Turning Up The Heat

摘要

For most of the day, we've watched McLaren P1 test driver Phil Quaife turn in remarkably consistent lap times around Willow Springs International Raceway. The Californian desert circuit is 2.5 miles of banked bends, challenging, bumpy asphalt and broken kerbs. There isn't much to hit, but any mistake - a locked brake, for example - will result in a bodywork-damaging trip into the rough, sandy scrub at the track's edge. I love circuits like this. There's a sun-bleached charm to the venue, which was first used 60 years ago. Earlier, in the circuit office, I spied a list of track lap records, which shows that in February 1982 a certain Mr N Mansell posted a 1min 6.3sec effort, which equates to an average speed of 136mph. For a few moments I quietly contemplate what level of bravery and commitment it would have taken to lap at that pace in a brutal, stiffly sprung, early 1980s Formula 1 car.