Ten crazy rules that used to exist in F1<\/a><\/p>\nTo call Donohue\u2019s death a tragedy would have been an egregious understatement. One of America\u2019s finest racing and engineering talents was gone, killed from injuries sustained at the wheel of a car fielded by his closest friend.<\/p>\n
After abstaining from the Italian Grand Prix in 1975, Penske Racing was back for the close of the season with Northern Ireland\u2019s John Watson behind the wheel. And it was Watson who signed on for a full season of competition with Penske in 1976.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn those days, the paddock was a more open, friendly place than it is today,\u201d Watson said in an interview with the\u00a0Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys podcast, set to be released on August 19.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d walk around and you\u2019d talk to other teams and competitors and form friendships. And one of those was with Penske\u2019s team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson was close to team manager Heinz Hofer, and it was Hofer who extended the offer of a ride.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was delighted to be able to accept,\u201d Watson explained, \u201cbecause I felt that was a step forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that by reputation, what Roger was doing in motor racing was always considered to be first class. The team, the quality of the people, the whole Penske operation \u2014 as it is today \u2014 was run at an extremely high level, a very big level.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it was an opportunity which I felt there\u2019s no way I can turn down.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time, Watson was only in his third year of Formula 1, having bounced between smaller outfits for select races during those seasons. What Penske was offering was one thing that would transform his career: A full-time ride.<\/p>\n
The start of 1976, however, was a challenge. Penske\u2019s new car, the PC3, was plagued with issues, forcing the team to engineer an upgrade \u2014 the PC4 \u2014 to debut midway through the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnd of \u201975 into \u201976, there was a regulation change, which I felt had a detrimental effect on the PC3,\u201d Watson explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo then Roger went to the team and to Geoff Ferris, who was the engineer designer, and said, Geoff, I want you to make me a new car, which became the Penske PC4.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat car appeared in the middle of the season, and initially it wasn\u2019t particularly competitive, but after a few little adjustments and changes, the car became a very good car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost instantly, the tides turned. Watson secured back-to-back podiums in the French and British Grands Prix. After a seventh place at the challenging Nurburgring, he had qualified second on the grid for the start of the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Asked about what made the car so great, Watson replied, \u201cI think the car was just ultimately a better car in every sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the car, the level of grip, the level of balance of the car, drivability, consistency \u2014 all the things that you need in a race car to start being more competitive and ultimately to start winning races.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, Watson begins to describe the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a funny day\u2026\u201d he began, trailing off as memories swept in.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, we were quite competitive in qualifying,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019re on the front row of the grid, if I remember.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the day started, it had rained and the track was part wet, part dry. So very difficult conditions. There were about four or five cars in a leading group of cars., and the lead was swapping and changing all the way through.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut finally, maybe after 15 or so laps, the race settled down into a pattern, and with me leading the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom that point forward, I was able to control my pace. I was sufficiently fast to remain ahead of the competition, and the car was a perfect car throughout that race.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt did all that I would want a car to do. The car was competitive, it was consistent, and I was able to drive it in a way, which I like to drive a car.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you wonder, why do you win races? Actually, winning a race is in some respects, the easiest part of being a racing driver. But it\u2019s getting to the level of being able to win a race.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s finding that level rather than just simply winning it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s the evolution of the car. It was a combination on that day of the car, tires \u2014 believe it or not, tires even in those days played a part \u2014 engineering in the car, I did a very good job.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember, there were no pit stops, nothing of that nature in Formula 1 at that time, so once the race began, the control of the race was very much more in the hands of the driver than it is today.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d simply, you\u2019d start the race, you would have a full tank of fuel, one set of tires, and you had to then sort of modulate your driving to ensure that you didn\u2019t overwork the tires. In other words, maybe push too hard too quickly. It was a different style of racing, a different sort of philosophy as a racing driver, how do you get the best out of your car and maintain a level of performance from the start all the way through until the finish?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what did that win mean to you?\u201d Watson was asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt meant everything,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuing, he added, \u201cOn a personal level it was the fulfillment of a childhood dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cI come from Northern Ireland, which is a small part of United Kingdom, and I had a childhood dream. Coming from Northern Ireland, there wasn\u2019t a huge legacy of professional Formula 1 racing drivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI consider myself to be a pathfinder. And to actually fulfill that dream and stand on the podium as the winner of a Grand Prix with a garland around your neck\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a surreal moment, and is one of the pivotal points of any racing driver\u2019s life, the first time you win a race, win a Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a memory which is indelible. And whatever else you might achieve in your life, it remains indelible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heading back to the team, though, presented a unique challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there was a sense of irony, almost,\u201d Watson mused.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrecisely one year ago, Roger and the Penske team had lost the driver who was synonymous with Roger\u2019s racing. Over many, many years in IndyCar, in Can-Am, in Trans-Am, whatever, Roger and Mark were two people joined at the hip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen all of a sudden that partnership is broken, as it was with Mark and Roger, in 1975. Then we come back to Austria.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay. I was not a part of the team when that tragedy occurred. But I know that Roger and Heinz and team members must have had a sense of foreboding when they turned up in Austria.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause all of a sudden, while they might compartmentalize all their emotions \u2014 which is what you have to do, frankly \u2014 they are human beings after all. And maybe in moments of privacy or whatever they might have had reflection and thought about, a year ago, our driver died as a consequence of an accident. And while it wasn\u2019t the fault of the team, it was an incident that occurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd look, we\u2019re only human. We\u2019re only human.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think that there\u2019s a lot of reflection from the team, but as I have mentioned likewise and earlier, motorsport is a business. It\u2019s not just about, \u2018let\u2019s go racing for fun at weekends.\u2019 It\u2019s hard-nosed, professional, this is the real deal. This is the real deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that everybody performed at the highest professional level that would be expected of Roger\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I say, ironically, we walked out of that race the winners of the Austrian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, even now, I think about it \u2014 it\u2019s the irony.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did that happen? Why did it happen? Are there forces beyond what we understand or can communicate about or with?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would we have left Austria in \u201975 after such a terrible outcome, and then one year later walk out of Austria, the winners?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you rationalize that?\u201d<\/p>\n
That day marked a turning point in Watson\u2019s life. Though Penske Racing\u2019s Formula 1 operation closed its doors at the end of the season, Watson had established himself as a driver capable of winning major events. He signed with Brabham for 1977, then moved to McLaren for 1979.<\/p>\n
To this day, John Watson remains the last driver to win a grand prix for an American Formula 1 team.<\/p>\n
Read next:\u00a0Uncovered: The technical details behind F1 2025\u2019s design secrets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the afternoon of 15 August, 1976, John Watson took the checkered flag at the Osterreichring to snag…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,3874,813,816,818,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-72275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-f1-features","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}