British racing driver (born 1954)
Derek Stanley Arthur Warwick
(born 27 August 1954) is a British former professional
racing
driver from England, who lives in
Jersey
.
[2]
He raced for many years in
Formula One
, collecting four podiums but never winning a
Grand Prix
. He did, however, win the
1992 24 Hours of Le Mans
and
1992 World Sportscar Championship
. He was the elder brother of
Paul Warwick
, who died racing while leading the
British Formula 3000
Championship in 1991.
In 2005 and 2006 he raced in the inaugural season of the
Grand Prix Masters
formula for retired Formula One drivers. He has served as the fourth steward for three Grands Prix in 2010 and 2011. He was president of the
British Racing Drivers Club
(2011-2017), succeeding
Damon Hill
and preceding
Paddy Hopkirk
.
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Warwick was born in
Alresford
, Hampshire, England.
[3]
He began his career in
British stock car racing
under the
Spedeworth
organisation at tracks such as his local
Aldershot Stadium
. He won the
Superstox
English Championship in 1971 (at the age of 16) and the World Championship at
Wimbledon Stadium
in 1973.
[4]
His younger brother
Paul
also raced with some success in Superstox before progressing to
Formula 3000
, in which he was racing when killed in an accident in 1991.
Derek won the
1978 British Formula 3 Championship
.
Formula One (1981?1993)
[
edit
]
Warwick began his Formula One career with the fledgling F1 team
Toleman
for the
1981 season
. He managed to qualify for only one race that year, the
season finale
at Las Vegas.
[3]
Warwick had mainly dismal
1982
and
1983 seasons
in the
Toleman
car, but bounced back, scoring points in the final four rounds of the 1983 championship.
[1]
He joined
Renault
in 1984 after
Alain Prost
left them at the end of 1983. Warwick, expecting to have a race-winning car, led the
Brazilian Grand Prix
, his first drive for them, only to retire because of a suspension failure caused by an early race wheel banging duel with the
McLaren
of
Niki Lauda
. He finished in second place in both the
Belgian
and
British
Grands Prix in
1984
and placed seventh in the championship.
[5]
1984 would prove to be the beginning of the end for the factory Renault team, the pioneers of turbocharging in Formula One. Neither Warwick nor new teammate
Patrick Tambay
won a race in 1984, the first time since
1978
that the team did not win a Grand Prix.
The turning point in Warwick's career was his decision to stay at Renault for
1985
and reject an offer to drive for
Williams
-
Honda
. The seat was then offered to
Nigel Mansell
who, accepting the position, went on to win two races at the end of the season. 1985 was a poor one for Renault and the team withdrew from Formula One at the end of the year. Renault's withdrawal, and
Ayrton Senna
's refusal to let Warwick join him as teammate at
Lotus
(using his contracted number one driver status in the team, Senna refused to have anyone but a pure #2 as his teammate as he believed Lotus were not capable of supporting two championship contending drivers), left Warwick without a team for the
1986
season and he took up an offer to drive for
Tom Walkinshaw
's
TWR
Jaguar
team in the
World Sportscar Championship
. Following the death of
Elio de Angelis
in a testing accident in May, however, Warwick was invited to take his place at
Brabham
. Unconfirmed rumours surfaced that Brabham owner
Bernie Ecclestone
had invited Warwick to take de Angelis's place as the Englishman was the only available top driver who had not actually contacted the team offering his services in the days following the Italian's untimely death. Warwick explained:
"I got a phone call from Bernie, who said that he really appreciated the fact that I didn't call him five minutes after Elio had died and would I like to drive for him."
[4]
As no Grands Prix clashed with his Sportscar commitments, Warwick was able to race in both world championships.
In 1987, Warwick moved to the
Arrows
team alongside his Jaguar teammate
Eddie Cheever
, ending the season with 3 points scored. The 1988 season saw an improvement on the Arrows performance due to the powerful
Megatron
(a re-badged
BMW M12
) engine and Warwick finished 7 times in the top 6, earning him 17 points and a respectable 8th position in the championship. His best race of the season was 4th in the
Italian Grand Prix
at
Monza
where he finished only half a second behind Cheever. Italy was also notable in that it was the first time since the beginning of 1987 that Arrows engine guru Heini Mader finally solved the problem with the
FIA
's mandatory pop-off valve which restricted turbo boost. For the first time this allowed both Warwick and Cheever to fully exploit the power of the 640 bhp (477 kW; 649 PS) Megatron engine (restricted to 2.5 BAR boost in 1988) and be much closer to the front than they had been previously.
In 1989, victory eluded Warwick in two occasions. The first was in the
Brazilian Grand Prix
, when a disastrous pit-stop cost him more than the 17 seconds he finished behind winner Nigel Mansell. But the real heartbreak came in the
Canadian Grand Prix
, when Warwick drove superbly and was leading the wet race, only to have his
Cosworth
engine fail on lap 40 while in second place. Ayrton Senna, who had passed Warwick for the lead on lap 38, would himself retire when his McLaren's Honda V10 blew 3 laps from the finish. As Warwick was lapping much quicker than those behind him, including the V10
Williams
-Renault of eventual winner
Thierry Boutsen
, it is possible he could have scored his first Grand Prix win had he finished. Reliability issues plagued Warwick's season and cost him good finishes in other races as well, resulting in only 7 points for the season, the last of his 3 years at Arrows.
