1987 - 1989 - Arrows

Derek raced in F1 between 1987 to 1989 for the eternal midfielders - Arrows.

Arrows had been supplied with BMW engines since 1984. However, for 1987 BMW's F1 involvement was tokenistic - it supplied Brabham with the new engine designed for the 1986 car and that would be it. An American leasing company called Megatron (something out of Transformers?) took over the old S4 BMW engines and supplied them to Arrows - for a price. Unfortunately, by 1987, this was an old engine and Arrows lost out to its competitors in terms of telemetry although the engine provided relatively good fuel consumption.

The Arrows A10 was designed by a certain Ross Brawn - although I am sure he would agree that it was not one of his better looking cars... an upturned bath tub springs to mind!

1987 was not a great year for Derek. His best qualifying performance was at Brazil in 8th place and his best race results were at Silverstone (5th) and the Hungaroring (6th). However, he generally outpaced his team mate, Eddie Cheever, having also returned to F1 after a stint with Jaguar in sportscar racing. Arrows generally matched Brabham BMW but really this was a case of treading water for the Englishman and Arrows.

Again Nigel Mansell took the F1 championship down to the wire - a practice crash at the Japanese GP handing the title to his bitter enemy - Nelson Piquet. A man who Derek had beaten several times in Formula 3...

FIA had announced changes to the regulations for the turbo engines which would be banned at the end of the '88 season. The engines were further detuned by only allowing 2.5 - bar boost pressure (it had been 4 bar in 1987) and 150 litres of fuel. In theory, this ensured that the non-turbo (atmospheric) teams would have a clear advantage over their turbo rivals. Nobody reckoned on Honda though... Honda scored 15 wins out of 16 races through the McLaren/Prost/Senna combination. Against this backdrop, Arrows Megatron scored their highest ever placing in the Constructors' Championship - fourth!

Ross Brawn revised the A10 (now an A10B) and Derek took 4th place first time out at the splendidly renamed "Autodromo Nelson Piquet" in deference to the triple world champion. In fact, Derek had been catching his old foe Piquet for 3rd place at the end of the race...

Derek finished in the points consistently throughout 1988 - the Arrows turned out to be a relatively reliable and fairly quick turbo car - certainly a match for Lotus Honda. The team's high point came at Monza where Senna's infamous crash with Jean Louis Schlesser at the first chicane led to Derek and Eddie scrapping for 3rd place. Eddie just held on. The Arrows pair had qualified 5th and 6th, however, a poor start from Derek meant that he had to climb back up the field and he was glued to Eddie's gearbox in the last few laps, unfortunately he could not find a way past - still a great day for Arrows!

Derek qualified a super 7th at Monaco and finished 4th at a track where he always went well... Overall, 7 points finishes including four 4th places led to 1988 being his best season since 1984. He also took 9th place in the "Autocourse" top 10 drivers of 1988.

During 1988, Derek received an offer to drive for Lotus in 1989 as partner to Nelson Piquet. Partner meant "No. 2". However, Nelson Piquet had gone to sleep in 1988 and to expect Derek to be a No.2 driver to him would have meant that he would had to have driven one handed and with one eye shut. Derek rejected the offer and stayed with Arrows Cosworth in 1989.

Ross Brawn designed a brand new car for 1989 -  all cars now ran 3.5 litre non-turbo engines. The Arrows A11 was an attractive car to look at and a car which proved to be quick on occasion... Such was the smallness of the cockpit, Derek had to wear a pair of racing boots one size too small to fit them in the footwell!

1989 would prove to me that Derek was one of the unluckiest drivers around. He could have won 2 races!

Brazil - Mansell took victory first time out for Ferrari. Derek finished 5th. However, Derek's on-track times were less than the Victor's - unfortunately 2 disastrous pit stops (problems with sticking wheel nuts) meant that he could only finish 5th - just 18 seconds behind Nigel Mansell.

Canada - A wet race saw Derek use his skill in the poor conditions to carve his way through the field to lead for 4 laps at mid-point before losing the lead to Ayrton Senna. Within 2 laps Derek pulled off - engine blown. He had been 30 seconds up the road and pulling away from the eventual winner, Thierry Boutsen. What made this most frustrating was that BBC did not show every race live in those days - options being to either wait for the highlights programme or be rather sad and "watch" the race on teletext. Wonder what I did? The most frustrating thing about teletext was the inconsistency of it all - you could wait 5 minutes before the page was updated. All this while Derek's name rose up the top 6 order until the magical moment arrived!!! There is a story that I  rang a mate when this happened - "Derek is winning!" - but it is all lies....

Derek on leading the Canadian Grand Prix: "...immense satisfaction when I dived inside Senna, just for a change, and I admit that gave me a thrill. Not as much of a thrill as being in the lead for the first time in too long though... the (engine) failure cost me and Arrows at least a second place and probably a win" (remember, Senna retired late on...)

The anti-climax of Canada was complete when Derek missed the next race in France following a karting accident at Bouley Bay. Martin Donnelly replaced him at that race.

The rest of the season was a bit of a write-off - a decent drive again in the rain at Spa netted him 6th place in a race of low attrition at the front of the field. Derek only scored 7 points all season though. It was during this season that the mantra "Go on Derek" was born. If enough people chanted this at any time but especially during a race then I was sure that Derek would take that maiden victory! Canada being a case in point - unfortunately, not quite enough people were chanting at the time to will him to victory. "Go on Derek" lived on for many years!

At the third time of asking, Derek would finally drive for Lotus...

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