Grand Prix doughnuts provide glimpse of the future
John Surtees Weblog - 11 July 2007
Not all the excitement at last weekend's British Grand Prix happened on the track - albeit qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton’s superb pole-winning last lap, created a buzz about the place that had been absent for years.
The other contributory factor was the mixture of young - and not so young -to be found in the BMW Pit Lane Park.
The not so young - Nigel Mansell and Johnny Herbert - did their bit on Friday and Saturday creating sights, sounds and smoke to capture the interest of spectators with a display of the doughnuts at either end of the arena.
But it was the youngsters to my mind who brought the most excitement and, of course, represented the future.
There was Sebastian Vettel who, in his first World Championship drive at Indianapolis, had performed so superbly to gain a World Championship point. Wgho's have thought it was only a short while ago that he was learning his trade in the BMW Junior formula?
The BMW Juniors were there too - Henry Arundel,19, and Henry Surtees,16, putting on superb displays.
Henry Surtees on Sunday kept the doughnuts going and filled the arena with smoke until the rear tyres were down to canvas. All in all a great experience for him as, up until arriving at the arena, he had never done one before - a 'shortcomingœ that was entirely down to me.
The reason? Henry, in the normal course of events, would be driving his race car and - to m,y mind - the additional stresses and strains that doughnuts put on transmissions is not to be recommended.
The crowd of over 30,000 who visited the Pit Lane Park over the three days of the Grand Prix was most encouraging and fully justified BMW’s initiative in creating this further insight into junior motorsport through to Formula One.
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