MOTORSPORT FLASHBACK
Forty years ago the fortunes of both John Watson and Mclaren were in the doldrums until they found vindication at Silverstone. And a bull wins for the prancing horse
Mclaren back on top
Mclaren was in crisis mode in the late 1970s and into 1980. Not only had it not won a race since the end of 1977, but it also hadn’t looked remotely close to winning. More often than not, the team was barely competitive and, despite Lotus having hinted at a ground-effect future during 1977, Mclaren got left behind. When Ulsterman John ‘Wattie’ Watson joined the team for the 1979 season his teammate Patrick Tambay was asked how they were ranked: “We’re equal number twos.” It summed up the team morale but Wattie, at least, had had some previous success. In 1976 he’d given Penske its only ever Formula 1 (F1) victory in a commanding performance and with a bit of luck he’d have added more wins during 1977 if the Brabham-alfa had been even a tad reliable. In 1978 he’d often matched his two-time world champion teammate Niki Lauda, but whereas the Austrian won twice Watson had only had a solitary silver medal to show for his natural speed. On the teams’ front Mclaren’s championship years of 1974 with Emerson Fittipaldi and two years later with James Hunt were already distant memories.
In successive years since 1976 Mclaren had slid to third, eighth, and seventh in the constructors’ championship. In 1980 the oncedominant team scored a mere 11 points
Patrick Tambay was asked how they were ranked: “We’re equal number twos.” It summed up the team morale
and finished ninth. And a prime asset was departing in the form of young Frenchman Alain Prost who had invariably outperformed Watson. Meanwhile much was going on behind the scenes. Mclaren’s sponsor Marlboro moved Ron Dennis in, along with sidekick superstar designer John Barnard who’d penned a groundbreaking car with a complete carbon chassis. It was a departure from the conventional aluminium form of construction. Although in a relatively short time carbon-fibre-composite construction became ubiquitous it was then still largely confined to the aerospace industry. For the opening two races of 1981 Mclaren had to fall back on its old M29 design while the perfectionist Barnard put the final touches on the new MP4/1. Watson debuted the new car in Argentina but there was nothing about the performance of either to suggest that the F1 world would soon be shifting on its axis. At Imola, Wattie qualified inside the top 10 for the first time in ages but finished a couple of laps behind. In Belgium he was fifth on the grid. Perhaps the dark days during which a Mclaren team member had put ‘John Watswrong’ on the side of his car were starting to fade.
GREEN SHOOTS
He slipped back to 10th at Monaco, and again the race brought no joy. Next up was the Spanish at Jarama near Madrid. It began a gentle joint return to glory for both Mclaren and Watson. The Irishman qualified fourth and almanacs were consulted to determine when the team founded by the great
New Zealander Bruce Mclaren had last been that high up on the grid. But there was more joy to come when Watson brought the carbon car home third — and first of the Cosworth DFVS at a time when the wonderful 3.0-litre V8 was, not for the first time, reckoned to have outlived its economic life in the face of the 1.5-litre turbos from Renault and Ferrari. Two weeks later at Dijon Wattie put his MP4/1 onto the front row, sandwiching the two Renaults. This time he went one better and finished second.
In the days when the British Grand Prix (GP) alternated between Silverstone and Brands Hatch it was the turn of the Northamptonshire circuit to host the next round of the championship 40 Julys ago. And with the long straights of Silverstone likely to favour the turbos, the chances of Mclaren and Watson’s sequence of a third then a second culminating in the ultimate result were probably less than 50/50. The forced-induction motors were becoming increasingly more reliable and it was no surprise when Renault locked out the front row. The Mclarens were fifth and sixth as their resurgence rolled on. Gilles Villeneuve had made a storming start from eighth on the grid and, after winning two of the previous three races for Ferrari, finished the first lap in third as the four turbos led the field. Watson had dropped to seventh but on lap four he’d drifted to 10th following an accident triggered by Villeneuve that took out reigning world champion Alan Jones and the other Mclaren. As Wattie recalled when thinking back to that day and the cloud of blue smoke emanating from the gyrating Ferrari’s tyres: “Alan Jones, disoriented, didn’t know where the Ferrari was, and eventually I think he bumped into it. I saw what was happening to Villeneuve, to Jones — I managed to stop without getting into contact. So when the smoke cleared and I realised that I hadn’t hit Alan Jones or Villeneuve, I’d lost the engine — the engine had stalled when I braked so heavily. But I still had a little bit of momentum, so I managed to lift the clutch, get it back into gear, click on the electric fuel pump, and brrmph — off it went. So I then had to restart the process that I had already executed, of catching and overtaking drivers.
I can remember Carlos Reutemann in the Williams being very aggressive in his defence, so I stitched him like a kipper. I mean he was passed like … sweet as a nut — loved all that. And then, bit by bit, I made progress. With about ten laps to go, I passed René Arnoux, and from that point forward it was just a matter of driving to the chequered flag.”
