Warwick's three shots at Group C glory

20 years ago, after narrowly missing out the year before, a British driver finally took his long-awaited world championship title. He then changed categories for a final stint in Formula 1, leaving other Britons to fly the flag in sportscars.

Derek Warwick's 1992 world sportscar success might have been overshadowed by the parallel Formula 1 honours of Nigel Mansell, but it was still a big achievement. Group C was a period with manufacturer support, big budgets, and top drivers.

Warwick had three shots at the title, but circumstances - including a second opportunity in F1 - thwarted him until 1992.

1986 - BIG CAT'S FIRST ROAR

Warwick's first chance at the title came with Jaguar in 1986. He'd already come close to becoming a Grand Prix victor with Renault, and had won the Brands Hatch European Sportscar Championship race with John Fitzpatrick against strong opposition in 1983.

It was no surprise therefore, that he was near the top of Tom Walkinshaw's wish list when it came to putting Jaguar's Group C challenge together.

"1985 was a dreadful year with Renault and then I was left with nothing after the Lotus situation [when Ayrton Senna blocked his move to the squad]," recalls Warwick. "Tom called me straight away and said he was putting a sportscar deal together - Jaguar back to Le Mans - and I went and did the deal."

For a driver still with thoughts of becoming F1 World Champion, Warwick wasn't sure about sportscars. But he soon saw some benefits. "Once I committed to the deal that was it," he says. "It was the first time I realised how insular F1 is sometimes. When you are in it there is nothing bigger; sportscars had a more family atmosphere. You meet so many people you don't meet in F1."

Warwick was high on Tom Walkinshaw's wish list at Jaguar © LAT

Sharing a car with someone also required a change of mentality. "A lot of the races were enduros and you had to share - and I'm not a very good sharer," adds the 57-year old. "To suddenly share with another driver was difficult."

That perhaps explains why Warwick and Eddie Cheever - who would later become his F1 team-mate at Arrows - didn't initially gel. They were the two stars of the squad and both knew it: in the end the team put them in separate cars.

"Before the season we went to St Moritz for a training camp and Eddie, being a bit of a practical joker, put my mattress into a hatch in the ceiling," remembers Warwick. "He and Jean-Louis Schlesser were laughing like a couple of children.

"Then we were sitting in the sauna and, being the competitive, annoying one-upmanship man I am, said 'I'm surprised you signed as a number two, Eddie'. He jumped up as if he'd had an electric shock and said 'I'm not number two, I've signed as number one!'

"Tom had signed us both as number one drivers, but I knew the sort of pranks Tom played. There was a rivalry with Eddie - he was younger, a bit of an upstart and wanted to prove to the world he was the greatest driver. We clashed to start with, but we ironed out those differences."

The season didn't start brilliantly for the V12-engined XJR-6 at Monza. Warwick qualified sixth behind the sole works Lancia and four Porsches before fuel issues and a poor pitstop struck in the race. Cheever/Warwick were running third when a driveshaft failed.

It all changed at Silverstone. After a fine duel with the Andrea de Cesaris/Alessandro Nannini Lancia, the duo gave Jaguar its first world sportscar championship victory for almost 30 years.

"I had a good time and enjoyed taking Jaguar back to Silverstone," says Warwick. "It was an amazing day."

Jean-Louis Schlesser joined Warwick and Cheever at Le Mans in a three-car assault and the support for the team really struck Warwick. "I've never seen such a passionate, unbelievable British crowd," he says. "It was like the whole of the UK was there and I had tears in my eyes during the driver parade."

Stuck and Bell proved peerless in the Porsche © LAT

The Big Cats couldn't match the fastest Porsches, but looked good for second until Sunday morning, when Schlesser had a right-rear tyre explode and the damage was too bad to continue. Meanwhile works Porsche drivers Hans Stuck and Derek Bell banked the points for winning the legendary enduro, and comfortably led the title race.

At the single-driver Norisring sprint, Cheever outqualified Warwick and both were involved in a four-car battle for second. Warwick eventually spun and finished third, while Cheever moved three points clear of him in the drivers' table with second.

Warwick and Cheever were then separated. At Brands the Cheever/Gianfranco Brancatelli XJR-6 hit several problems on its way to sixth. Safety car confusion helped Warwick/Schlesser into the battle for the lead, but a blocked fuel filter limited them to fourth. Warwick was now a point ahead of Cheever, but still 28 behind Stuck/Bell.

