The road to Formula 1 for Justin Wilson was a long one. Ironically, the lanky lad with the longest legs in the paddock could not vault the ranks at the same speed as karting contemporaries such as Jenson Button or Anthony Davidson, but arguably the lessons learned on his rocky road made him all the better as an accomplished professional racing driver
His car-racing debut came at the age of just 16 years and two months, when he lined up for the Formula Vauxhall Junior Winter Series at Pembrey in October 1994, in preparation for a full season in '95. For a young lad from Sheffield, the environment of Team JLR was perfect, with a Yorkshire homeliness as if he were in a farm kitchen in All Creatures Great and Small.
"You usually know instantly if they've got it or not," says Richard Dean, who at the time driver-coached for JLR and now has many of the former staffers from the team working under him at GT-and-historics squad United Autosports.
"Justin straight away was very quick, but what stands out for me was how deceptively aggressive he was in the car. He would put people into a false sense of security because he was such a nice guy out of the car - always smiling, dead straightforward, no politics - but in it he was hugely aggressive and focused."
Wilson's single-seater career began in Formula Vauxhall Junior... © LAT |
Wilson won on his car debut that day at Pembrey, instantly marking himself out as a likely leading contender for 1995. That was until JLR sent him and team-mate Richard Tarling to Brands Hatch to learn the circuit in school Formula Firsts. A failure on his car spat Wilson into the barriers, breaking a wrist and an ankle.
As a result he missed the first FVJ round at Donington and, even when he returned to the cockpit, he was walking on crutches. After a late-season run of wins he narrowly lost out in the title race to champion Marc Hynes and runner-up Darren Malkin.
"The accident still didn't put him off and I don't think he stopped smiling!" reminisces Dean. And it didn't dilute the aggression: "His overtaking was on another level. He always got away with it. You'd see him go for an overtaking manoeuvre and you'd cover your eyes, but he always came out the other side. That's not luck, just judgement.
"And a genuinely nice family [Wilson's father Keith was a handy Formula Ford racer in the 1970s]. You'd think, 'I wish I could run people like that every year.' No hassle, they just trusted you.
"If you wanted to wrap up the qualities between being genuinely quick, really aggressive and an everybody-loves-him guy, it's really hard to work out [what stood out most]."
Wilson was picked up by Paul Stewart Racing for Formula Vauxhall Lotus in 1996 and '97. With the patronage of Jackie Stewart's 'staircase of talent', it looked as though his path through the ranks would be a smooth one. He finished runner-up to team-mate Peter Dumbreck in '96 - no disgrace, as the accomplished Scot was a second-year FVL driver - but then disappointed in '97.
...and that was followed by two seasons in Formula Vauxhall Lotus © LAT |
While new team-mate Luciano Burti won the title, Wilson only placed fourth. A couple of years later he explained: "I was sitting there [in '96] finishing second to Peter, and everyone sort of expected me to take over where he left off. If anything, I probably hadn't been paying enough attention to the technical side because it all seemed so easy. Then when we couldn't find a set-up there was no Peter to help us. That taught me a valuable lesson."
His height was also an issue, and Stewart Sr's famous remark that Wilson would make a good touring car or GT driver - by inference confirming his doubts over his ability to reach F1 - hit deep.
Wilson tested a Formula 3 car, but he said "it didn't strike me as being much fun" and anyway, the family did not have enough money for the step (Wilson Sr is head of a solvents company and owned a petrol station, but there is only so much disposable income). Luckily, Jonathan Palmer had just launched Formula Palmer Audi for 1998, with a prize for the champion of a full season in Formula 3000 in '99.
"He was not only carrying the burden of being tall but also the perception of it," says Palmer. "He'd been told that at his height he had no chance of making it as an F1 driver. That tormented him and his father."
Palmer adds that, with a season in FPA costing £85,000 against an F3 budget of up to £400,000, "it was a complete lifeline to Justin and a lot of other drivers. He was shy from the start - he didn't say a huge amount but what he did say was worth listening to.
Wilson leads the Formula Palmer Audi field at Thruxton in 1998 © LAT |
"I still remember the final round at Donington: four drivers - Justin, Darren Turner, Topi Serjala and Richard Tarling - could win the championship, and under pressure Justin was in a class of his own. He left the field behind and coped superbly."
