Mikkola: The day I tested a Formula 1 car...

Hannu Mikkola may be known for his exploits in rallying but the Finn let slip at the Rallyday 2007 that he also drove a Formula 1 car during the mid-1980s.

Speaking during the official Rallyday press conference at Castle Combe, the 1983 World Rally champion noted that he got to try out an F1 car at Donington when he was invited along by Arrows.

Mikkola: The day I tested a Formula 1 car...

Hannu Mikkola may be known for his exploits in rallying but the Finn let slip at the Rallyday 2007 that he also drove a Formula 1 car during the mid-1980s.

Speaking during the official Rallyday press conference at Castle Combe, the 1983 World Rally champion noted that he got to try out an F1 car at Donington when he was invited along by Arrows.

"I once tested a Formula 1 car - an Arrows-BMW at Donington. I was driving against Marc Surer and the nice people like they are in Formula 1 they let me have 12 laps to get use to it! Then they got me to drive 10 laps around Donington at speed," he recalled.

"I was very surprised because it is so low and you couldn't see through all the corners properly in some places. I was 3.4 seconds slower than Surer after 10 laps so I was very proud - and I didn't spin once.

"I did get is sideways though and I realised from that just how difficult it was to drive a Formula 1 car.

"At that time you were sitting in the front of the car and then you had the engines and everything.

"When you got it sideways before you felt it in the front of the car the backend had gone quite far because it was such a small movement. When you got it sideways you didn't have too much time to correct it."

Asked if he ever got Surer out in a rally car, he said that Marc did have a go in his Audi Quattro.

"He was a typical Formula 1 driver," added Mikkola. "He said: 'I think Mikkola has got it much easier getting use to a Formula 1 car than me in a four-wheel drive Quattro'. But he did rallying already.

"That was the time we had 550 horsepower in the rally car and they asked: 'What is the difference between a Formula 1 car and a rally car? I said: 'From 0 to 200 kilometres per hour it is no different but from 200 to 300 kilometres per hour there is all the difference!'"

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