Formula 1: The GOAT

Going through the start-finish line already in seventh gear with his finger on the overtake button to drain the battery for maximum acceleration and speed, he remained on the left side of the track until just as he was about to reach the fifty-meter marker, when he turned the car into the corner while he was at 300 kph.1

With his foot still flat on the throttle, he cut the corner so aggressively that only the left tires remained on the track while everything else was either on the curbs or beyond them, minimizing the distance on the track as much as possible.

Nothing changed for Turn Two, as the throttle that he had pinned at the maximum on the start-finish straight remained the same through the first two corner sequences, losing only 7 kph throughout the two corners before braking aggressively just at the start of the outside curb of Turn Three.

He started downshifting from seventh gear all the way down to third gear as he kept tight throttle control all the way to the corner exit, moving to the middle of the track. He got into the apex of Turn Four, The Loop, early and went wide on the exit while keeping tight throttle discipline before immediately getting back on power.

From third to fourth to fifth and taking Turn Five, Aintree, while shifting into sixth gear as he entered the Wellington Straight, he immediately activated the DRS 1and once again pressed the overtake button while remaining on the right side of the track as he continued upshifting all the way to eighth gear.

The moment he went past the fifty-meter brake marker at the end of the straight, he immediately braked and downshifted to fourth gear while deliberately extending the corner before downshifting to third gear on the corner exit as he moved to the middle of the track, slowly increasing the throttle while taking the Luffield turn.

The more throttle he increased, the more he returned the steering towards a neutral position, upshifting to fourth gear as he started exiting the corner, then up to fifth by the time he was wide of the corner and back on full throttle, going up through the gears from fifth to sixth then seventh while taking the Woodcote turn flat out into the old pit straight. He moved to the left side of the track with his eyes focused on where the distance markers were as he shifted into eighth gear by the time he was a hundred meters to the end of the straight.

When he reached the fifty-meter marker, while in eighth gear and on full throttle, he turned the steering left by about one degree, loading the left tire before turning right into Copse corner at 310 kph, fully trusting that the car’s aerodynamic forces were going to comply and keep him heading and facing the right direction.

As he exited the corner, he dropped down to seventh gear, not wanting the engine to be bogged down1 too much, setting himself up for the upcoming high-speed corner sequence while moving to the middle of the track. As he was close to the Maggots part of the corner, he once again upshifted to eighth gear before he turned in from the middle of the track to the left-hand curbs, then turned to the right-side curbs while downshifting to seventh gear and getting back to the middle of the track again.

While still flat out, he once again aimed for the curbs on the left before finally lifting for a bit and braking once he exited the sequence, downshifting while letting the car get into the apex before downshifting to sixth gear and getting back to power at the apex, letting the car go wide on the exit.

He then turned left into the Hangar Straight and immediately activated DRS and Overtake while upshifting to seventh gear. As he passed under the overpass, he upshifted to eighth gear as he slowly started moving to the left as Stowe Corner approached him rapidly.

At the fifty-meter distance marker, he finally got on the brakes and, as he started turning, downshifted from eighth to sixth gear, remaining patient until he reached the apex before immediately getting back on power, exiting the corner wide and upshifting to seventh gear as the heavy braking zone toward the chicane approached.

As soon as he passed the hundred-meter distance marker, he immediately braked and downshifted all the way down to fourth gear by the time he started turning into the chicane while trail-braking1. He was off both throttle and brake by the time he reached the first apex of the first corner of the chicane.

He got back on power momentarily at the exit of the first corner before once again slowly reducing the throttle input until he was coasting on the apex of the second corner before immediately getting on power with delicate feathering as the car went wide.

By the time it was on the leftmost side of the track, he was already back on full power, upshifting to fourth then fifth gear as he turned on the final corner, then sixth gear as he started draining whatever remained in the battery until he passed the timing marker.

He finally lifted, starting the cooldown sequence before he was to return to the pit to refuel and repeat this once again.

But his cooldown was of no importance to anyone, as everyone was looking at the lap time that was being displayed on the timing board or the screens they were watching it unfold on.

A 1:27.100

The lap time being displayed had everyone who knew what lap time he was being benchmarked against speechless. It was something they had never imagined happening on a driver’s first push lap in dry conditions, but he was only 0.498 seconds off Max’s fastest qualifying lap in the same year this car raced.

That in itself was good enough, as he was within half a second from just two days of driving, but their speechlessness was not from that. It was from the fact that he was driving on a harder compound, thanks to it being Pirelli test tires, meaning they had expected the car to be at least a second, if not one and a half seconds, off the fastest pace the car could do just from the tires.

The other handicap was the Honda engine itself, which for the 2018 season was still between 15 and 25 horsepower behind the weak Renault engine. This was also paired with the engine being put in a car that wasn’t designed for it, meaning it was not competitive on the straights. This meant that all of the advantage that beat the deficit was gained in the corners.

”Fuck me,” Horner found himself saying without planning to at all.

186mphDRS (Drag Reduction System): A driver-activated switch that opens a flap in the rear wing to eliminate wind resistance and spike top speed on straightaways.Bogged Down: A loss of acceleration that happens if a driver stays in a gear that is too high for the engine’s current speed.Trail-Braking: A high-level driving technique where the driver slowly and progressively releases the brake pedal while actively steering into a corner.