MY TOP 20 BRITISH F1 DRIVERS - Number 14

JOHN WATSON
GRANDS 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.