Palmer's prize - which came with a management deal - carried Wilson to Astromega for his rookie F3000 season in 1999.
Initially team owner Mikke van Hool wasn't keen on an unproven driver - this was the first year F3000 became a full-time supporting category to European F1 events, in the way GP2 is today, and the field was so oversubscribed that it was a major achievement just to qualify, while van Hool knew that if his team didn't score points it might not be selected to compete in 2000.
But after testing Wilson at Monza he changed his mind straight away, and the new boy vindicated that judgement by qualifying for every single race.
The promise shown meant all the stops were pulled out to continue in 2000. While Astromega snapped up Fernando Alonso, Palmer pulled together a budget for his man: "We did a pretty good deal with Nordic Racing, and Benetton got involved too and contributed."
Wilson took fifth in the points, and crucially Nordic had pulled in Coca Cola as title sponsor during that season, meaning it could pick its drivers for '01, when Wilson would be joined by Tomas Enge.
Wilson atop the FPA podium with Turner and Tarling © LAT |
"Right from the word go we knew we had something special," recalls Chris Mower, who ran Nordic with his father Derek. "I met Justin when he won the Palmer Audi championship - I went to Donington and we were scouting for drivers. We said we'd be interested in giving him a test, because we thought he was ready to move up, but we couldn't get anything done for 1999.
"We could see a lot of potential when he was at Astromega, and we knew we were on the brink of a major sponsorship deal with Coca Cola, which allowed us a little bit of flexibility with the drivers we chose for 2001."
Wilson had a lucky start to the 2001 campaign, winning from Mark Webber at Interlagos when the leading three drivers were penalised for safety-car infringements.
"I often wonder how that year would have gone had we not won the first race," muses Mower. "But there was the boost that this was the first year he never had to worry about sponsorship. That gave him huge confidence.
"We felt Tomas was quicker over one lap, but - and this will piss Tomas off! - Justin was smarter.
"The two of them got along together really well - Tomas was the prankster and Justin spent most of his time just laughing at what Tomas was up to.
"Justin's feel for the car was unlike any driver I experienced. He was a very easy driver to work for in that respect. All you'd have to say is, 'OK, do you need a change similar to what we did at, say, Silverstone?' and he'd say, 'That's not exactly what I'm looking for; more like what we had at the Nurburgring.'"
Wilson's prize for FPA success was an F3000 drive © LAT |
Wilson had obviously worked hard on the technical weakness that had hampered him earlier in his career, while Mower also points out: "He learned only just before he joined us that he had dyslexia, and that boosted his confidence because he knew it wasn't down to intelligence, that he just had to work harder at things."
But there was still one weakness: qualifying. "We did a test and he messed up a lap," says Mower. "He did a slowdown lap and went quicker! That didn't make sense so he looked at the data, and found that he could gain time by just rolling through the corners, not trying so hard. From that point his qualifying was a lot better."
(Actually, there was another weakness: cooking. Wilson had flown the family nest in 2001, telling AUTOSPORT - with typical self-deprecating humour - that after his first attempt at preparing a meal he now knew to drain the pasta before adding the sauce!)
Also, Nordic had stumbled across something that gave the team a head start for at least half a season, reckons Mower: "We were always on track for qualifying straight after Formula 1 qualifying. There was a session when rain was on its way so they had to go for a time straight away, and from that we realised that the quickest lap was the first timed lap, before the Avon F3000 rubber plucked up the F1 rubber.
"That gave us a huge advantage, and allowed us to run higher tyre pressures and the car as low as possible."
Interlagos win kick-started an F3000 title-winning campaign in 2001 © LAT |
Now a complete driver, Wilson dominated 2001 to become Britain's first (and only) F3000 champion. But the deserved F1 break didn't come, and Wilson had what Palmer describes as "a holding-pattern year" in World Series by Nissan. Teaming up with Franck Montagny at Racing Engineering, he finished fourth in a series won by Ricardo Zonta, who in turn was attempting to rebuild his career after a stint in F1.
Mower adds that "his days in Palmer Audi did him a world of good, not only in the series but working at the corporate facility, because he had so much experience driving so many different cars."
