The Formula One pedigree of BTCC

Where better for the latest ex-F1 star to make their BTCC debut than Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix. But, as TouringCarTimes looks back, Johnny Herbert is far from the last Grand Prix driver to appear in the championship, as over the last 50 years of the BTCC, a number of names better known for their F1 exploits have tried their hands in the series, to varying degrees of success!

If you ask most BTCC fans what their most memorable race is, then the chances are their reply will involve the words “Mondeo”, “Donington”, “wet” and “Mansell”.

Donington Park in 1998 may have been Nigel Mansell’s first appearance a regular season BTCC race (we’ll come to his 1993 TOCA Shoot Out appearance later!), but it was definitely his most memorable.

The first race proved to be less than memorable, with ‘Red 55’ retiring after just three laps, but come the second event of the day and the changeable conditions saw an epic battle between Mansell and established touring car stars John Cleland, Anthony Reid and David Leslie (not to mention another ex-F1 driver in Derek Warwick). Making his way from 19th on the grid, the 1992 Formula One World Champion led for several laps before ultimately finishing up in fifth place.

Far from being the start of beautiful career in tin-tops, it was the high point, as at his next round at Brands Hatch Mansell failed to finish either race, while at the season finale at Silverstone 14th and 11th places were the best the third Mondeo driver could do, showing that F1 star quality isn’t a guarantor of touring car success.

The Hits

Mansell isn’t the only World Champion to have tried their hand at the BTCC, and he certainly can’t rival Jim Clark’s feat of becoming the first (and most likely only ever) driver to hold the Formula One title and the BTCC title at the same time.

Clark may only have finished 3rd in F1 in 1964, but he did win three Grand Prix to go with his BTCC title won in a Lotus Cortina. The Scot also made BTCC appearances in other seasons, including in 1963 in a Ford Galaxie. That year also saw Graham Hill winning races in a Jaguar Mk2, while among Clark’s competitors in his championship season was a young Jackie Stewart, who drove at Oulton Park and Aintree in another Cortina, finishing fifth and sixth respectively.

1965 and 1966 saw another World Champion winning races, as Jack Brabham took four wins in a variety of Ford machinery.

Of course you don’t have to have been a successful Formula One driver to become a BTCC champion. Both 1993 champion Smokin’ Jo Winkelhock and 1994 champion were in F1 during the ‘80s and ’90s, though you’d have done well to spot either of them.

Winkelhock drove for the small AGS team in 1989, failing to qualify on all seven occasions he took to the track. Suffice to say his touring car record was much better!

If you’re looking for a driver known for failing to qualify for a Grand Prix however, you don’t have to go very far. In fact Winkelhock’s AGS teammate for the early part of that season was Tarquini, who participated in 78 Grand Prix during his career, though in only 38 of those did he get beyond practice.

The Italian’s F1 career started back in 1987 with Osella, taking in Coloni, FIRST, AGS and Fondmetal before he ended up in the BTCC in a works Alfa Romeo. Winning the title at his first attempt, Tarquini raced in the Italian and British championships the following season, made several DTM appearances and filled in for Ukyo Katayama at Tyrell for the 1995 European GP, making him the last driver to have driven in Formula One and the BTCC in the same season.

With a record 25 failed attempts in Pre-Qualifying, Tarquini certainly wasn’t an F1 star, in fact he has only one point to his name, but he definitely is a touring car favourite.

Going further back and Frank Gardner started eight Grand Prix for Brabham in the ‘60s, but he’s better known for becoming the second driver to win three BTCC titles, and the first to do so in three different types of car.

Though not strictly a F1 driver, Tom Kristensen did test for both Tyrell and Michelin and picked up three wins at the wheel of a Honda Accord during his sole season in the UK. While on paper that doesn’t sound too impressive, the Dane equalled his teammate Tarquini’s victory tally, and out performed James Thompson and Peter Kox in other Accords, in the final season of Super Tourers, that is best known for being a Ford steamroller.

The Misses

As mentioned above, Mansell’s BTCC debut actually came five years before that epic Donington race, in the end-of-season TOCA Shoot Out, also held at the Leicestershire circuit. With 60,000 people attending, anticipation was high as the reigning IndyCar champion took the wheel of a Ford Mondeo, but things didn’t quite go to plan, although Mansell still made an appearance on the BBC evening news, though not quite in the manner he’d probably expected.