Worse was to come. In the absence of the works Porsches and Lancia, and the crack Joest team, the Jerez round should have been easy pickings for Jaguar...

The three works XJR-6s duly approached the first corner 1-2-3, but Warwick tried a move around the outside of Brancatelli. Contact was made and Cheever was unable to avoid Brancatelli. All three were delayed.

Warwick eventually dug himself out of the gravel trap to take third with Jan Lammers, while the other two XJR-6s succumbed to driveshaft issues. It closed the gap to Bell/Stuck, but an opportunity had been missed.

"Everybody blamed me," says Warwick, "but my memory is not very good when I've done things wrong..."

To add to that, F1 reappeared on Warwick's radar after Elio de Angelis was killed testing at Paul Ricard. Warwick would eventually take his place at Brabham, meaning duel programmes.

"I lost a bit of focus," admits Warwick. "I was still an aspiring F1 driver, I still had races to win and world championships to win in F1. Maybe I didn't take sportscars seriously enough because I was back in the Brabham and had already committed to Arrows in 1987.

Warwick moved back to F1 when Elio de Angelis was killed in testing © LAT

"It was a little bit difficult because one minute I had an F1 car with something like 1350bhp in qualifying and the next I was in a tank with a V12 engine in the back. It was a difficult time."

A multi-car accident behind the safety car took out both works Porsches at an appallingly wet Nurburgring and Warwick/Lammers were leading the Sauber C8 that went on to win when an oil line failure led to retirement.

Warwick and Lammers then lost out to the Porsche of Thierry Boutsen/Frank Jelinski by just 0.8 seconds at the Spa 1000Km, giving Warwick a title shot at the Fuji finale.

With Stuck/Bell struck by driveshaft and alternator issues, and Cheever drafted back in alongside, Warwick's chances looked good.

He was in a championship-winning second when a misfire struck. That was sorted and Warwick returned to the fray to finish third, but a time-keeping error initially handed the Jaguar second - and the title.

"We knew we were third," says Warwick. "They told us we were world champions, but we knew we were third [in the race].

"Tom said to me after the race he was pleased we didn't win the world championship and I think that was because he wanted a programme and if he reached the peak too early it upset the balance of where the programme was.

"The V12 Jag had more torque [than the Porsche] and I think it had more downforce. It was fundamentally a good car and we deserved to be world champions."

1991 - XJR-14 MOVES THE GOALPOSTS

After Brabham and Arrows, and then a season with Lotus in 1990, Warwick again found himself without an F1 drive. Once more, Walkinshaw got in touch about a new Jaguar, this time designed by Ross Brawn.

"Ross rang me and said 'I'm building a pretty special car and I understand you are without a drive for F1, would you like to come and talk to me?'" says Warwick. "Tom came on the phone and told me he was sending his private plane over: 'Come and look what we're doing. I think you'll be impressed.'

"Tom knew it was Ross who was going to sell me the car, but Ross also told me that Tom had to have me because Jaguar wanted a British driver and Martin Brundle had already signed for Brabham [in F1]. I was in a very good position negotiation-wise and used it to its full potential.

The Ross Brawn-designed XJR-14 shifted the goalposts © LAT

"I think Tom was upset with me all year because I'd squeezed so much money out of him. Our relationship wasn't as good as it could have been."

The car, though, was. "It was a grand prix car with bodywork on it," enthuses Warwick, who believes it was the best sportscar he ever drove.

"They were also good times to be in sportscars and I loved it. Peugeot was spending a fortune and you had the Mercedes young drivers. Everyone says Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger were the quickest, but the only time you knew you were in a race was when Michael Schumacher was in the car. He was absolutely unbelievable."

The same could be said for the XJR-14. Warwick outqualified the best non-Jaguar by a scarcely believable 2.5 seconds at the Suzuka opener. Starter motor failure prevented a Jaguar victory, but Warwick shared the winning car at Monza with Brundle to get his championship challenge up and running.

He would win again - this time with Teo Fabi - on the then-new Silverstone GP circuit, but this was the weekend Warwick lost the title. He ended up scoring no points after a switch of cars between qualifying and race was deemed outside the regulations.

