Be A Grand Prix Driver - Channel 5 TV

[No 4]

What do people think of this series? Final round at Monza next Monday, 8.30pm C5. Good points, bad points - would be interested to hear.

[No 4]

By the way, www.exchangeandmart.co.uk/motoring for website. Click on F1 Challenge at bottom right to go to competition pages.

[Barry Pomfret]

I think I read in Autosport a couple of weeks ago that the winners were competing in Sports 2000 to collect the signatures on their licences needed for an Int.C licence.I heard that they have not exactly set the world on fire, lapping around 5 secs off the pace at Brands club circuit. Anybody got any further details?

[touringlegend]

Read in Autosport today(club section) that both drivers have got their International C licences and the shoot-out was due to go ahead today to determine the winner. Winner, will of course race the car at the weekend. No idea who's won yet, though hope its my local man, the JCB driver!

[Bostik]

Barry - the Autosport thing was completely wrong. A journo put 2 and 2 together and got 5 - and reported that rookie drivers Tim Perry (Royale S2000M) and Carl Thompson (Shrike P15) were the finalists. Not so - as was evident last week when neither of them showed up in the last six from Pembrey on Five. The real finalists, Mark Johnston and Neil Purdie, haven't even raced at Brands - but they were mighty impressive at Donington in the Tyrrell 012. They will have had a day of testing and timed laps today at Monza, and the victor will drive in the FIA Thoroughbred Grand Prix Championship on Sunday, and will be offered a contract with Essentially Sport, who manage F1 driver Jenson Button. For the runner-up, a consolation of £5,000 sponsorship from Exchange & Mart to allow him to compete in the final five rounds of this year's Sports 2000 Championship.

[frostblade]

Bostik, are you anything to do with the competition? You seem to know an awful lot about it (says a competitor).

[DSM]

I started watching the programme where they drove the Tyrell at Donington. I had to turn it off part way because the general programe was making me cringe with embarrassment for them - the pointless facts randomly put on screen, the poorly considered comments during interview etc.
Now my point. Up to when I stopped watching the best time anyone had done was about 1m 25s. Did they go much quicker later or in what way were they 'mightily impressive'?

[formulafordster]

The best time they did was 1.19 This years pole for a star of midsd FF1600 race was 1.17 Not impressive

[frostblade]

I think Mark did a 1m 19s later in the day. If you consider that the last non-turbo Ferrari's record around Fiorano (a similar length track to Donington) was 1m 8s, and the 1m 19s was set in a car that wasn't set up for them, on an open track day and they'd never driven an F1 car before, to get within 10% of the laptime is pretty impressive!

[Jensen]

Fair comment, we were running the cars for the Formula Renault round of the competition along with the Welch squad and I must say these guys were being pressured, a lot of the quick guys got dropped because of small mistakes when they were clearly the real racers and quick !, it appeared that as long as you poodled around and did exactly what you were told then you got through, I think thats what the guys were doing when they drove the tyrrell, it's a shame because some of the chargers like jamie Morrow etc didnt get the chance.

Still guess it makes good TV.

jensen.

[formulafordster]

Same length as fiorano, Don't be daft! that was an appalling time, they tested Frenault fora day, BMWs for ages. The cars were set up for them, they had seat fittings and everything, The Tyrrel was a spot on car, engine was fresh. They were 10 - 12 secs off pace, which is an age in anything. Itstrue the rev limit was 1000 below what is should have been, but would not make that bigger difference. They should be quicker now though because they have done a lot of school races around monza last week.

[Morcilman]

hold on! what is this about, is there a program in Ingoland to produce a GP driver? is that right?

[formulafordster]

Yes, on Channel 5 and the winner ets a drive in the Throughbread Grand Prix Championship

[frostblade]

To be fair, Jamie Morrow didn't deserve the chance - the program was sold as plucking someone off the street to race an F1 car, even if it was only an '86 Tyrell in the TGP series.

I don't know what you're on about formulafordster. As far as I know, they got 10 laps each in the FRenault, and 5 laps in the BMW. Not exactly ages is it? In terms of lap times the National circuit at Donington is similar to Fiorano. Did you see the ITV-F1 program where Martin Brundle tested a 2000 Ferrari round there? He reckoned he could do a lap under a minute, but didn't. No, going on the theory that the 2001 Ferrari was the first narrow track car to break the wide track lap record, the lap times should be reasonably comparable. So I still reckon that's not too bad.

