Danny Watts

Watts competing for A1 Team Great Britain at the 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, South Africa.

Danny Watts (born 31 December 1979) is a British former professional racing driver.

Career

Watts was born in Aylesbury, and started racing in 1993, when he began karting. After five seasons of karting, he stepped up to single seater racing in 1998 in the UK Formula First championship, in which he dominated with 12 wins. He also competed in the Formula Palmer Audi Winter Series, in preparation for running the main Formula Palmer Audi championship the following year.

2000 saw a step up to the British Formula Renault Championship, when he was teammate to Kimi Räikkönen. In his third year of Formula Renault, he won the championship with six wins.

Watts ascended another tier in 2003, stepping up to the British Formula 3 Championship, with HiTech Racing. He took his first win in the series the same year in the second race at Castle Combe, having crashed out of the lead in race one. In 2004, he became the first driver for eleven years to win a round of the British Formula 3 Championship whilst not driving a car from the Dallara company.

2005 saw a mixed year for Watts. Unable to remain in Formula Three, he contested a handful of races in various disciplines. The same occurred in 2006, though he did make a brief return to F3 for the penultimate race of the season, at Thruxton, for champions Räikkönen Robertson Racing (co-owned by former British FRenault teammate, and now F1 star Kimi Räikkönen). In that race, Watts led the field and dominated proceedings with a convincing win.

In 2006, Watts raced in the Porsche Carrera Cup for the Redline Racing team. Initially he shared this drive with Richard Westbrook, only contesting races which clash with Westbrook's Porsche Carrera Cup racing, but after a run of eight successive victories in the races he started, Richard conceded the drive full-time.

For 2007, Watts drove for Team LNT in the Le Mans Series in a Panoz Esperante GT-LM. He was also invited to join A1 Team Great Britain for the fourth season of the 2007/8 season held in Shanghai, China and took part in the rookie sessions.

In 2008, Watts signed to the SAS Lechner Racing team with teammate Damien Faulkner for the F1-supporting Porsche Supercup series.

A1 Team Great Britain announced that Watts would race for A1 Team Great Britain in Chengdu; he came third in both the sprint and feature race.

For 2009, Watts raced for Strakka Racing in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S. In the opening round of the Le Mans Series at Barcelona, he claimed overall pole on the teams LMP1 debut.

In 2010, Watts retained his seat for Strakka Racing in the Le Mans Series however the team moved down to the LMP2 category now using a HPD ARX-01c. The car took the class victory at Le Mans finishing fifth overall.

Personal life After retiring, he came out publicly in 2017 as gay. He was previously married to Fiona Leggate with whom he had one son.

Helmet Watts' helmet colour is in honour of Oxford United Football Club, whom he supports.

