A1GP: 2008-2009
Results: 2008/09 (10th) After two years of dipping in and out of Formula 3 and Porsche racing, things began to solidify for Watts again when he landed a full-time ride in the Porsche Supercup and also a campaign in A1GP.
“It was actually a huge privilege to get to drive the Team GB A1 car,” says Watts. “Motorsport isn’t like football or athletics in that racing for your country didn’t really exist, until A1GP came along. I did a lot of the development work on the bio-ethanol fuel the series used, both myself and Jonny Kane just pounded around Snetterton for hundreds of laps testing it. Then I got made a reserve driver for Oliver Jarvis for the 2007-’08 season and did a practice session in his place at Zuhai in China and did enough to get promoted to race driver for the next season.
“By far the best weekend was at Chengdu in China where I qualified on pole and took two podiums.
“Those Ferrari cars were brilliant to drive, and based on the 2004 F1 chassis. They had loads of grunt and actually lacked a bit of downforce, which meant you could follow other cars and not be punished for it. They moved about quite a lot too, which made them a nice challenge.
“I was also doing Porsche Supercup alongside A1GP and I was nowhere near fit enough for the A1 cars. I remember I couldn’t hold my head up after China because of the forces as I was used to the Porsche.
“My son was due to be born around the date of the penultimate race weekend so I dropped out as I couldn’t afford to be away for that and that was the end of my time there.”