John Watson claimed his first F1 win - but lost a bet with his team boss
Wednesday 17 June 2015 07:51, UK
Ron Dennis might not agree, but if there was ever a motivation for the McLaren-Honda project to succeed then it’s so that F1 can have another bearded driver win a race.
Currently the roll-call is as sparse as the whiskers Max Verstappen can probably muster, although with face fungus fashions changing as regularly as helmet designs it’s difficult to keep up. Is what Lewis Hamilton wears on his face actually a beard? Surely no-one can deny that Fernando Alonso’s is the real deal and so it is that the Spaniard could join the noteworthy likes of Jo Bonnier (Holland 1959) and John Watson (Austria 1976) to win while maintaining a high level of hirsuteness - just as soon as the MP4-30 becomes a race-winning prospect that is. But when that happens is anyone’s guess.
Watson shaved his off after winning at the Osterreichring 39 years ago, having made a bet with team owner Roger Penske: if you win in my car then it has to go. The 1976 Austrian GP was the first race to be held after Niki Lauda’s near-fatal crash at the Nurburgring two weeks earlier and with the local hero still critically ill in hospital, there was even talk that the race might be cancelled. As it was, his team Ferrari didn’t enter, although that had more to do with their ongoing squabble with title rivals James Hunt and McLaren. The battle was being waged as much off the track as on it that year, and on this occasion the Scuderia had taken exception to the FIA’s decision to re-instate Hunt as winner of the Spanish GP after his car had initially been disqualified.
Hunt qualified on pole position alongside Watson, who took the lead at the start of the race – one which soon became wide-open, with as many as six cars fighting for the lead at any one time around the high-speed, picturesque track. As drizzly rain came and went, the likes of Ronnie Peterson, Gunnar Nilsson and Jody Scheckter all challenged Watson, but it was the Northern Irishman who ultimately prevailed. The victory was a poignant one for Penske, whose previous driver Mark Donohue had died following an accident there the year before. And as an aside, it remains the last World Championship race in which a woman, Lella Lombardi, took part.
It was the first of five grand prix wins for Watson (the rest were with McLaren in the early 1980s) and the celebrations were concluded by a date with a shaving mirror. Perhaps Dennis should make a similar wager with Alonso? Then again, the way things seem to be going right now, the Spaniard might resemble Moses by the time the razor comes out.
