I remember Keke Rosberg once looking to manage me. We didn’t do the deal and years later I said to him: “I sometimes wonder if it would have been a good thing to have you manage me. I often ask the question: what would you have done for me?" Keke said: “I’d have made you a grand prix winner because I would have put you in the righl team to match vour ability." That reallv made me think about how I had run my life as a racing driver. Keke realised there was something there and felt he could have taken it to the next step, whereas I was happy with what I was doing.
MH: Forgive me for bringing this up, but I am aware that you’ve also done a lot of work on safety, particularly since your younger brother, Paul, was killed. Would you care to reflect on that for a moment?DW: I’ve sat on the Motor Sports Association Safety Committee since Paul died back in 1991. We meet up four times a year. The original idea was to walk every circuit, and I did this myself in the early days to help improve the safety of British racing tracks.That’s very dear to me because, when I look at the situation Paul was put in when he had his accident - although it wasn’t his fault, it was a mechanical failure that can happen anywhere - the circuit was not good enough for F3000. I’ve worked with .John Symes in particular: the work lie docs for British motorsport is simply unbelievable. lie does a fantastic job.MH: I remember you saving that Paul, as a young man and a driver, was all the things you were and did, but better. I also recall he waskilled when you were racing and that was a very difficult time for you; very difficult. I guess, from the way you're talking and the pictures of Paul in your house, you still think him every day?DW: You know, Paul was quite extraordinary in terms of our family. I was the hero for getting into Fl then, all of a sudden, my little brother,14 years younger, comes along, lie was better- looking, faster, smarter, more articulate. But, overall, he had a burning desire to be like his brother. He would look at what I did, throw away the silly little bits I wasn’t good at, take the things I was good at and build his own character.He wasn’t building a mini Derek; he was building a Paul Warwick. He was our hero;our future. When Paul died, it killed our family. Mum never got over it. Dad certainly didn't get over it because he was there that day. For me, the accident took away not just my best friend and my brother, it took my future in motor racing away from me as well.
Senna, to me, signifies a racing driver.He was brave, he was fast, he was religious, compassionate, ruthless. He wras brilliant, he was press-worthy, he wras great for F1. He was the complete package. He ticked every single box. But lie was self-centred, as we know from the way he dealt with Prost at Suzuka. And, above all, he ruined my career!
As soon as the incident happened, and it was obvious that Warwick would be sitting in judgement, a little bit of history involving the pair came to mind.During the Nurburgring World Sportscar Championship race in August 1991, Warwick and Mercedes protege Schumacher had a contretemps in qualifying. The German felt he had deliberately blocked, so on his way through he gave Warwick's TWR Jaguar a hefty and totally unnecessary thump.This was Warwick's first race back after the recent death of his brother Paul, and emotions were running high. On returning to the pits he jumped from the battered XJR14 and went in search of Schumacher, who had by then retreated to the Sauber truck.Followed by Jaguar team members including a certain Ross Brawn Warwick eventually tracked him down. Mercedes drivers Jochen Mass and Jean-Louis Schlesser also arrived, and the veteran Frenchman was actually egging Warwick on, presumably keen to see a punch-up.Warwick said of his feelings at the time: "The only thing that saved me a $10,000 fine and taking the guy's head off was that when I got hold of Schumacher, all I could see was a kid. I could see Paul. I'm not proud of the way I reacted, but there's quite a lot of pressure, and my fuse is quite short at the moment..."In fact it was Schumacher who rightly got into trouble, albeit escaping a reprimand for "misbehaviour and dangerous practice."That wasn't enough for Warwick: "He should have been fined and banned," he said back then. "You don't do that sort of thing out on a race track. He wants to thank his lucky stars that Tom Walkinshaw wasn't here."Ironically that very weekend Schumacher and manager Willi Weber also made the contact with Eddie Jordan that led to the Spa F1 debut just a week later. And a few days after that Walkinshaw, who ran WSC and F1 teams at the time, enticed him to Benetton...You could argue that Warwick should have put that little incident out of his mind when Schumacher came in to make his case in Hungary, and no one knows whether it really had any impact on Warwick's judgement.
