I was just grinning ear to ear as I climbed in and I was chuffed to bits to find out that I fitted in the car very comfortably and that was the first moment of exhilaration just to be in his car, slightly humbling as I said and slightly concerning to think that that chassis well that whole car literally down to the setup was still running for the day that I drove it was as it was from the day that he won in Portugal, his first Grand Prix win. That definitely gives you a very strong feeling of responsibility and that was the number one priority in my mind.
Q
So how much power was at disposal under your right foot?
Q
“Difficult to say exactly, not quite what it had in its day, then I think they were well over a thousand horsepower if not 1200 or something, but the guys in the team told me there was 800 or so horsepower, it was enough!
“It was amazing, the first day that I drove it was a very brief shakedown at Hethel at their private test track out the back, it’s all very bumpy and in close proximity to the trees, and the walls lining the track, it felt incredibly quick, but in the most fabulous way. I expected that I might find it very quick but I might find myself being very careful because of it, but actually I did find it very quick it just encouraged you to give it more you just don’t want to lift off, you just want to give it more and more power and I always think of that as such a sign of a good car, because it’s so confidence inspiring, even with 800hp under your foot, it was very foregiving, incredibly predictable, just inherently so well balance that it literally took me about no more that two laps of Hethel before I could really lean on the car, really start to push it through the corners, it was wonderful, nice long powerslides, it was just wonderful, I felt at home straight away.”
At
Donington Hancock was doing what they term as a demonstration run, so what exactly was he trying to demonstrate when he was out in the car?
