INTERVIEW: ROB WIDDOWS
Derek Warwick did it the hard way. He starting in stock cars, winning the British title in 1971 and world championship in 1973. Success followed in Formula Ford, Formula 3 and Formula 2, attracting the attention of the F1 paddock and a seat at Toleman for ’81.
Warwick raced for six F1 teams and for Jaguar and Peugeot in sports cars, winning Le Mans and the World Sportscar Championship in 1992. A former president of the BRDC, he is a regular steward at grands prix and runs the BRDC Young Driver of the Year programme, tasked with discovering drivers of the future. He lives in Jersey, where he is putting the finishing touches to a book about his life and from where he tells us about the highs and lows of a great career.
Motor Sport: It’s our centenary this year and you must remember our Denis Jenkinson and other Formula 1 writers. Were you always open with the media or were you wary of them?
DW: I remember Jenks from Motor Sport but not as well as the others like [Nigel] Roebuck, [Alan] Henry and [Maurice] Hamilton who followed my whole F1 career. I trusted them, told them things I didn’t want printed and they would respect that. It was mutual trust. On the other hand there were guys from The Sun newspaper, for example, who I wouldn’t tell anything. They always told me the misleading headlines weren’t written by them.
When you’ve been stung once you get more careful and you quickly learn who you can trust. I was always honest and I think that’s the best way with the media.
As a new kid on the block you ruffled some feathers in stock cars. Was that world a good grounding for the success that followed and what did you learn from that?
My father and my Uncle Stan taught me early on how to deal with people who weren’t entirely straight. I sussed them out very quickly. What stock cars taught me
