Page 125 - Bespoke Issue

to deal with (massive fan of paddle shift, since my rst Ferrari nearly twenty years ago), but it’s on the wrong side. That said I do prefer left hand drive on a circuit. Thumbs up, and I’m ready to go, the marshal is waving me out of the pit box...
I accelerate out of the pit exit which drops you onto the circuit half way down Eau Rouge so, unfamiliar car and totally new to the circuit I apprehensively accelerate up and over the blind brow on onto the Kemmel Straight, my instructor for the day, Gino Bux is using our pre agreed hand signals, (the helmet coms are not on today) his thumb up (for faster) switches to a closed st, (to brake) as I follow traf c into Les Combes and Malmedy, an “S” bend complex sweeping out to the left of the circuit to turn in to the double apex Rivage bend which then switches to a 90 degree left hander onto a short straight that ows into Pouhon a very quick downhill left hand bend which is notoriously hard to nd the correct line, exiting on turn 11 into 12 as it switches right again and out sweeping through 13 and into the hard right of 14, all downhill and all quite fast, until turn 15, Curve Paul Freire where Gino is frantically waving the thumbs up to keep pushing through 16 and 17 as if it were a straight, I’m up in 5th gear through Blanchimont before dropping through the box and hard on the brakes into the Chicane that is turn 18 and onto the start/ nish line for the rst time accelerating toward turn 1 the famous La Source hairpin. I’ve completed my rst lap of this legendary circuit. A bit clunky on some of my gear changes and braking points, but at least I kept it on the track. I enter Eau Rouge again, this time with a little more con dence having got the feel of 3 Eleven’s mammoth grip and nimble handling. A few laps later it’s starting to ow when Gino gives me the signal to box and we exit the Chicane onto the pit lane, our boxes are right at the exit, but I can see Jenny excitedly jumping up and down from the far end of the pit lane. It’s her turn next....
Jenny had never driven on a racing circuit, she’s not driven many supercars, so this is a whole new experience for her, as a World Champion Longboard rider she’s used to reading the road and nding the racing line, but to do it on a circuit in a racing car is a very new experience. To say she was excited would be a massive understatement.
Gino gives her a brie ng, to which she listens intently (she even listen to my brie ng...) and once tightly strapped in to the 3 Eleven she is waved out of the pit lane. She has two things in her favour today, the rst is that being German, the left hand drive car is normal for her, the second; she is afraid of nothing and channels her adrenalin in a very positive way. So, as she disappears out of the pit lane and onto the circuit I know she’s going to enjoy this, Gino has a willing and competent student and she’ll be buzzing and jumping when we next see her...
We see the Lotus enter the pit lane and she swings it back into the pit box. I can see the smile in her eyes before she even takes off the helmet. Once released from the four-point safety harness she leaps out of the car and gives Stephane and big hug before she’s even taken the helmet off. “You enjoyed that then....” I say. She loved it, she was amazed at the power delivery of the little 3 Eleven, so much so, that she spun it on the exit of the Chicane by putting the power on too suddenly. “If you don’t spin, you’re not trying hard enough” I tell her. Gino says her next few laps were great once she got used to the power and graduated her right foot a little.
After a coffee and an amazing Belgian waf e the Ferrari’s were rolled out of the garage and warmed up in the pit boxes. This is what I’d been waiting for; I love Ferrari’s and it’s a car I feel completely at home in, from the ‘73 Dino I took to Monaco, to my old 360s and the La Ferrari I was lucky enough to put through its paces, to me they feel natural. I know where everything is and how they react, so to get this out on the circuit takes away one element of learning.
I’m helmeted up again, this time without the HANS device as I slide into the driver seat, negotiating the full roll cage of the 488 Challenge car. Gino runs through the controls; today we are keeping it basic so I don’t need to concern myself with the centre console full of switches and dials, just the paddles that I am
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