Five wins that made John Watson a British F1 hero

1976 Austrian GP: Penske’s one and only

Penske is surely unrivalled as America’s greatest team, given its five-decade record in IndyCar, NASCAR and sportscar racing. But it has only ever won a single F1 Grand Prix – and Wattie was the man who delivered it.

He’d been introduced to Roger Penske in the wake of Mark Donohue’s awful death in a crash during practice at the 1975 Austrian GP. The traumatised team had to race on at Watkins Glen because of its US sponsor and Wattie was offered the drive. But having qualified 12^th in the team’s PC3, it expired on the warm-up lap. To save face, Penske ordered the rapid deployment of an older PC1 on show in a hospitality area – and Wattie lined up at the back in a car he’d never driven. He broke two ribs in a seat that didn’t fit him, but somehow made it the end in ninth. Respect. On the back of it, Penske signed him for 1976.

Back at the Österreichring a year on from Donohue’s death, Wattie put in a virtuoso wet-weather drive to best Ronnie Peterson’s Lotus and Jody Scheckter’s Tyrrell and score a highly charged win for Penske. But it cost John his beard. The morning after the race, to appease Penske and his belief in pristine presentation, the newly minted grand prix winner had a shave – and at breakfast ‘The Captain’ didn’t recognise him! Hirsute Wattie was a thing of the past.

1981 British GP: a landmark for McLaren

Watson had to wait almost five years before his next grand prix win. In the time between, he had near misses at Brabham – losing a deserved French GP win in ’77 through a failure on the last lap – but then joined a McLaren team in decline. That changed in 1981: under new boss Ron Dennis and with John Barnard producing the first all-carbon-fibre monocoque F1 car, McLaren began to rise – and it was Wattie who wrote another passage of F1 history.

In Spain, he had finished third, in France he was second… and at Silverstone, in a dramatic race of attrition Watson delivered a wonderfully emotive home win. New-era McLaren, with its ground-breaking MP4, was on its way.

1982 Dutch GP: Niki who?

Watson got on well with Niki Lauda when they were team-mates at Brabham, but the wily Austrian had fed him some tough lessons on internal team politics. So alarm bells must have rung when Lauda was lured out of retirement to join McLaren for 1982. Was Wattie about to find himself sidelined again?

On just his third race back, Lauda won at Long Beach, but two races later Watson had an answer. Zolder 1982 will forever be overshadowed by Gilles Villeneuve’s death in qualifying – but as ever, racing rolled on. The next day, the McLarens made the most of their resilient Michelin tyres. Wattie passed Lauda on lap 47 – that must have been sweet – then reeled in the leading Williams of Keke Rosberg, who was struggling on his shot Goodyears, and hit the front on the penultimate lap. To rub salt, Lauda lost third place when his McLaren was found to be underweight.

1982 Detroit GP: Sweet music in Motown

Four weeks later Wattie would enjoy the greatest day of his career, on the streets of Detroit at the first Motown F1 race. But no one would have predicted as much after a dismal qualifying.

Struggling to get heat into his Michelins, he lined up 17^th, then after a race stoppage took the restart in P13. During the pause, Michelin’s mercurial Pierre Dupasquier persuaded him to change to a harder compound – and Watson’s day was transformed. Always well regarded for his overtaking ability, he went to work, passing car after car – on a street circuit too. In one lap alone, he dismissed Lauda, Eddie Cheever and Didier Pironi to run second, then chased down leader Rosberg (again) to take a decisive lead. Lauda tried to walk the same fine line of controlled aggression – and crashed.

After Detroit, Wattie lead the world championship, and after third place in the next round in Montréal he held a 10-point lead. Could he? Could he really…?

1983 Long Beach GP: the pass master rides again

Watson ended up one of 11 grand prix winners during a remarkable 1982 – but when it came to it, the title slipped through his grasp by just five points to consistent Rosberg and his single victory.

But at Long Beach the following April, Wattie had one final great F1 day left in him. Just as in Detroit, a lack of grip in qualifying had led to disaster: he qualified 22^nd, Lauda 23^rd. Cue long faces at McLaren.

But on Sunday, with some heat transforming their Michelins, the McLarens again went to work. Watson sliced through the field, passing his team-mate for good measure. Sure, he was aided by three of the leading four crashing into each other, but his victory from the back (well, almost) remains one of the most unlikely recorded.

His reward? At season’s end, Alain Prost fell out with Renault, and Marlboro and Dennis swooped. Wattie, who’d looked sure to be re-signed, was suddenly the last man standing. His 10-year F1 career was all but over.

Wattie would make one final start for McLaren, as substitute for an injured Lauda at the 1985 European GP at Brands Hatch, suitably on a day when Nigel Mansell’s slow-burn career would finally kick into hyper-drive with Williams. But for six seasons the man from Belfast had been Britain’s number one – and with a fairer wind, might even have picked up a world title along the way.

Today, he remains the committed racing enthusiast he always has been and enjoys his TV commentary work on GT racing. Underrated? Certainly. Forgotten? Never.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.