"Justin was always refreshingly straightforward and uncomplicated in relaying what the car was doing and what he wanted out of it," adds Palmer. "He would never have any excuses: he was always the first to blame himself for not getting the most out of it, and that level of candour is unusual."
Wilson was also gaining in stature (metaphorically) out of the car. "What was very rewarding was seeing Justin grow in confidence year by year," Palmer recalls. "In F3000 he got more and more assertive, and quite correctly so. His view and judgement on sporting, technical and the commercial sides became increasingly valid."
Finally the F1 break came for 2003, yet Wilson never forgot the friendships forged with everyone throughout his career.
After Nordic folded, Mower would work for the Conquest Racing Champ Car team, for which Wilson would drive, and remembers: "We went to a party, Justin as my guest, and my wife took her best friend.
Wilson chasing his Nordic Racing team-mate Enge in 2001 © LAT |
"That was Julia [who Wilson later married] - they hit it off straight away although couldn't be more different, but then I guess opposites attract!
"It's a tragedy," adds Mower, who now works on Nissan's LMP1 project. "Without a doubt he was special, on and off the track.
"We had no idea how much of an impact he had on other people's lives. There's a nine-year-old kid here who races karts and has dyslexia, and Justin took a mentor role with him and got him sponsorship from the Dyslexia Foundation - but he never talked about anything good that he did."
Palmer remembers Wilson as a great inspiration for his son Jolyon: "He was very influenced by him and definitely used Justin as a role model, and he was very good at giving Jolyon time - he's very straightforward, just like Justin was."
"I saw him only a couple of weeks ago at the Laguna Seca historic meeting," adds Dean (United was running cars, with Dean racing a Formula 5000 Lola, while Wilson was competing in a Porsche 911).
"I had some photos from the JLR days, and he remembered everyone's names - all the mechanics, the truckie... It struck me as I walked away that was another mark of what a genuine person he was.
"We were working late one evening on an F1 car, and as we were leaving Justin was still there, wandering around the paddock and looking at the cars. Even after his professional career, he'd have still carried on racing for the love of it."
This week's edition of AUTOSPORT magazine, out on Thursday, features an extensive tribute to Justin Wilson, charting his entire career with insights and anecdotes from those who worked closest with him.
The road to Formula 1 for Justin Wilson was a long one. Ironically, the lanky lad with the longest legs in the paddock could not vault the ranks at the same speed as karting contemporaries such as Jenson Button or Anthony Davidson, but arguably the lessons learned on his rocky road made him all the better as an accomplished professional racing driver
His car-racing debut came at the age of just 16 years and two months, when he lined up for the Formula Vauxhall Junior Winter Series at Pembrey in October 1994, in preparation for a full season in '95. For a young lad from Sheffield, the environment of Team JLR was perfect, with a Yorkshire homeliness as if he were in a farm kitchen in All Creatures Great and Small.
"You usually know instantly if they've got it or not," says Richard Dean, who at the time driver-coached for JLR and now has many of the former staffers from the team working under him at GT-and-historics squad United Autosports.
"Justin straight away was very quick, but what stands out for me was how deceptively aggressive he was in the car. He would put people into a false sense of security because he was such a nice guy out of the car - always smiling, dead straightforward, no politics - but in it he was hugely aggressive and focused."
Wilson's single-seater career began in Formula Vauxhall Junior... © LAT |
Wilson won on his car debut that day at Pembrey, instantly marking himself out as a likely leading contender for 1995. That was until JLR sent him and team-mate Richard Tarling to Brands Hatch to learn the circuit in school Formula Firsts. A failure on his car spat Wilson into the barriers, breaking a wrist and an ankle.
As a result he missed the first FVJ round at Donington and, even when he returned to the cockpit, he was walking on crutches. After a late-season run of wins he narrowly lost out in the title race to champion Marc Hynes and runner-up Darren Malkin.
"The accident still didn't put him off and I don't think he stopped smiling!" reminisces Dean. And it didn't dilute the aggression: "His overtaking was on another level. He always got away with it. You'd see him go for an overtaking manoeuvre and you'd cover your eyes, but he always came out the other side. That's not luck, just judgement.
"And a genuinely nice family [Wilson's father Keith was a handy Formula Ford racer in the 1970s]. You'd think, 'I wish I could run people like that every year.' No hassle, they just trusted you.
