Let’s begin with an obvious point: “Never look back” is a peculiar, even contradictory title for an autobiography.
Derek Warwick, the former Renault, Brabham and Lotus Formula 1 racer – and world sportscar champion – describes it as the motto which saw him through a career in which as many as a dozen of his fellow racers died.“All the way through my career, there were some disappointments,” he told the BBC recently. “Picking the wrong car at the wrong time. Drivers that were killed, etc… etc… And I always focus on the future.
“I never look back and wish that I was driving a different car or wish that I was Ayrton Senna. Ayrton Senna has been dead for 33, 34 years [30], so there’s no point looking back. You always look forward and I think it’s been a strong point of my character that’s taken me through some pretty difficult times.”
But arguably Warwick deserved more, and looked on course to get it when he joined race-winners Renault at the end of 1983 and came close to winning on his debut for them the follow year. Renault was heading into sharp decline, however – Warwick is especially scathing of Gerard Toth’s calamitous mismanagement – and for 1986 Warwick lined up a move to Lotus, only for Senna to notoriously veto it.
He remains phlegmatic about these career setbacks, no doubt in part because he has confronted the dangers which were more apparent in the eighties and nineties than today. Warwick’s car was the first upon the grim scene where Gilles Villeneuve met his end at Zolder’s Terlamenbocht during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. Then, in 1991, came the appalling crash which claimed his younger brother Paul.
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Warwick gives a frank account of this dark period in his life, made all the more trying by the expectations of family members who were eager for him to give up racing, further compounded by the difficulties the family business was by now experiencing. His determination to plough on was vindication by his sportscar success the following year, giving him a second world championship to go with his stock car success of almost 20 years earlier.
It’s not hard to see why ‘Never Look Back’ is among the 15 titles recently nominated for an award by the Royal Automobile Club (along with Benetton: Rebels of Formula 1, reviewed here previously). It avoids the pitfalls of many other biographies by giving the tough times as much weight as the glory days. The text is awkwardly disrupted in a few places by digressive quotes, and the asking price is on the steep side, but otherwise this is the latest in a serious of thoroughly enjoyable and easy to recommend offerings from Evro.
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Derek Warwick: Never Look Back – The racing life of Britain’s double world champion
Author: Derek Warwick with David Tremayne
Publisher: Evro
Published: 2024
Pages: 432
Price: £60
ISBN: 9781910505908
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Garns (@garns)
6th October 2024, 11:50
I like Dereck Warwick, I have met him at a few races when he has been the driver steward. What I don’t like is how he seems to bring Senna’s death often into interviews. I remember one quite a few years back when he was talking about Ayrton vetoing him from Lotus as he didn’t want a British team-mate in a British team, and his comment when the journalist asked his view on that was “Well Senna is dead, I’m not”. I thought that was in poor taste, as was his comment in this article. I will still give it a read though.
Ben
6th October 2024, 16:23
He’s a horrible man. Horrible driver steward and corrupt as they come. I’d save your money.
MacLeod (@macleod)
7th October 2024, 8:05
@Ben please refrain your comments like He is Corrupt without hard proof… You may think it but never put it down without hard proof….
Ofcourse you may say he is horrible as that is your opinion.
Jeffrey Powell
6th October 2024, 13:27
I was never a great fan of Derek Warwick but I must say he was very friendly and great fun to be a passenger with at Brands Hatch in 1990 . My brother treated me to a Ford Charity event at Brands for my 40th Birthday basically you had three laps around the club circuit in a Ford Sierra or Fiesta with various F1,F3 etc. Drivers.
Our first go was with Thierry Boutsen who the week before had won the Canadian Grand Prix .He was driving a Fiesta the only mods.Ford had carried out were to uprate the suspension and brakes, the drivers had been asked to drive reasonably and not to risk life or limb. Boutsen.took absolutely no notice of this ,I was in the front seat next to him it was a bit alarming to see he was of course totally unfamiliar with a right hand drive vehicle, I thought perhaps because of this he would take things easy. Begging for mercy seemed a very drastic option anyway it seemed he didn’t understand my East End accent so would have no effect. We left the car at the end of the three laps and lent against the pit wall making sure we were still alive , having recovered we decide a British driver would at least understand our desire to have a life ,definitely wishing to celebrate the millennium.
So Derek Warwick was our obvious next choice, he welcomed us with his soft West country voice and ridiculously because I was not a great fan I just thought he would be more sensible when he had finished terrifying us Ford instructed the drivers to slow down because the available cars were falling apart. The event was promoted by Jackie Stewart he was taking part but we never got to go with him before the end of the show.
Great times which of course would not happen now.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
6th October 2024, 14:10
I love hearing things like these, personal experiences with drivers, thank you. I might be wrong, but I think, ‘hot laps’ with drivers do still exist at some races, they’re not just for media. I expect however they cost a lot more than what your brother paid in 1990.
Jeffrey Powell
6th October 2024, 15:27
Thank you it was great fun £40 each.
BenHur
6th October 2024, 16:38
Almost as bad as “Hanging Judge” Johnnie Herbert, and that’s saying quite a lot
GeeMac (@geemac)
7th October 2024, 5:59
Some of the comments above show just how partisan modern F1 has become…it’s quite sad really. My hero retired in 1999 and my favorite tam haven’t won anything since 2012 so my fandom really is for the sport first.
In that spirit: Derek Warwick is a very interesting character, he is a good storyteller and his career is one of the great “what ifs” in F1 history. What if he chose Williams over Renault? What if he wasn’t vetoed by Senna? There is a great interview with him on YouTube which was done by Mario Muth a few years ago and it is very worth watching. Particularly the bits about his early racing career and the loss of his brother, Paul.
Gubstar
7th October 2024, 10:50
Went to school with his daughter in Alresford when his family still had the Swan Hotel. Was always a fan of his ‘true grit’ attitude. The epitome of ‘keep calm and carry on’. Always thought he was underrated in the lexicon of Formula 1, glad he got his world championship in sportscars.
Rob (@standbyexp)
9th October 2024, 8:47
£60?!?! Seems like a ridiculous amount to charge for a book, let alone for the autobiography of a relatively low-key driver.