John Watson (racing driver)
John Marshall Watson, MBE ( born May 4, 1946 in Belfast, Northern Ireland ) is a retired British racing driver.
He started 1973-1985 at 152 Grand Prix races in the highest class of motorsports formula 1, of which he won five. His greatest successes drove a Watson with the McLaren team, in which he stood from 1979 until end of his career under contract. 1982 Watson reached the third place in the Drivers' World Championship.
Career
Watson launched in twelve years of Formula 1 to a total of 152 Grand Prix and won five of them. He collected 169 championship points and won 20 times a place on the podium. In 1983, John Watson on a unprecedented record in Formula 1: He won the U.S. Grand Prix West in Long Beach from position 22
His debut Watson on July 14, 1973 at the Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone. His first victory he celebrated on August 15, 1976 at the Grand Prix of Austria Austria on the ring. He drove his last race after a two year break in the October 6, 1985 at the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, when he had actually been adopted from Formula 1 and stepped in for the injured Niki Lauda.
End of the 1983 season Watson had resigned after months of contract poker with his team boss Ron Dennis after he had called for much higher salaries than before. His team-mate Niki Lauda had urged him to a contract extension on the same terms and conditions, which Watson but categorically refused. McLaren finally obliged the young Frenchman Alain Prost, who made no claims and was regarded as the future world champion. In retrospect, it turned out that this was perhaps the biggest mistake in Watson's career: 1984 drove the McLaren in a league of its own, Lauda and Prost were superior finish first and second in the world championship.
After his last Formula 1 race Watson drove sports cars race for Jaguar and Toyota. 1987 was there with three wins his most successful year. After his racing career, Watson works as a sports reporter for Euro Sports and operates at Silverstone, the John Watson Performance Driving Centre.
Private
Watson was the mid-1980s said to have a relationship with Barbro Peterson, who died in 1978, racing driver Ronnie Peterson widow - what should have been one reason for his Formula 1 exit.