their debut in the sport after aquiring 2 of the prevous years title winning Cooper T51's, his team-mates would be fellow Briton Henry Taylor and the promising Belgian Olivier Gendebien, this would be the first time that Brooks would'nt be driving for a factory team. Despite that, the team proved to be very competitive, Gendebien managed to finish a great 2nd in France while Brooks was consistent bringing in three top 5 finishes, enough to bring an 11th place finish in the championship.
A return to a factory team followed in 1961, and for Brooks it was a return to where it started for him, BRM. But now, the team were producing competitive machinery, however as part of a 2 car team with Graham Hill, BRM had a poor season and were focusing their efforts towards 1962 when they would abandon their V16 concept and go for the V8 engine, Brooks just managed to squeeze into the top 10 if the championship with 6 points, after this Brooks retired from the sport although some say at the wrong time as in the very next season, BRM and their new V8 engine would dominate in the hands of Graham Hill who took 4 wins to take the crown.
JOHN WATSONGRANDS PRIX - 154
WINS - 5
POLE POSITIONS - 2
POINTS SCORED - 169
--- F1 CAREER ---
1973 - Cemarica Ford - 0pts
1974 - Goldie Hexagon Ford - 15th - 6pts
1975 - Surtees Ford - 0pts
1976 - Penske Ford - 7th - 20pts
1977 - Brabham Alfa Romeo - 13th - 9pts
1978 - Brabham Alfa Romeo - 6th - 25pts
1979 - McLaren Ford - 9th - 15pts
1980 - McLaren Ford - 11th - 6pts
1981 - McLaren Ford - 6th - 27pts
1982 - McLaren Ford - Equal 2nd - 39pts
1983 - McLaren TAG Turbo - 6th - 22pts
1985 - McLaren TAG Turbo - 0pts
With the retirement of the great James Hunt in 1979, Britain needed a new hero in Formula 1, a man to challenge the likes of Jody Scheckter, Alan Jones, Carlos Reutemann, Mario Andretti and Gilles Villeneuve for World Championship honours, the man that lived up to the billing suprised many, John Watson from Belfast in Northern Ireland had been an established Grand Prix driver for 6 years but never got a proper opportunity at a true title challenging machine, apart from 2 years as Niki Lauda's understudy at Brabham and a one off win in a Penske in 1976.
His Formula 1 career began in one of the most eventful races of the era, he was handed his debut by the Ceramica team for the 1973 British Grand Prix, it was an era where privateer teams were still present hence why the Ceramica squad ran a customer 3 year old Brabham chassis with the Cosworth DFV engine, after starting 23rd, he managed to avoid the first lap pile up that eliminated 11 cars but retired half way through. For 1974 though, the Goldie Hexagon squad not only managed to secure funding for a full season, but they also managed to aquire the latest Brabham chassis, the BT44, and they hired Watson to drive it. With the more up to date machinery at his disposal, Watson delivered some solid performances, scoring his first points finish at Monaco that year and managed a brilliant 4th spot in Austria, finishing the year with 6 points, 15th in the championship and was the best of the privateer drivers by some distance.
This earned him a factory drive for 1975 with John Surtees's fledgling team who thanks to poor funding, could only manage to enter 1 car for Watson (a 2nd car for Dave Morgan was eventually entered when funding was found.) As a result, It was a poor year as no development work could be done with the car, Watson only managed a best finish of 8th in Spain and ended the year pointless. Before the end of the season however, Surtees ran out of money and failed to complete the season and Watson was offered a "one-off" drive with Penske at the United States GP after their lead driver Mark Donohue was tragically killed in Austria, after qualifying an impressive 12th, Watson ran strongly to finish 9th setting some very quick laps rivalling that of the race winner Niki Lauda, on that promise, team owner Roger Penske signed Watson up for a full season in 1976.
The Penske PC04 was instantly quick straight out of the factory, in only the car's 2nd race in South Africa, Watson qualified a stunning 3rd and went on to finish 5th, his first points finish in 15 races, after which he made an unusual bet with Roger Penske saying that until he won a race this season, he would refuse to shave his beard. It was a clear statement of complete confidence that the car was a genuine frontrunner, so it proved to be. Watson went on to secure his first podium finish in France and 2 races later, he won his bet after an excellent drive to win in Austria, he came close to repeating the feat in Holland 2 weeks later but retired after leading for the majority of the distance. 7th place on 20 points represented a fine season for the ulsterman and interest from bigger teams would come his way in due course.