"If you wanted to wrap up the qualities between being genuinely quick, really aggressive and an everybody-loves-him guy, it's really hard to work out [what stood out most]."
Wilson was picked up by Paul Stewart Racing for Formula Vauxhall Lotus in 1996 and '97. With the patronage of Jackie Stewart's 'staircase of talent', it looked as though his path through the ranks would be a smooth one. He finished runner-up to team-mate Peter Dumbreck in '96 - no disgrace, as the accomplished Scot was a second-year FVL driver - but then disappointed in '97.
...and that was followed by two seasons in Formula Vauxhall Lotus © LAT |
While new team-mate Luciano Burti won the title, Wilson only placed fourth. A couple of years later he explained: "I was sitting there [in '96] finishing second to Peter, and everyone sort of expected me to take over where he left off. If anything, I probably hadn't been paying enough attention to the technical side because it all seemed so easy. Then when we couldn't find a set-up there was no Peter to help us. That taught me a valuable lesson."
His height was also an issue, and Stewart Sr's famous remark that Wilson would make a good touring car or GT driver - by inference confirming his doubts over his ability to reach F1 - hit deep.
Wilson tested a Formula 3 car, but he said "it didn't strike me as being much fun" and anyway, the family did not have enough money for the step (Wilson Sr is head of a solvents company and owned a petrol station, but there is only so much disposable income). Luckily, Jonathan Palmer had just launched Formula Palmer Audi for 1998, with a prize for the champion of a full season in Formula 3000 in '99.
"He was not only carrying the burden of being tall but also the perception of it," says Palmer. "He'd been told that at his height he had no chance of making it as an F1 driver. That tormented him and his father."
Palmer adds that, with a season in FPA costing £85,000 against an F3 budget of up to £400,000, "it was a complete lifeline to Justin and a lot of other drivers. He was shy from the start - he didn't say a huge amount but what he did say was worth listening to.
Wilson leads the Formula Palmer Audi field at Thruxton in 1998 © LAT |
"I still remember the final round at Donington: four drivers - Justin, Darren Turner, Topi Serjala and Richard Tarling - could win the championship, and under pressure Justin was in a class of his own. He left the field behind and coped superbly."
Palmer's prize - which came with a management deal - carried Wilson to Astromega for his rookie F3000 season in 1999.
Initially team owner Mikke van Hool wasn't keen on an unproven driver - this was the first year F3000 became a full-time supporting category to European F1 events, in the way GP2 is today, and the field was so oversubscribed that it was a major achievement just to qualify, while van Hool knew that if his team didn't score points it might not be selected to compete in 2000.
But after testing Wilson at Monza he changed his mind straight away, and the new boy vindicated that judgement by qualifying for every single race.
The promise shown meant all the stops were pulled out to continue in 2000. While Astromega snapped up Fernando Alonso, Palmer pulled together a budget for his man: "We did a pretty good deal with Nordic Racing, and Benetton got involved too and contributed."
Wilson took fifth in the points, and crucially Nordic had pulled in Coca Cola as title sponsor during that season, meaning it could pick its drivers for '01, when Wilson would be joined by Tomas Enge.
Wilson atop the FPA podium with Turner and Tarling © LAT |
"Right from the word go we knew we had something special," recalls Chris Mower, who ran Nordic with his father Derek. "I met Justin when he won the Palmer Audi championship - I went to Donington and we were scouting for drivers. We said we'd be interested in giving him a test, because we thought he was ready to move up, but we couldn't get anything done for 1999.
"We could see a lot of potential when he was at Astromega, and we knew we were on the brink of a major sponsorship deal with Coca Cola, which allowed us a little bit of flexibility with the drivers we chose for 2001."
Wilson had a lucky start to the 2001 campaign, winning from Mark Webber at Interlagos when the leading three drivers were penalised for safety-car infringements.
"I often wonder how that year would have gone had we not won the first race," muses Mower. "But there was the boost that this was the first year he never had to worry about sponsorship. That gave him huge confidence.
"We felt Tomas was quicker over one lap, but - and this will piss Tomas off! - Justin was smarter.
"The two of them got along together really well - Tomas was the prankster and Justin spent most of his time just laughing at what Tomas was up to.
