1986 - Jaguar & Brabham

My dislike of Ayrton Senna started now. Renault stayed in F1 as an engine supplier to Lotus, Ligier and Tyrrell. Renault was keen that Derek should drive the 2nd Lotus partnering hot-shot Senna. John Player Special (Lotus's main sponsor) was keen to have a popular and quick British driver in a Lotus. Derek would drive for Lotus in 1986 then.

Not so fast!

Ayrton Senna decided that by signing Derek, the team's effort would be diluted. Senna had won 2 grands prix in 1985 with Lotus and had blitzed Elio de Angelis, the erstwhile No.1 driver. Lotus had been in the doldrums since for some time and they had the highly rated Senna driving for them. He had made enough of a difference in F1 already to be seen as future champion. Quite rightly, Lotus wanted him to do it in the black and gold car. Ayrton had (also, quite rightly) identified that Lotus was really anything but a top team in terms of resources and struggled to run 2 competitive cars. Ayrton was convinced that Lotus should concentrate on one car - i.e. his... By placing Derek in the other car, Lotus would have a duty to supply the same equipment - after all Ayrton and the F1 paddock considered Derek to be a No.1 driver at the time.

Senna vetoed Derek's appointment. The British press was outraged at the arrogance of Senna. Senna held firm that Lotus should employ a true No.2 driver. They certainly got one in Johnny Dumfries. Hindsight tells us that Senna was right. Lotus was struggling and Senna merely delayed the inevitable of the collapse of the once dominant team. Senna scored 9 pole positions and took 2 victories and was a title contender until the penultimate round. It would never get so good for Lotus again.

Derek was forced out of F1 - finding solace in the Jaguar sports car team with another unemployed f1 driver - Eddie Cheever. At least Jaguar was competitive in Group C racing (WEC) - Derek took a  famous win at Silverstone. I hoped that sportscars would be a temporary diversion for Derek in his quest for F1 glory.

Elio de Angelis had left Lotus deciding it was not much fun driving alongside Senna. Bernie Ecclestone had bizzarely allowed to let his double world champion Nelson Piquet leave Brabham for Williams because he would not match Williams's salary offer. Ecclestone settled on de Angelis and Brabham returnee, Riccardo Patrese, for the 1986 line up. I was amazed by the Brabham BMW for that season - it looked like a skateboard on wheels - it was so low. I believe that the drivers were almost lying down when driving the car. BMW had built a new engine which, I think, was placed on its side. The ethos of the car was to lower the centre of gravity as far as practical. It was the most radical car to hit F1 for a long time. It was cr*p.

Sadly, Elio de Angelis died whilst testing the car at Paul Ricard, France, in May 1986.

It has been said that Bernie Ecclestone employed Derek Warwick because he was the only "available" driver who did not contact Bernie. Bernie was clearly incensed that a number of drivers were ringing him for the drive a few hours after Elio's death. It shows the integrity of Delboy that he did not contact Bernie for the drive.

Derek, then, drove for Brabham for the rest of 1986 together with Jaguar sports car team. It was a struggle. Derek, it seems to me, did not get to grips with car in comparison to Patrese. Although he outqualified Patrese at Brands Hatch (Patrese driving the previous year's car for comparative purposes, such was the poor performance of the current car) I get the impression that he did not gel with the team and it was no surprise that Derek's association would not continue into 1987. Derek's best qualifying performance came at Monza where the straightline speed of the Brabham allowed him to take 7th place on the grid while a banzai first lap at Hockenheim saw him pass 10 cars from 20th on the grid. He finished 7th there - his best finish of 1986. Derek missed out on the World Sportscar Championship too - all in all a frustrating season for the Hampshire man.

In any case, Brabham was struggling and by the end of 1987 Bernie closed the team down before selling the team on. BMW pulled out of grand prix racing at the end of 1987. Brabham reappeared in 1989 but rather limply disappeared from the F1 grid in 1992 despite the efforts of a certain D Hill...

I looked on as Nigel Mansell almost took the world championship - the famous blown tyre at Adelaide preventing him from becoming Britain's first F1 champion since James Hunt. Derek would have sealed the championship before Adelaide I thought to myself...

At least regular appearances on "Driving Force" would remind the public of Derek's talents.

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