Most notably from Brabham, just 3 years after driving a privateer Brabham, he would get his chance in the works car for 1977, but development on the teams new car froze after the death of their number 1 driver Carlos Pace in a plane crash affected the team greatly. And this reflected in the points haul of the season, he promised much but could only muster 9 points despite a 2nd place in France.
1978 though brought fresh hope, the new flat 12 Alfa Romeo engine was both reliable and powerful also Watson would have a new teammate in reigning champion Niki Lauda. Watson would have his best season so far scoring 25 points and gaining 3 podium finishes. But his time at Brabham in 1978 would be remmebered for one race, the Swedish Grand Prix. It was at that race in the Swedish marshlands at Anderstorp where Watson would drive the now infamous Brabham BT46B, better known as "The Fan Car", its aerodynamic advantages enabled the Brabham team to dominate the weekend, so dominant infact that the car was banned almost immediately.
Suprisingly despite his improved form, Watson was dropped for 1979 in favour of the young brazillian Nelson Piquet, this was when he began his long and fruitful association with McLaren although when he joined the team in 1979, it was a grim period for the famous squad, team owner at the time Teddy Mayer was struggling to aquire funds and the team was close to closure at one point, despite the funding issues and an underdeveloped car, Watson managed to score a healthy 15 points. 1980 though for both Watson and McLaren was really the lowest of the lows, despite giving a young Alain Prost his GP debut this season, the car was a disaster and Watson was nearly outscored by his inexperienced teammate, Watson outscored him in the end but only just (6-5), but it was the winter of 1980-81 when McLaren's fortunes would change for the better, forever.
Struggling for funds, Teddy Mayer negotiated a merger between themselves and a little known F2 team called Project Four, run by a young upstart named Ron Dennis, team sponsors Marlboro forced the merger, Mayer was forced out, Dennis was installed as team boss and the organisation was rebranded McLaren International. Watson survived the re-shuffle and was installed as defacto number 1 driver, he would be joined by Project Four's lead F2 driver, the Italian Andrea De Cesaris. Designer John Barnard used the new funds at his disposal to introduce at the 3rd round a revolutionary new concept, a car/chassis completely constructed out of carbon fibre, a real first. After a slow start, development of the idea gathered pace and eventually paid off with Watson taking an emotional win at the British Grand Prix, his first win in nearly 5 years. There was talk of a possible late title challenge but that faded away amid poor reliability, still though it proved to be his best season to date scoring 27 points, good enough to finish in the top 6.
1982 saw the return of Niki Lauda and an overdue turbocharged engine made by TAG Porsche was in the pipeline, but in the meantime, they were laden with the old but trusty Ford Cosworth DFV's and Watson took advantage early on in a topsy turvy season to score some impressive results. He also displayed in 1982 what he would be famed for, winning from the back. Both wins came from well down the grid, in Belgium, he won superbly from 10th on the grid while in Detroit, he went even better, a disastrous qualifying saw Watson start down in 17th, but he mastered overtaking moves using the 90 degree turns on the circuit to pick off cars one by one and take a famous win. A disastrous mid-season slump threatened to derail his championship hopes but he was still in with a shout going into the final round in Las Vegas, he needed to win to have a chance of taking the title from Keke Rosberg but could only finish 2nd to Michele Alboreto, netherless, it was a great season, scoring a total of 39 points and 2 wins.
But there was a feeling that his best chance of a world championship was gone, and so it proved in 1983 that is despite it being the first opportunity to use the new TAG Porsche turbo engines, the team were beginning to favour Niki Lauda even more and Watson was suffering. But he did take an unbeleiveable win in Long Beach despite starting 22nd (a record that still stands to this day), 2 more podium finishes followed before the end of the season in which he scored 22 points. But then came the bombshell, he was sacked by an increasingly ambitious Ron Dennis in favour of Alain Prost and Watson, out in the cold, announced his retirement. He did however make a one off appearance replacing Niki Lauda for the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in 1985 where he finished a creditable 7th.
After a later career in sportscars, Watson became a well respected broadcaster and commentator becoming the voice of Formula 1 for British Eurosport between 1991 and 1996, he then had a spell as commentator alongside the ever popular Charlie Cox for the British Touring Car Championship between 1998 and 2001. Today he works alongside Ben Edwards for Sky Sports's coverage of the A1 Grand Prix series.