You don't get what I mean when I say not set up for them. I don't doubt they had seat fittings, but in F1 getting the car setup to your personal preferences makes up a lot of the lap time.

Morcilman - yes there is such a program. Took 1000 hopefuls through a fitness test and then increasing levels of driving test in cars from BMW Saloons to the Tyrell F1 car.

[JR Ewing]

Look chaps - if an old FF1600 with 108 bhp can do 1:17 then an old F1 with 500 bhp and wide slicks should go a bit quicker than 1:19. More like 1:06 I should think...

Mind you, good luck to them I say. If these are genuine novices then I think they've done very well indeed

[DSM]

I agree Formulafordster. First you can't compare 2 different tracks just because they're similar in length!
Next look at lap times on the SAME ciruit for other vehicles of MUCH less potential:
Southern FF 1m13.033
Formula honda (600cc!)1m 14.4
If you look at faster cars, eg FR and F3, you are looking times down in 7s and 3s.
1m 19s in the Tyrell, for someone who supposedly has potential is pathetic. There are literally 1000s of young drivers hacking their way through karting and the lower series who would slaughter that sort of time, as I'm sure that Morrow and the ex-karter, who got the shove, would have done.
Personally I think this publicity stunt of a programme has done dothing but harm, making the sport look like nothing more than a circus act in which any clown can compete.

[formulafordster]

They had half a day in the Frenualt each, plus coaching. The fact that both have held race licenses before does not stand them in good stead. It is true that setting the car up for personnal preferences makes a difference, but not that much. They also had full PI datalogging to go off, with a trace from Martin Stretton;s laps at the start of the session as a guide.

[racingdick]

only 2 had racing licences. Morrow and Lars Sexton but they were never gonna be able to win anyway. They were more as a benchmark for the rest.
Also consider that Mark was driving with a broken hand.
AND the guys were told not to push! Anyone inexperienced needs to build up the speed otherwise accidents will happen and in a very expensive Tyrell do you think they would take the risks.
consider these facts: -
1# Slower traffic on the circuit.
ok piquet jnr was there but he dont count
2# Not pushing so not getting heat in the tyres to be
able to push.

if you want to see the kind of conditions they drove in at pembrey see www.geocities.com/racingclio and the f3 section

[frostblade]

I was using Fiorano not because it was a similar length, more because the lap times were similar. Do you have any for a mid-80's F1 car on the National circuit at Donington? No, it's just an estimate.

I don't know what you lot are expecting from people who have hardly any car racing experience who have basically been thrown into the deep end. Give them at least a little faith.

Oh and very good the guy who said any person from a lower formula would blow them away. Well done, you've sailed past the point. Did it make a nice woosh sound as you went past?

[DSM]

If you mean me, though that's not actually what I said, enlighten me. WHAT IS THE POINT??

[No 4]

First, I must declare an interest, I'm the father of Jamie Morrow who made it to the last 6/F3 round at Pembrey, but was dropped for the Donington round because it was said he didn't have the potential to be an F1 driver.

This may be so, maybe not, I'm no expert. However, I must confess I did find this comment difficult to understand given Jamie had the fastest lap time at Rockingham and won his heat by over a 1/3 of a lap; had the fastest time in the Formula Renaults, a car he had never driven before and beating in the process Lars Sexton who has won races in the French FR championship; and was second fastest in the F3's to Lars, with telemetary readings that the Hi-tech guys said were better than those of Danny Watts!
All this said, I must say the guys who got through to Donington were a great bunch of guys and given all three had absolutely no previous single seater experience I think they did really well.

The race at Monza will be the real test, as sitting on a TGP grid with experienced drivers around will test their nerve to an incredible degree. I just hope whoever got through from yesterday, Mark or Neil, just relaxes and enjoys the experience.

[formulafordster]

As I said, Both drivers have held a race license before, they are not novices.

[touringlegend]

What have they raced in before ?

[formulafordster]

Mark has gone through. Not sure what they have raced, but I think Mark has done karts etc. Both have or have had race licenses.

[No 4]

You mean Mark won out yesterday? Think you're wrong about them both having had race licences before. Neil told me he'd never had one/was a complete novice and Mark said all he'd done was drive in an inter-univesity karting competition. I doubt that they would have got through to the final if they weren't 'clean', as the whole idea behind the programme was to take someone with no motorsport experience and have them driving a TGP car 3 months later. For the same reason this may be why the 2 drivers who were consistently quicker, Lars Sexton and Jamie Morrow, didn't go through, as both had raced competitively.