FAMILY FAVOURITE
For John Watson to vindicate himself in front of the doubters who believed he’d either ‘lost it’, or perhaps never really ‘had it’, his first F1 victory in nearly five years could not have come at a better place than at Silverstone in his home GP — not that the last few laps were without drama of another kind: “I then had to contend with my team boss, Ron Dennis, who was on the pit wall. He was leaning over going, ‘Slow down! Slow down!’ So I went from revving the engine from 10,500 to 10,000 (but still) ‘Slow down!’ every lap I came past. So eventually I was changing gear at 9000, and it actually made about twotenths of a second difference and we took the chequered flag — and it was clearly a massive relief.”
Wattie confirms my recollection
“I remember Carlos Reutemann in the Williams being very aggressive in his defence. I stitched him like a kipper”
that his family had come over from Belfast for the race: “My mother, father, and sister were in the grandstand at Copse, so they also had a very special day. But maybe the thing that summed up the day for me was that there was a track invasion. I had never been the beneficiary of a track invasion.”
The win also marked the first win for a composite chassis and spearheaded the new Mclaren era under Ron Dennis. Although Wattie ‘only’ rounded out the season with a pair of sixths and a fine second in the rain in Canada, his other notable achievement in 1981 came at Monza for a very different reason. He lost control and the car crashed with such severity that the engine broke away from the car — the remains of the Mclaren littered the track and young Italian Michele Alboreto, who was following Wattie, smashed into the engine sitting in his path. The Ulsterman walked away unscathed. Engineers throughout the paddock took note of how well the carbonfibre tub had come through the accident. John Watson won three more GPS for Mclaren before retiring from F1 while the revitalised team finished the decade with five drivers’ championships, four constructors’ titles, and an impressive array of silverware.
THE PAMPAS BULL
When I arrived at the Donington museum some 20 years ago I discovered a memorial near the entrance that was a new addition since my last visit there two decades earlier. It featured two great South American drivers who were both special favourites of the facility’s owner Tom Wheatcroft: Juan Manuel Fangio and Ayrton Senna. As I photographed it a stranger commented on the relative difference in girth between the Argentinean and the more athletic Brazilian. It was a memorable observation — after all here I am recalling it all these years later — but the reality was that Fangio had the build of a thermometer when compared with another driver, compatriot and great friend José Froilán González. Argentineans seemingly have a fondness for nicknames. Whereas Fangio was dubbed ‘El Chueco’ (‘The Bow-legged One’), González was, to his friends, ‘El Cabezon’ or ‘Fat Head’. To the British media, he became ‘The Pampas Bull’, as much as anything for his — shall we say — robust build.
González, 11 years younger than Fangio, joined him in Europe in 1950 but shot to prominence back in Argentina in early 1951 when he defeated the visiting Mercedes-benz team at the wheel of a Ferrari 166.
This did not go unnoticed in Italy. He was soon a works Ferrari driver, despite the most ungainly of driving positions. At a time when reigning and inaugural Alfa Romeo world champion Nino Farina was touted as the ‘Great Stylist’ with his straight arms, here was a pudgy South American hunched over the wheel with bent arms and almost appearing as if he was sitting on, rather than in, the 4.5-litre V12 Ferrari. The Alfa Romeos of Farina and Fangio were dominant in 1950 and started the F1 season 70 years ago looking like they’d whitewash the opposition again. But Enzo Ferrari had a plan and it came in the shape of Alberto Ascari, a quick Italian whose father had raced against old Enzo. González was engaged as a quick, if somewhat unconventional, backup.
NUMBER TWO BECOMES NUMBER ONE
The pecking order was made clear to González in France where Ascari had taken over the Argentinian’s car after his own had failed. González was on debut at Ferrari and was left in no doubt as to the way things would be. He responded in the best way possible: the next round was at Silverstone where González put his Ferrari on pole while Ascari was fourth quickest, bracketing the Alfas. But he wasn’t done because on 14 July he made history. Most aspiring GP drivers dream of driving for Ferrari and of the few that make it some manage to win for the famous Scuderia and thus cement their place both in history and in the hearts of the adoring tifosi. A handful manage a world championship but few could ever hope to challenge at the top of the list of Ferrari’s F1 GP winners, where Lauda sits on 15 wins and 32 podiums and Michael Schumacher an almost unbelievable 72 wins in his 10 years with the team. But no-one can ever topple González from the prime position he established 70 years ago as the first ever winner of an F1 race for Ferrari.
Bizarrely, González never competed in a full championship and his only other F1 win also came at Silverstone three years later — also in a Ferrari. In between British GP wins he drove for Maserati and in 1956 was pursued by Vanwall, but he rounded out his short career back in Argentina. José Froilán González died in 2013 aged 90.
The Ulsterman walked away unscathed. Engineers throughout the paddock took note of how well the carbon-fibre tub had come through the accident