Racing record Career summary Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F.Laps Podiums Points Position 1998 Formula First Great Britain Mark Burdett Motorsport ? 12 12 ? ? ? 1st Formula Palmer Audi Winter Series ? 4 0 ? ? 3 80 3rd 1999 Formula Palmer Audi ? 14 0 0 1 0 42 22nd 2000 Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup Manor Motorsport ? 0 0 0 1 20 16th Formula Renault 2.0 UK 11 1 1 0 3 153 10th 2001 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Falcon Motorsport 13 2 0 1 4 253 3rd 2002 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Fortec Motorsport 13 6 4 5 11 333 1st Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC Macau Asian Formula 2000 Challenge EYHOB Motorsport 1 1 0 0 1 0 1st Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain Porsche Cars Great Britain 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2003 British Formula Three Championship Hitech Grand Prix 22 1 3 2 5 125 5th Masters of Formula 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 23rd Macau Grand Prix 1 0 0 0 0 0 10th Korea Super Prix Alan Docking Racing 1 0 0 0 0 0 9th 2004 British Formula Three Championship Promatecme 21 1 1 0 4 139 6th Masters of Formula 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 10th Formula 3 European Cup 1 0 0 0 0 0 5th Japanese Formula 3 Championship M-TEC 3 0 0 0 0 12 15th Walter Hayes Trophy ? 1 0 0 0 0 0 2nd 2005 British Formula Three Championship Alan Docking Racing 2 0 0 0 1 23 13th Formula 3 Euro Series HBR Motorsport 2 0 0 0 0 0 NC Macau Grand Prix Team Midland Euroseries 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC Formula Renault 3.5 Series EuroInternational 2 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2006 British Formula Three Championship Räikkönen Robertson Racing 1 1 1 0 1 0 NC Porsche Supercup IRWIN Redline Racing 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain 16 10 6 6 11 250 3rd Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Gates GR Asia 1 1 1 1 1 0 NC British GT Championship ? ? ? ? ? ? 15 7th 2007 Le Mans Series - LMGT2 Team LNT 4 0 0 0 0 5 19th 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGT2 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC American Le Mans Series - LMP2 Zytek Motorsports 1 0 0 0 1 19 16th Porsche Carrera Cup Asia ? 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2008 Porsche Supercup SAS Lechner Racing 12 0 0 0 1 90 9th American Le Mans Series Team LNT 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC Aston Martin Asia Cup Noble Group/GR Asia 2 0 0 1 1 0 NC Macau GT Cup Grand Prix Team Road & Track 1 0 0 0 1 0 2nd 2008-09 A1 Grand Prix A1 Team Great Britain 6 0 1 0 2 28 10th 2009 Le Mans Series Strakka Racing 5 0 1 0 0 4 16th 24 Hours of Le Mans 1 0 0 0 0 0 14th Porsche Carrera Cup Asia SC Global Racing 1 0 0 0 1 0 NC Macau GT Cup Grand Prix Team Road & Track 1 0 0 0 1 0 3rd 2010 Le Mans Series - LMP2 Strakka Racing 5 3 5 5 3 69 2nd 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2 1 1 1 1 1 0 1st Macau GT Cup Grand Prix United Autosports 1 0 0 0 1 0 3rd 2011 Le Mans Series - LMP2 Strakka Racing 5 0 2 0 2 43 3rd Intercontinental Le Mans Cup - LMP2 1 0 1 0 1 0 NC 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC Macau GT Cup Grand Prix United Autosports 1 0 0 0 1 0 3rd 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship Strakka Racing 8 0 0 0 1 64 7th 24 Hours of Le Mans 1 0 0 0 0 0 8th Macau GT Cup Grand Prix United Autosports 1 0 0 0 1 0 3rd 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship Strakka Racing 3 0 0 0 0 22 15th 24 Hours of Le Mans 1 0 0 0 0 0 6th Macau GT Cup Grand Prix United Autosports 1 0 0 0 1 0 2nd FIA GT Series Trackspeed 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2014 Macau GT Cup Grand Prix United Autosports 1 0 0 0 0 0 19th GT Asia Series 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2 Strakka Racing 8 0 0 0 1 63 8th 24 Hours of Le Mans 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2 Strakka Racing 3 0 0 0 0 34 15th 24 Hours of Le Mans 1 0 0 0 0 0 4th

Complete Porsche Supercup results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 2 points awarded 2008 onwards in all races) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 DC Points Ref 2006 IRWIN Redline Racing BHR ITA GER ESP MON GBR USA USA FRA GER HUN ITA NC‡ 0‡ 2008 SAS Lechner Racing BHR BHR ESP TUR MON FRA GBR GER HUN ESP BEL26† ITA 9th 91 † – Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. ‡ – Guest driver – Not eligible for points.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete A1 Grand Prix results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 DC Points Ref 2008–09 Great Britain NEDSPR NEDFEA CHNSPR CHNFEA MYSSPR MYSFEA NZLSPR NZLFEA RSASPR RSAFEA PORSPR PORFEA GBRSPR GBRFEA 10th 28

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results