Piquet — Mouton — Watson. Which legend has been overlooked?

The next year was fallow as Brabham struggled to get to grips with its new BMW engine, but the team was once more firing on all cylinders by the following season, as Piquet took his second title and the first for a turbo-powered car.

However Ecclestone’s outfit again failed to defend its title, and after two more seasons and three wins Piquet jumped ship to Williams for ’86.

Here he was in an alien environment with a team-mate who could very often match and beat him in the form of Nigel Mansell. Two acrimonious seasons followed, but it was the Brazilian who ultimately won out, claiming a third drivers’ title in ’87 through a combination of canny driving and consistency.

Piquet suffered a crash at Imola during his title season which affected his depth perception but he still managed to take three more victories at Benetton during his final two seasons of F1.

The Brazilian’s final show of resilience was in Indycar. Entering the 1992 Indianapolis 500 with Team Menard, Piquet ran over a piece of debris in practice and slammed into the barrier, resulting in serious ankle and foot injuries. However, he showed fortitude and returned to the Brickyard to finish 10th the next year.

Another driver who came from unlikely beginnings in motor sport, and even more ground-breaking, was French female rally driver Michèle Mouton.

Born in 1951 to parents who grew roses and jasmine for the local Grasse perfume industry, she dropped out of law school to pursue a career in rallying.

She began entering as a privateer co-driver but soon switched to the other side of the car, and made her WRC debut as a driver at the 1974 Tour de Course in an Alpine A110, coming home 12th. Before the year was out, she was both French and European ladies’ champion.

Driving an old Lotus 48, Watson drove from 20th to fifth, overtaking Derek Bell, François Cervert and Johnny Servoz-Gavin along the way – and then crashed. However, the Ulsterman had immediately caught the eye of his competitors, showing a knack for overtaking which he would keep for the rest of his career.

Watson said that day “changed my life”, and so managed to acquire a Brabham BT30 for the next season. However, a huge crash at Rouen left him with a broken arm, leg and ankle.

The Northern Irishman displayed incredible strength to come back the next season, but was so low on funds he had to resort to borrowing Derek Bell’s garage and towing his F2 car round Europe with a Transit van.

Then the money really did run out, but he soon developed a reputation as a handy single-seater stand-in when required, eventually leading to an F1 debut in a non-championship Brands Hatch event. Driving the a March 312 for privateers Hexagon, Watson would finish sixth in his first race.

The Ulsterman would gradually climb his way up the F1 ladder until he found himself in 1976 at the team which announced him in F1: Penske.

As Watson explained to Motor Sport earlier this year, the American outfit sorted out its car (and got lucky with tyre allocation) by mid-season, which suddenly meant he was taking on title-contender James Hunt – and beating him. It was a famous first victory for Penske too, one year on after the tragic loss of its talisman Mark Donohue.

The team would fold its operation at the end of the year, which would lead Watson to Brabham, and then McLaren, the latter at which he put in his greatest drives.

“Watson represented the first of a slew of Irish talent that came towards grand prix racing”

It was a slow start at Woking, but once John Barnard joined up and produced the groundbreaking carbon-fibre chassis MP4/1, Watson had a car with which he could challenge regularly, taking its first win at the 1981 British GP.

The next season would be Watson’s best, as he famously rocketed through the field at Detroit to win after starting in 17th. By the season’s end, the McLaren man was in the ring for the title, but ultimately lost out to Keke Rosberg.

Watson would take one more win at Long Beach the following season, before his full-time F1 career came to a close.

A driver who for a period was the leading British light in F1, and represented the first of a slew of Irish talent that came towards grand prix racing in the shape of David Kennedy, Derek Daly, Tommy Byrne and Eddie Irvine, John Watson truly is deserving of the term ‘legend’ in motor sport.

At the end of the day, it’s your choice as to who will get the vote in our Hall of Fame ‘Legends’ category. The canny Nelson Piquet, the groundbreaking Michele Mouton or the charging John Watson? Vote below.

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