"That was another reason Tom and I fell out," says Warwick. "I remember saying to Tom, 'Are you sure this is legal - I haven't qualified the other car.' He just told me to drive the car and he'd worry about the rest. I would have scored good points even in the other car and at the end of the year I had a big argument with Tom because he'd lost me a world championship, which I wanted to dedicate to my little brother. I felt he didn't handle the situation properly."

The death of younger brother Paul, in an F3000 accident at Oulton Park in July, nearly ended Derek's career, never mind his title bid.

"After Paul died I didn't know what I wanted to do and I promised my mother I would stop," says Warwick. "I remember Tom asking me what I wanted to do and I had the national press camped at the bottom of the garden for weeks on end."

Walkinshaw arranged for the car to be taken to Austria for a private test for Derek. "My three sisters were absolutely devastated, but my mother, who never had an opinion on anything, stood up in the middle of this family meeting," remembers Warwick. "She said 'We've got to support Derek, he's been racing all his life, he should do what he thinks is right, and if he wants to race we should not put undue pressure on him.'

Younger brother Paul died in an F3000 accident at Oulton Park © LAT

"It was a quiet test, with people doing up imaginary bolts because they didn't know how to handle it. I was driving but not driving. It was in my subconscious - like I was outside looking in.

"Right at the end of the day, I was coming along the back straight flat out and I hit a bump, a rear damper broke or seized and I spun round and round. I didn't hit anything, but I got out of the car, drove back to the hotel and cried all night.

"I was a mess and early in the morning I looked in the mirror and knew I had to make a decision - carry on racing or pack your bags and go home. The next day I got in the car and broke the lap record.

"From that day onwards I had that ability to lock Paul away in my head to get through race weekends, to the point where I struggled to visualise his face. Sometimes on a Sunday night I'd have to look at a picture of him."

The next round came at the Nurburgring. The mid-season break had allowed Peugeot (with a hastily revised car that looked uncannily like an XJR-14) and Mercedes to close on Jaguar's lead. Problems for both teams ultimately allowed Warwick and David Brabham to lead an emotional XJR-14 one-two, but it had been a trying weekend.

"I had a lot to cope with, which is why I think me and David Brabham are so close - he helped me a lot," says Warwick. "At the Nurburgring there were a lot of pointed questions at me that David deflected because I probably wasn't strong enough to handle them. Coming back and winning that race was cool."

Before that, though, had come the infamous clash with Schumacher in qualifying. "He took pole and I saw him coming on his second flyer," remembers Warwick. "I half got out of his way - I knew he was down on his time - and got up on the kerb. I believe to this day I didn't hamper his lap, and he swerved and took my left-front wheel and nosecone off.

"I was absolutely furious and was screaming on the radio. I got out of the car, threw my helmet down and ran into the Sauber pit. Schlesser was taking off his helmet and I cocked my hand to smack him and he cried 'No, no, it was Schumacher.'

Warwick won at the Nurburgring, but had an infamous clash with Schumacher © LAT

"Schumacher was running out the back door of the garage and I gave chase to him, with the Sauber guys trying to stop me. He ran into one truck and I ran through the truck after him. He ran into a second truck and he tried to slam the door, I put my foot in and barged through the door.

"By this time I've got the press, my mechanics, Sauber mechanics all chasing. I had him over the table and all I could hear was Schlesser saying 'Hit him, hit him.'

"The German federation pulled him up in front of the clerk of the course and I understand he had to come and apologise to me. You'd think he'd have known my little brother had just been killed and show enough respect to apologise in the proper way. He never really looked at me, mumbled something that resembled sorry and that was it."

The Nurburgring would be the scene of Jaguar's last win of 1991. The new Peugeot, helped by its Michelin rubber, utterly dominated at Magny-Cours, outpacing the XJR-14s for the first time.

Warwick's event was a nightmare, including a pit fire, an off, the requirement of a new nose, and the passenger door blowing off. He finished fifth, while Fabi took third.

It was Fabi's turn to have the bad luck at Mexico City, an oil/water leak preventing him from starting. Warwick was on for a podium with Brabham when another starter motor failed at his last stop and the duo fell to sixth, which was nevertheless enough to clinch Jaguar the teams' title.