For the 1990 season, 4 years after Senna's veto, Warwick finally drove for Lotus who in 1990 would be using the
Lamborghini V12 engine
. But the glory days of that team were over and the Lamborghini 3512 proved unreliable and Warwick ended the season with a meagre 3 points tally. His greatest achievement of the season happened at the
1990 Spanish Grand Prix
where his teammate
Martin Donnelly
suffered a severe crash leaving Warwick to help morale at the team by qualifying in the top 10 only for the gearbox to fail 10 laps from the end.
In 1992 Warwick tested an IndyCar Lola T92/00 for
Hall/VDS Racing
for 2 days at
Mid-Ohio
in the off-season, to assess a possible move to
CART
for
1993
.
[6]
Ultimately he did not and instead returned to Formula 1.
Warwick had firm offers of paid drives for 1993 with
Jordan
and
Footwork
and ultimately chose the latter. Warwick returned to Formula 1 following a 3-year sabbatical and completed the full season in
1993
, but managed to score only 4 points. He ended his career with a total of 71 Grand Prix points.
[3]
Some consider Warwick to be the best Formula One driver never to win a Grand Prix.
[1]
Sports and Touring cars
[
edit
]
Warwick also competed successfully in
sports car racing
, winning the
World Sportscar Championship
in 1992, and was part of the
Peugeot
team which was victorious at the
24 hours of Le Mans
race that year. He drove sports cars for
Jaguar
in 1986 and 1991.
Warwick raced in the
British Touring Car Championship
(BTCC) after retiring from Formula One, driving for the
Alfa Romeo
works team in
1995
. Despite the team's dominating the previous year, their car was underdeveloped this time, leading to a poor season. In the first race of the season at
Donington Park
he crashed and flying debris broke a TV camera lens, an incident featured in the highlights screened by the BBC a week later, with commentator
Murray Walker
quipping that Warwick owed them £6,000 for the damage ("that'll be six grand please, Derek!"). After a year out of racing, he co-founded the
Triple Eight Racing
team that took over the running of the works
Vauxhall
1997
BTCC entry, as well as owning three car dealerships in
Southampton
and
Jersey
. Originally set to be team principal, it was decided he would drive one of the cars alongside established Vauxhall driver
John Cleland
, winning a wet race at
Knockhill
in
1998
. He retired from racing at the end of the year, but continued his involvement in the team for another 3 years.
Warwick now writes his F1 blog on the Sports social network champions365.com and operates a
Honda
franchise in
Jersey
.
[7]
Later life
[
edit
]
Warwick deputised for Martin Brundle (who was racing at Le Mans) as Murray Walker's co-commentator on ITV for the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix. In 2005 and 2006, Warwick raced in the inaugural season of the Grand Prix Masters formula for retired Formula One drivers. In 2010, he served as the fourth steward for the Spanish and Hungarian Grands Prix. In 2011, Warwick served as the fourth steward for the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix. This role is given only to former racing drivers who advise the stewards panel on incidents from a driver perspective. He was president of the British Racing Drivers Club, after succeeding Damon Hill.
Paddy Hopkirk
replaced him as president of the BRDC in 2016.
In 2015, Warwick received treatment for
bowel cancer
.
[8]
Racing record
[
edit
]
Career summary
[
edit
]
† Not eligible for points due to being a guest driver.
Complete European Formula Two Championship results
[
edit
]
(
key
) (Races in
bold
indicate pole position; races in
italics
indicate fastest lap)
Complete Formula One results
[
edit
]
(
key
) (Races in
bold
indicate pole position; Races in
italics
indicate fastest lap)
†
Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete World Sportscar Championship results
[
edit
]
(
key
) (Races in
bold
indicate pole position) (Races in
italics
indicate fastest lap)
24 Hours of Le Mans results
[
edit
]
Complete British Touring Car Championship results
[
edit
]
(
key
) (Races in
bold
indicate pole position ? 1 point awarded 1996 onwards all races) (Races in
italics
indicate fastest lap) (* signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap ? 1 point awarded in 1998 only)
Complete Bathurst 1000 results
[
edit
]
*
Super Touring
race
Complete Grand Prix Masters results
[
edit
]
(
key
) Races in
bold
indicate pole position, races in
italics
indicate fastest lap.
Complete Porsche Supercup results
[
edit
]
(
key
) (Races in
bold
indicate pole position) (Races in
italics
indicate fastest lap)
† Not eligible for points due to being a guest driver.
Complete WRC results
[
edit
]
Helmet
[
edit
]
Warwick's helmet is blue with the entire chin area white and a white stripe running across the top, in the chin area there is a stripe on each side, his name written and a
Union Jack
.
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Derek Warwick's F1 Blog on Champions365.com
|
---|
Nine-time
| |
---|
Six-time
| |
---|
Five-time
| |
---|
Four-time
| |
---|
Three-time
| |
---|
Two-time
| |
---|
One-time
| |
---|
|
---|
Three-time
| |
---|
Two-time
| |
---|
One-time
| |
---|
|
---|
|
|
Lotus Renault GP (
2011
)
|
---|
|
|
|
Titles achieved with Renault engines
|
---|
|
|