Estoril. Formula 1 departed this charismatic Portuguese track at the end of 1996, but it’s still rated safe enough for single seaters, German touring cars, world motorcycle races; and with its 2.6-mile length, twin parabolic turns and hairpins plus some elevation, it’s highly rated by drivers, too. It’s also where Ayrton Senna came of age, becoming a Grand Prix winner in a Lotus in 1985 in streaming wet conditions.
It’s not that wet today, just slimy and treacherous with puddles where you want to be on the turn’s exit and invisible slippery bits, and I’m about to be the first driver, in the first session, on the first day of the launch of the new sixth-generation and possibly last combustion-engined Honda Type R. So, let’s not try to emulate Ayrton; instead let’s just call this a drying-out session for everyone else.
Except Andreas Aigner, multiple rally champion and my tutor doesn’t appear to have read that memo. For a start he’s far too enthusiastic for this time on a rainy, autumnal morning and second, he wants me to go faster, quite a bit faster…