Peugeot rivals Philippe Alliot and Mauro Baldi weren't factors in the Autopolis finale, but Fabi carefully cruised to third behind Warwick to clinch the crown by seven points. Those 20 lost at Silverstone had been crucial.

1992 - TITLE SUCCESS WITH PEUGEOT

Jaguar wouldn't be around to defend its titles in 1992, but even before that decision, Warwick had decided to look elsewhere.

"I still had an issue with Tom," he admits. "I like to be liked - it's a weakness of mine. Tom respected me, but he was a massive fan of Martin Brundle. I'm a bit stubborn and Tom was very stubborn, so it was a clash. It was a shame because I had huge respect for Tom.

"[Peugeot team boss] Jean Todt asked to see me. I flew to Paris and liked what I saw, loved the engine. They gave me the full tour. We got stuck on money, but we found a way round that. I thought Jaguar wouldn't be there and I knew Ross wouldn't be there so my confidence was low."

Now Warwick got to see how the opposition had been working. He liked the testing, but not the debriefs: "We used to test until something broke, one test lasted something like 38 hours.

"The French drivers would disappear for four or five hours during the night and leave me to it, but I loved it - driving the car and building my stamina.

"But at the first debrief it felt like there were 4000 people there, speaking a mixture of languages: Italian, French, English. I thought 'this is not going to work' and after 45 minutes I stood up and said, 'Jean, when you need to talk to me I'll be in the garage. I can't handle this, this is wrong.'"

Two hours later, Todt found him and asked what the problem was. "I said 'If you are going to build a world championship-winning team you've got to change the way you go about your motor racing. There's only one way to run a team: you all have to be speaking the same language and you need the minimum amount of people: the drivers, the engineers, and you. If you have an engine problem you call in the engine man, if you have a gearbox problem, you call in the gearbox man, because these guys are all trying to be the most important person in the room'.

Warwick and Blundell shared the 1992 Le Mans win © LAT

"The very next debrief we all spoke English and we had just the drivers, the engineers and Jean. At first there was a little bit of ill feeling, but then everyone realised that the structure was right."

On the track, the 905B (as it was widely known) was the best car in a depleted field. Only Toyota and Jaguar - with a reworked version of the XJR-14 - offered any real opposition.

"The Peugeot was good - it was between the V12 Jaguar and the XJR-14," reckons Warwick. "The engine was a bit bigger than the XJR-14, the gearbox was a bit lazier.

"It was better in slow corners, but not as good in the fast ones. It also had Michelins and usually when I drove on a Michelin tyre I had the best tyre.

"I loved driving for the team and going to the factory. I did loads of visits."

Much of the season turned into an intra-team battle - Warwick and Yannick Dalmas v Mauro Baldi/Philippe Alliot - though Toyota did its best to keep Geoff Lees in with a title shout.

Despite a crash by Dalmas at the Monza opener that allowed Toyota to take victory, Warwick and Dalmas made a good start. Nevertheless, Warwick believes the Le Mans victory - scored with Mark Blundell - was key.

"Alliot and Jean-Pierre Jabouille [only at Le Mans] were very strong characters and I sensed the team would really have liked that car to win the championship and Le Mans," he says.

"When we won Le Mans I think it turned the whole team round to us. We were stronger from then."

Victory at Le Mans earned Warwick the focus of the team © LAT

Warwick also worked with Dalmas to get the best out of the car and the Frenchman: "He was one of those guys who had to have everything perfect. You had to love him. He was very weak mentally. If anything was against him he would not perform.

"When I needed him to perform I made sure everything was right, even the colour of his coffee! When it was, he was bloody quick - every now and again I had to switch him off! I'd put him up there with some of my top team-mates when everything was right.

"We spent more time on race set-up, I think Alliot spent a lot of time trying to be fastest Peugeot on the grid. We attacked it a different way."

Alliot took three poles in the six races, but three wins and two seconds secured the title for Warwick/Dalmas with a round to spare. Only at the Magny-Cours season finale did an electrical problem stop the duo finishing in the top two in every race.

Dwindling grids and FIA politics killed the championship at the end of the season, but Warwick had achieved his goal.

"I was excited to be world champion," he says. "It still sits very prominently on my mantelpiece.

"A certain Brummie driver won the F1 championship so some of the limelight was taken off me! But it still means a lot."