Having fought his way past Tiff Needell (another ex-F1 driver to have made it to the BTCC) and into third, Mansell pushed too hard at the Old Hairpin, sliding into the path of the then Top Gear presenter. Contact sent the Mondeo across the grass and into a heavy impact with the concrete bridge parapet. Not the way he’d envisioned his touring car debut ending.

While Mansell was still active as race driver in 1993, Sir Stirling Moss wasn’t when he joined the series in 1980 driving an Audi 80 for Richard Lloyd’s team. The winner of 16 Grand Prix, Moss is easily one of the best ever Formula One drivers to have ended up in the championship, but he failed to roll back the years and his appearances are probably at best a disappointment.

Jonathan Palmer made over 80 F1 starts between 1983 and 1989, but in 1991 he could only come seventh, with no wins, in the BTCC, though he can boast he was the highest ex-Grand Prix driver in the standings, as Christian Danner languished down in 18th position. The German however, only competed in one round at Thruxton.

Having begun his career in Stock Cars, Derek Warwick should have been ideally suited to touring cars, but in his three years in the BTCC, the former Renault F1 driver only managed a solitary win, at Knockhill in 1998. Warwick however has left a permanent mark on the championship by helping to form Triple 8 Engineering, who have run the Vauxhall BTCC programme for over a decade.

Another driver with just one BTCC win to his name is Julian Bailey, who raced for Tyrell and Lotus in F1 but is probably best remembered by fans for putting teammate Will Hoy onto his roof at Silverstone in 1993.

Unlike his father thirty years before, David Brabham failed to win a BTCC race during his sole season in the championship, ending up 13th in a works BMW. His teammate Johnny Cecotto may have won touring car titles on the continent, but his British odyssey also rendered no wins. The Venezuelan though does boast the unique feat of having competed in Grand Prix on two and four wheels, and in the BTCC.

A year before Brabham and co, it had been the turn of former F1 drivers Eric van de Poele and Jan Lammers to enter the BTCC. In a Nissan Primera and Volvo 850 Estate, the pair both had far from fruitful seasons, with the Belgian leaving mid-season and Lammers recording a best finish of fifth.

Other foreign former Grand Prix drivers to have been drafted into the BTCC as works entrants include Gianni Morbidelli (managed nearly 200 points less than teammate Rickard Rydell in 1998) and Jean-Christophe Boullion (mid-table in ‘99) who between them made 78 F1 starts.

Before they were famous

Not all drivers end up in a touring car post-F1, some use the sport as a stepping-stone to the top, as the likes of Jan Magnussen, Giancarlo Fisichella and Alex Wurz in the mid-1990s DTM/ITC proved.

One driver moving up from the BTCC was Martin Brundle, who competed alongside Stirling Moss in the 1980 BTCC. His performances helped him make the step up to F3, with his Grand Prix debut coming four years on from his touring car exploits.

Future World Champion Damon Hill also has one BTCC appearance to his name, retiring the Ford Sierra Cosworth he shared with Sean Walker from the 1989 Donington one-hour race with gearbox problems.

A year later and it was David Coulthard’s turn to sample the championship, in a Vauxhall Cavalier. Four year’s on and the Scot would test a Renault Laguna thanks to his links with the company through Williams in both 1994 and 1995.

A Brief Encounter

As already mentioned, Christian Danner has made a cameo appearance in the BTCC post-F1, but so have a number of other drivers such as the late Roland Ratzenberger, who made a few appearances in a Class B BMW during 1988.

Jean Louis Schlesser appeared in several BTCC rounds in a TWR Rover in 1986, three years on from his Grand Prix debut, but two years before he’d gain infamy as the man responsible for denying McLaren a clean sweep of the 1988 World Championship by taking Ayrton Senna out of the Italian Grand Prix.

Like with Hill, the enduro events proved a popular chance to bring in a ‘star’ name, and that’s how sometime F1 race Slim Borgudd picked up his second place, partnering Tim Harvey in the endurance race Brands Hatch in 1990.

Similarly Johnny Dumfries, or the 7th Marquis of Bute to give him his correct title, who picked up three points as Senna’s teammate at Lotus in 1986 partnered another ex-F1 driver in Guy Edwards for the one-hour race at Donington in 1988.

So while at first when asked about Grand Prix drivers in the BTCC, people may immediately say “Mansell…Clark…Herbert”, it just goes to show the number who have competed in the championship over the years, including the likes of Jackie Olivier, Hans-Joachim Stuck, and Gianfranco Brancatelli who are not mentioned here.

So, which ex-F1 driver has made the best BTCC racer? That’s one to discuss on the forums!