Last time I tried to find out I also found confusion, some saying type 1 and others type 2!
My theory is that he has LADA.(latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults) At the time he was diagnosed there was far less know about it than today so he would have been diagnosed type 2 because of his age. I maybe biased because that's what I have.
There is a short article about him on the Swansea university LADA research website, though it doesn't explicitly say he has LADA.
In his biography at the University of Aberdeen, where he got an honourary degree they swrite;
'Sir Steve was diagnosed in 1997, at the peak of his rowing career, with a late onset form of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.' which sounds like LADA.
I wouldn't rely on the Mail article for accuracy, one paragraph is saying that he was nearly in a coma because his blood glucose level wastoo low, and the next ' he knows he could fall into a coma if his insulin level is ever allowed to drop too low ' The writer seems to have comas on the brain.
(I don't think he understands about pumps and cgms either)
I do agree he should have had some type of hypo treatment in the car.