Riding shotgun with a Formula One hero
I have met Johnny Herbert twice. The first time I interviewed him on the way to the British Grand Prix. We flew through the backroads to Silverstone at 100mph, Johnny steering with his fingertips and me with a white-knuckle grip on the grab handle of his Ford Probe, trying to come up with sensible questions and not bring up my breakfast.
The second time I couldn’t speak at all as I was hurled round Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in the short-lived Arrows AX3 three-seater F1 car.
A little longer and wider than the cars of the 2001 season to accommodate the two extra passengers shoe-horned behind the driver, it was otherwise full-spec.
So that meant a carbon fibre composite with aluminium honeycomb chassis and unequal length double wishbone suspension at each corner. The front wishbones were carbon, but for durability the rears were steel. The BBS magnesium alloy wheels wore Bridgestone Potenza grooved slicks and the AP Racing brakes had Hitco carbon discs and pads.
The engine was Arrows’ own – as run in the 1999 season. Three-litres, V10 and 700bhp may be a tad down on the current grid, but it’s plenty enough to give the idea. This was coupled to a six-speed sequential gearbox with hydraulic actuation controlled by paddles on the steering wheel and driving the rear wheels via an AP multi-plate carbon/carbon clutch (paddle operated) and Xtrac gear and differential. Weighing 650kg without driver, passengers or fuel top speed could exceed 190mph given a suitable circuit and gearing, whilst 0-100mph took less than seven seconds with two screaming passengers aboard.
Johnny was victorious at Silverstone in 1995, so I figured he knew his way around. I asked him how the AX3 compared to the A22 he tested earlier in the year.
“Dunno, I haven’t driven it yet,” he laughed.
The look on my face prompted a reassuring smile and the following bits of info he gleaned from the test team: “With passengers on board it will understeer a bit more and it’ll be looser at the rear as well because the airflow to the rear wing is disturbed.”
Getting into the AX3 involved a high step over the side pod and then an uncomfortable wiggle down to slide my legs into a narrow gap between driver and radiator. A four point harness and leg straps were tightened around me and I donned a nice Orange Arrows helmet and gloves to match a full Nomex race suit and boots.
Five minutes later Johnny climbed aboard and the engine fired up again. The whole chassis vibrated on the jacks.
First gear engaged with a thunk, we were dropped off the jacks and the pit wall was a blur. Despite the tight corner on the exit, Johnny gave it the full stomp. We arrived at the exit of Copse and then it was full blast up through the gears into sixth. The change-up lights were a kaleidoscope and the numbers on the digital speedo rose too fast to keep track. Maggots was taken in fifth with a dab and a drop to third for Becketts, then hard up through Chapel and down the Hanger straight. The carbon brakes weren’t fully warm but still the stop for the third gear Stowe corner gave a moment of weightlessness before it was hard on the power again through Vale before an enormous slow down for Club.
The short straight at Abbey saw fifth gear before another big stop for the corner itself. Then all the way up to fifth through Bridge and a monster stop and down to second for the complex, dropping down to first for the left-right before accelerating round Woodcote and hitting fifth gear past the pits.
Lap one was like watching the on-board footage on television, but the next two flying laps were experienced from inside the TV itself. The noise, the brute force of the braking and the snap g-forces as we dove into and out of corners was astonishing at full speed.
I found myself holding my breath as we turned into the really fast corners at Copse, through Maggots, Becketts and Stowe, whilst the Hangar straight where we hit 175.5mph was almost a relief except for the wind trying to tear the helmet off my head. The telemetry printout that I received later revealed that we pulled a massive -2.6g braking for the Complex and –2.5g at Stowe and Beckett and that’s serious stopping.
By lap three I knew the circuit and was willing Johnny to brake even later and accelerate earlier, but even from the back seat I could feel that the Arrows was edgy. Johnny made constant tiny corrections with the wheel through each corner as the balance of the car shifted. He was cautious with the power in fast bends and the rear end came loose under braking, whilst the slower corners saw the front end push.
Silverstone is over three miles long, but Johnny Herbert and the Arrows AX3 turned it into a kart track. Sections that seem endless in a road car were dispatched in an instant. Lap three was the fastest at 1:46.82 at an average speed of 107.6mph. By lap four my legs were beginning to boil from the heat of the radiator, my ears were ringing, I hadn’t blinked for seven minutes.
You know that saying ‘Never meet your heroes’? It’s rubbish. Do it. And let them take the wheel.
Words Nik Berg Twitter | Instagram
Photography Heritage F1
A version of this story appeared a long time ago in BBC Top Gear magazine.
