Grand Prix Masters, Derek Warwick

Podium Finishes: 4
Points Scored: 30

Career History:

1966 : Began racing career competing for a season in the Southern England Area Go-Kart Championship.

1969 : Began stock car racing - short track oval racing in the U.K with Spedeworth.

1970 - 1974 : Competed in Super-Stox - which is similar to Midget racing in the U.S.A. Won the English Championship in 1972, British Championship in 1973 and World Championship in 1973. Competed in over 500 races, winning 300+.

1975 : First season in Formula Ford.

1976 : Second season in Formula Ford - won 33 races from 62 starts. Won the European FF Championship and placed second in both major British FF Championships & FF Festival.

1977 : First season in Formula 3. Seven-second place finishes.

1978 : Second season in Formula 3. Won 12 races. Won the Vandervell F3 Championship (Nelson Piquet second) and placed second in the B.P. F3 Championship (Piquet first).

1979 : First season of Formula 2. Ran with Theodore Racing but the car was uncompetitive and the team was short of finance.

1980 : Second season with Formula 2. Joined Toleman F2 team as teammate to Brian Henton. Finished second in European F2 Championship.

1981 : First season of Formula 1. Graduated to F1 with Toleman team, completely new car, engine and tyres. Qualified only once - Las Vagas, as the car was completely uncompetitive. Teammate Henton also only qualified once.

1982 : Stayed with Toleman for second season in F1 and qualified for every race.

1983 : Third season F1 with Toleman and first points finish (4th Dutch Grand Prix). The only driver to score points in each of the last four G.P.'s of 1983.

1984 : Joined Renault F1 team. Led first G.P. for Renault (Brazil) until forced to retire with suspension failure. Placed second in Belgian, British and South African G.P.'s. Elected to stay with Renault for 1985 after having received offers from Williams and Lotus.

1985 : Disastrous season with Renault following the departure of Chief Designer and Team Manager at the start of the year. Offered a seat with Lotus for 1986 season but the offer was withdrawn at the insistence of - Ayrton Senna.

1986 : In the absence of a competitive F1 drive, signed for Jaguar World Sportscar Championship team – placed second in the World Sportscar Championship - one point behind Bell and Stuck. Drove for Brabham F1 team for the last ten rounds of the F1 Championship after the untimely death of Elio de Angelis. The Brabham BMW was very powerful but unreliable.

1987 : Signed for Arrows F1 team Eddie Cheevar. Many mechanical problems and best finish was fifth at British G.P.

1988 : Second season with Arrows. Finished seventh in the World Championship with 15 points from 10 races finishes including four fourth places. The last race of the season in Australia was also 100th G.P. start.

1989 : Third season with Arrows. Finished tenth in World Championship after finishing eight races. Car was initially quick but was unreliable and lacked development. Led Canadian G.P. before engine blew up.

1990 : Joined Lotus F1 as team leader. Two points finishes - Canada and Hungary. Big mechanical and chassis problems culminating in huge first lap accident at Monza due to suspension failure.

1991 : Again in the absence of a competitive F1 drive, signed for Jaguar Sportscar team as number one driver. Won at Monza, Silverstone and Nurburgring, but had the Silverstone win taken away due to a technical infringement of the driver change rules by the team. Placed second in the World Sportscar Championship but would have won easily with the Silverstone points.

1992 : Joined Peugeot World Sportscar Championship Team as team leader. General Results:

Monza - 2nd
Silverstone - 1st
Donnington - 2nd
Suzuka 1000k - 1st

Le Mans - 1st

1992 : World Champion

1993 : Signed for Footwork Mugen-Honda for 1993 FIA World Championship.

Hungary - 4th
Silverstone - 6th

1994 : Possibility of two F1 drives which for various reasons did not happen rather than do a few drives decided on putting a full programme together for 1995. Had an offer to race in America but decided with business commitments not to.

1995 : Signed for Alfa Romeo - run by Pro Drive for 1995 BTCC as team leader.

1996 : For various reasons was unable to confirm a top drive in BTCC so decided to take a year out to concentrate again on business commitments.

Raced at Le Mans for Courage Competition with Mario Andretti and Jan Lammers.

1997 : Formed a new race team - Triple Eight Race Engineering Ltd along with Team Director Ian Harrison formerly with Williams Renault, Technical Director John Gentry formerly with TWR and successful businessman and friend Roland Dane. Signed a three year contract with Vauxhall to run its Auto Trader RAC Car Championship Programme until the end of 1999.

Also signed a years contract to drive for Vauxhall in the BTCC along with John Cleland.

1998 : Second year with Vauxhall winning one race and finishing 9th in the Championship.

2002 : Sold 888 race team to Ian Harrison.

2003 : Sold UK group which consisted of five garages, all in the South Coast, employing 200 people to Honda UK & Alan Day, releasing me from all my UK commitments.

2003 : Brought John Briggs Motorsport in Australia to run two cars in the V8 Australian Super car championship, employing 50 people.

2004 : First full year in championship, disappointing results finishing 10th in championship.

2005 : Changed both drivers signing Craig Lowndes to lead the team, we are the only team to win 5 races this currently 3rd in championship with two race left in championship.