10 replies to this topic

[Chris Bloom]

I had always believed that Dereck Warwicks retirement from the 1982 British GP at Brands Hatch was due to mechanical failure. However quite recently I read somewhere that the Toleman was on half tanks, with no intention of finishing the race, and his climb through the field up to second place when he retired, was just a show for the crowd.

Was there ever any official word from Warwick or the Toleman team confirming this story?

Chris

[Zawed]

According to the results he (officially) retired with a CV joint failure. Though it may be that he was running light with no intention of making it to the finish, it should be pointed out that he (and Fabi) had qualified mid-grid, and there was a startline incident that allowed Warwick to make up 6 places on the 1st lap, so maybe the car was working well...

[FEV]

As I remember it the two hypotesis are right. The Tolemans were
running on half tanks and wouldn't have made it to the end, but a
CV joint failure prevented Warwick from finishing his superb run at
Brand's that day anyway.

[ghinzani]

Then again if they had refuelling gear they could have run on half tanks anyway. But yes it was a sometimes used ploy I think, Caffi did it in 87 a couple of times and De Cesaris in Brazil 86.

[Barry Boor]

Maybe all this is true but it wasn't half enjoyable while it lasted!

[Paul Taylor]

The Toleman cars may as well have been normally aspirated, they were slow everywhere, even on the circuits that suited the turbos despite being turbos themselves.

[Fiorentina 1]

Funny enough, I saw this race last week on justin.tv (f1 legend) and was blown away how easily he caught then past Pironi. Wow!

[jcbc3]

If something appears to be too good to be true, it usually isn't.

[Hamish Robson]

According to Warwick himself - quoted in Christopher Hilton's book about the 1982 season which I'm reading at the moment - Toleman had shown well in the previous round (Holland) and had attracted some interest from a potential sponsor, which prompted them to run low tanks to be quick and make a good showing.

He ran out of fuel on lap 41 having been running near the front, which was helped by the right Pirellis on the day, and thinks this performance got him the Renault drive in 1984.

[GD66]

I seem to recall the gossip at the time was that the car was not only running light, but was on Jungle Juice as well....anybody able to confirm that one ? Futile as it may have been, it was one of the most memorable quixotic efforts, and must have had a lot of happy patriotic punters leaving with a smile... ....and all in all, it was still one hell of a drive. Nice one !

[JtP1]

Maybe all this is true but it wasn't half enjoyable while it lasted!

The Toleman had Hart turbo engine.

I have always held the light fuel/ soft tyres as the truth. The car seemed to have no problem driving into the pit lane with its failed cv. Its a bit early in the life of F1 to be playing a joker, but I suppose cars that don't finish, don't get scrutineered.