Dernie was brought up in Lancashire and educated at Kirkham Grammar School before he studied engineering at the Imperial College London university. Dernie was an apprentice with David Brown Ltd. His intention had been to get a job with Aston Martin since his ambition was to design racing cars. Whilst released from David Brown Ltd. as a student he managed to convince the university to let him do a 3rd year project to do with designing a racing car for himself, part of which ended up being a computer program to optimise racing car suspension, which with the naivety of youth he did not realise had never been done before.
Dernie was raised in Lancashire and educated at Kirkham Grammar School before studying engineering at Imperial College London university. Dernie worked as an apprentice at David Brown Ltd. His goal was to work with Aston Martin, where he aimed to design racing cars. While released from David Brown Ltd. during his studies, he managed to persuade the university to allow him to undertake a third-year project focused on designing a racing car for himself, including a computer program to optimize racing car suspension, which, due to youthful naivety, he did not realize had never been done before.