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Derek Warwick reflects on Formula One career filled with ‘tragedy and fun’

Derek Warwick reflects on Formula One career filled with ‘tragedy and fun’

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Warwick finally won a world title in 1992 when Jean Todt – who would go on to be team principal at Ferrari during Michael Schumacher’s dominant spell with the team and then later lead motorsport’s world governing body the FIA – signed him for Peugeot.

Three victories – including the 24 hour race at Le Mans and the 100km of Suzuka – and two more second places saw the team top the classifications.

It allowed Warwick to dedicate a title to his brother Paul, who had posthumously taken the British Formula 3000 championship a year earlier having won the first five races of the season.

“We went to Le Mans and won the 24 Hours Le Mans – you couldn’t write it, it was beautiful,” he continues.

“I wanted to pin something on Paul, I wanted something big to clip on to his name and winning Le Mans and then the World Championship in the same year was sensational.”

In retirement Warwick has balanced running a car dealership in Jersey with roles as a steward for Formula One and a stint as president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club.

But perhaps his biggest impact has been on improving the safety of the sport in the wake of Paul’s death – joining the safety committee of Motorsport UK and helping improve the circuits British drivers race around.

“People like Jean Todt have done so much, spent so much money to improve circuit safety first of all, but then also car safety,” Warwick adds.

“These guys now are in a monocoque, they’re in a safety cell, the last thing that breaks in a Grand Prix car now is the car, the chassis, whereas one of the first things that broke in our era was the chassis – and then quite often it would catch fire.

“Now they’ve got plugs that seals the fuel as soon as you have an accident and the cars are just a lot safer.”

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