For , Watson moved to McLaren where he gave them their first victory in over three years by winning the 1981 British Grand Prix and also securing the first victory for a carbon fibre composite monocoque F1 car, the &lt;a href="McLaren%20MP4/1"&gt;McLaren MP4/1&lt;/a&gt;. Later in the season, the strength of the McLaren's carbon fibre monocoque (designed by John Barnard) was demonstrated when he had a fiery crash at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix. Watson lost the car coming out of the high speed Lesmo bends and crashed backwards into the barriers. Similar accidents had previously proven fatal, but Watson was uninjured in an accident he later recalled as looking far worse than it actually was. After James Hunt's abrupt retirement after the Monaco Grand Prix in 1979, Watson was the only full-time competitive British F1 driver up until the end of his career.