Looking back, the 1980 Formula 2 season with Ted Toleman was a terrific time to be racing. The Toleman TG280 car was superb. Brian Henton and I ended the season finishing the F2 British Championship in 1st and 2nd places. We moved, as a team, up to the dizzying heights of Formula One. Initially, a step too far but, by the end of 1983, we got our act together. The twin-winged TG183 started to perform, and I finished in the points for the last four races. In 1984, I signed for Renault and drove the Renault RE50 turbo; it was just a fantastic car. I scored 2nd places in both the Belgium GP and my home GP at Brands Hatch.
Unfortunately, the following year, the Renault was a real “shitbox,” and I carried on driving “shitboxes” for some time, until 1988. I had joined the small Arrows team and racing with Eddie Cheever. Ross Brawn had designed a neat little car for the season, the Arrows 10B Megatron—a fantastic car which was very neat, very tidy, very small, and very good to race. For a small team, our cars were quite reliable; we regularly finished in the points, behind the major players, and rose to 4th place in the F1 Constructors’ title. To sum up, the best F1 cars I drove were the Renault and the Arrows. However, the Arrows did so much for a small team on a very small budget, compared with the might of the Renault works team.
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