THE ROEBUCK FILES...

As published on Autosport Online.

August 9 2000

Dear Nigel,
Your reference to Derek Warwick and Patrick Tambay's partnership at Renault in '84-85 being "really great guys" (Q&A 2/8/00) has made me curious as to how you rated Derek Warwick as an F1 driver? I seem to recall that it was always Warwick, not Nigel Mansell, who was likely to "make it" in F1 in the early 1980s. Can you explain why Warwick never really got a competitive drive in F1? I remember something about Senna vetoing Lotus's wish to sign Warwick for 1986 - i.e Senna saw him as a threat to his No. 1 status - why did this not alert other team owners? Maybe he was too much a "normal bloke" to become a superstar?

Wayne Hemingway
Rochester, Kent


Dear Wayne,

You're quite right. In their early days, in F3, Derek Warwick looked far more likely to make it than Nigel Mansell, and it has always saddened me that it turned out the way it did.

After success in FF1600, F3 and F2, Warwick got into F1 in 1981, with the fledgling Toleman team. That season the car was both uncompetitive and hopelessly unreliable, but the following year Derek was able to show his ability on a couple of occasions, notably at Brands Hatch, where he ran as high as second, and at Zandvoort, where he took the fastest lap. In '83, there was more of the same, and Jean Sage, the Renault team manager, was keen to sign him for 1984.

This duly came to be - and Derek very nearly won his first race for his new team, at Rio. All season long he was very competitive, but too often the car broke, and at Dallas, where he had the race on a plate, he made a mistake on the disintegrating surface.

By mid-season in '84, Frank Williams had decided to replace his number two driver, Jacques Laffite, for 1985, and Warwick was his first choice. Ultimately Derek turned the offer down, and if that seems utterly unfathomable now, remember that at the time Williams was hardly the hot ticket in F1. First, the team was in its first season with the turbocharged Honda engine, which had a lot of horsepower, but was about as user-friendly as a chainsaw; second, the FW09 chassis - Williams persisted with an aluminium tub, after everyone else had gone to carbon-fibre - was perhaps the worst ever produced by the team.

Renault, by contrast, looked in pretty good shape, so long as something could be done about reliability. Warwick was offered a lot of money to stay, and it seemed like his best option at the time.

Mansell, meantime, had been informed by Lotus that his services would not be required for 1985, when his place, as Elio de Angelis's team mate, would be taken by the young Ayrton Senna. For a time, Nigel couldn't give himself away, and Frank Williams has admitted that he signed him as a last resort - even though team leader Keke Rosberg initially threatened to leave if Mansell should be brought aboard.

So what happened in 1985? Renault's new car was far less competitive than its predecessor, a complete waste of Warwick's time; by the end of the year, with the Regie in serious financial trouble, it was decided to close down the F1 operation.

Williams, meantime, came good again. Towards the end of the season, Mansell won his first Grand Prix, at Brands Hatch, and followed up with another at Kyalami. Nigel was on his way.

Renault decided to continue supplying engines to Lotus for 1986, and did their best to get Warwick into the second car, alongside Senna. The team management was also in favour, as was the primary sponsor, John Player, but Ayrton said no. It wasn't that he had anything against Derek, he said, but he thought him too good to be a number two, and he seriously doubted Lotus's ability to field two competitive cars. Warwick's presence, in other words, would compromise the effort put into his own car, and he wasn't prepared for that to happen. It was mighty tough on Derek, but probably Ayrton was right in his reasoning.

Thereafter, Warwick drove half a season for Brabham in '86 (following the death of de Angelis), and also drove for Arrows for several seasons, but unfortunately he was no longer 'fashionable', and he was never to get into a competitive F1 car again.

Perhaps you're right that he was too much of a 'normal bloke' to become a superstar - I can think of no F1 driver I have liked more, nor one who changed less over the years. Just a delightful fellow, absolutely genuine, and with a tremendous sense of humour. I've often thought of how great a British sporting hero we would have had if Mansell's successes could have been combined with Warwick's personality.