"Justin's feel for the car was unlike any driver I experienced. He was a very easy driver to work for in that respect. All you'd have to say is, 'OK, do you need a change similar to what we did at, say, Silverstone?' and he'd say, 'That's not exactly what I'm looking for; more like what we had at the Nurburgring.'"
Wilson's prize for FPA success was an F3000 drive © LAT |
Wilson had obviously worked hard on the technical weakness that had hampered him earlier in his career, while Mower also points out: "He learned only just before he joined us that he had dyslexia, and that boosted his confidence because he knew it wasn't down to intelligence, that he just had to work harder at things."
But there was still one weakness: qualifying. "We did a test and he messed up a lap," says Mower. "He did a slowdown lap and went quicker! That didn't make sense so he looked at the data, and found that he could gain time by just rolling through the corners, not trying so hard. From that point his qualifying was a lot better."
(Actually, there was another weakness: cooking. Wilson had flown the family nest in 2001, telling AUTOSPORT - with typical self-deprecating humour - that after his first attempt at preparing a meal he now knew to drain the pasta before adding the sauce!)
Also, Nordic had stumbled across something that gave the team a head start for at least half a season, reckons Mower: "We were always on track for qualifying straight after Formula 1 qualifying. There was a session when rain was on its way so they had to go for a time straight away, and from that we realised that the quickest lap was the first timed lap, before the Avon F3000 rubber plucked up the F1 rubber.
"That gave us a huge advantage, and allowed us to run higher tyre pressures and the car as low as possible."
Interlagos win kick-started an F3000 title-winning campaign in 2001 © LAT |
Now a complete driver, Wilson dominated 2001 to become Britain's first (and only) F3000 champion. But the deserved F1 break didn't come, and Wilson had what Palmer describes as "a holding-pattern year" in World Series by Nissan. Teaming up with Franck Montagny at Racing Engineering, he finished fourth in a series won by Ricardo Zonta, who in turn was attempting to rebuild his career after a stint in F1.
Mower adds that "his days in Palmer Audi did him a world of good, not only in the series but working at the corporate facility, because he had so much experience driving so many different cars."
"Justin was always refreshingly straightforward and uncomplicated in relaying what the car was doing and what he wanted out of it," adds Palmer. "He would never have any excuses: he was always the first to blame himself for not getting the most out of it, and that level of candour is unusual."
Wilson was also gaining in stature (metaphorically) out of the car. "What was very rewarding was seeing Justin grow in confidence year by year," Palmer recalls. "In F3000 he got more and more assertive, and quite correctly so. His view and judgement on sporting, technical and the commercial sides became increasingly valid."
Finally the F1 break came for 2003, yet Wilson never forgot the friendships forged with everyone throughout his career.
After Nordic folded, Mower would work for the Conquest Racing Champ Car team, for which Wilson would drive, and remembers: "We went to a party, Justin as my guest, and my wife took her best friend.
Wilson chasing his Nordic Racing team-mate Enge in 2001 © LAT |
"That was Julia [who Wilson later married] - they hit it off straight away although couldn't be more different, but then I guess opposites attract!
"It's a tragedy," adds Mower, who now works on Nissan's LMP1 project. "Without a doubt he was special, on and off the track.
"We had no idea how much of an impact he had on other people's lives. There's a nine-year-old kid here who races karts and has dyslexia, and Justin took a mentor role with him and got him sponsorship from the Dyslexia Foundation - but he never talked about anything good that he did."
Palmer remembers Wilson as a great inspiration for his son Jolyon: "He was very influenced by him and definitely used Justin as a role model, and he was very good at giving Jolyon time - he's very straightforward, just like Justin was."
"I saw him only a couple of weeks ago at the Laguna Seca historic meeting," adds Dean (United was running cars, with Dean racing a Formula 5000 Lola, while Wilson was competing in a Porsche 911).
"I had some photos from the JLR days, and he remembered everyone's names - all the mechanics, the truckie... It struck me as I walked away that was another mark of what a genuine person he was.
"We were working late one evening on an F1 car, and as we were leaving Justin was still there, wandering around the paddock and looking at the cars. Even after his professional career, he'd have still carried on racing for the love of it."
This week's edition of AUTOSPORT magazine, out on Thursday, features an extensive tribute to Justin Wilson, charting his entire career with insights and anecdotes from those who worked closest with him.