John Watson: My life in cars

When I was young, our family car was…

A Packard. My father was a motor trader so we had lots of different cars. He’d buy the cars in Glasgow and bring them back to sell in Belfast. I remember the Packards best in the 1950s. Big, lazy, straight eight engines. They were magnificent cars. I always liked them.

The first car I owned was…

A BMW Isetta three-wheeled ‘bubble car’, when I was 16, using a motorcycle licence. I reckoned I held the lap record on the 45-mile trip to school from Belfast to Armagh. My first on four wheels was a tuned-up 850 Mini, with twin SU carburettors, in 1963. Then came an Austin-Healey Sprite.

I first became hooked on racing when…

I was a child, eight or nine years old. My father was racing, doing hillclimbs, so I went along to watch with the rest of the family. That’s when the seeds of my dream were planted and I was hooked.

My first win was…

Kirkistown in 1964, a five-lap handicap race in my Austin-Healey Sprite with a 1-litre Formula Junior BMC engine. My father towed the car home after the race. My mechanic Hughie was in the Sprite, but Hughie was drunk, failed to slow down, and ran into the back of my father’s car. You couldn’t make it up. I laugh about it even now.

But the win I remember most was…

Austria, 1976, my first grand prix victory in the Penske at the Österreichring, an absolutely magnificent circuit in those days. That stays in the memory. A big moment in my career.

If I could race in any era it would be…

The 1970s and early ’80s. A fantastic time, dangerous, yes, but we had great team owners and great characters like Colin Chapman, Ken Tyrrell, Frank Williams, Teddy Mayer and Peter Sauber. There was a great group of drivers, good competition and we had some fun as well. For me, Frank Williams epitomises that era. Of course, if I wanted to be young, very rich and a TikTok star, it would be today’s Formula 1.

Sprint Race…

Lewis or Max?
Lewis.

Senna or Prost?
Senna.

Oversteer or understeer?
Understeer.

Brands Hatch or Silverstone?
Mmm… Brands Hatch.

The best piece of advice I’ve been given…

When you’re young and ambitious you always think you know best but sometimes you need to listen and trust those who know better. In Formula 2 in 1970 Brian Hart helped me. At Thruxton I’d been on the front row with Rindt and Ickx. I was impressed with that. Then we went to Hockenheim. I’d never driven on a high-speed slipstreaming circuit. I struggled. It was an eye-opener understanding how to use slipstream to get the best laps. Brian helped me that weekend. I’d been doing it my way, but it was incorrect, and so I took his advice.

My favourite racing car is…

The Hexagon Brabham BT44, the first fully competitive Formula 1 car I raced. All of a sudden I was doing nothing different but now I was a frontrunner. It’s a beautiful car; the BT44B was even better.

When I’m driving I listen to…

Most of the time it’s Radio 4 Extra, archived programmes like Round the Horne and plays. For music, it’s the American band Wilco. They’re fantastic. I have five of their albums.

If I could race one more GP it would be at…

Watkins Glen. It was as good as it gets with a variety of corners and elevation changes. It was motor racing’s Woodstock, an event in itself, with a huge crowd on the infield known as ‘the bog’ where there was all sorts of wild behaviour. Afterwards there’d be a big party with mechanics and drivers at the local motel.