On the very rare occasion of two current Grand Prix drivers having their first taste of historic motor racing at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, Jordan’s Takuma Sato and Minardi’s Alex Yoong agreed to provide a joint insight into the ex-works Lotus 49 and 72 they were respectively driving.
You can’t really compare F3 and F1 of today with these historic cars, but I liked using the gear box on the Lotus 49, and the suspension feels so different…I really enjoyed that. I am not sure how much I am learning here for next weekend’s Grand Prix, but it certainly is good fun. Because the Lotus 49 is a racing car designed only for going flat out, that is why I am going flat out! I was using 8000 rpm most of the time, and in the wet the wheels were spinning in 4th gear, so you can’t use the maximum revs. I thought the car was great, but it is hard to know a lot about it under the conditions at Monaco where it is oily and wet; however, it feels forgiving.
It is good to be driving at Monaco. All the historic drivers are good and if you are fast, they all watch the blue flags. I had no trouble in the practice even though it was really hard to see in the mirrors. I think I was overtaking a lot of cars but they are all good drivers in this kind of racing. I really was hoping that the weather would be dry because that would be much better for sorting the car and making the best use of it. The later cars in this race have rain tires but we only have dry tires so that has been a problem for us. I will be doing my best whatever happens. The car is important and I have been trying to learn something about its history as well as driving it. The car is ten years older than me so it is a strange feeling, but is great to be driving here at Monaco.
The most important thing is that it is an honor to be here with these famous cars. The car feels very good and I hope it will help me with the Grand Prix next week, but it is nice to be here doing this. It is providing information for next week. I am still recovering from my big accident in Austria last week. I am still sore in my legs and knees, but fortunately I was relaxed because I didn’t know the accident was coming. The monocoque saved me even though there was a hole in it, and the new cars are very different than these, which makes you think!
Unfortunately, Sato took a corner off in the second, wet session and the car was not reparable for the race.
Photo: Peter Collins
This has been a very interesting weekend for me. I never saw the Lotus 72 before and I certainly hadn’t driven it, and honestly I didn’t know a lot about it! The whole week has been a real pleasure because it is so good to be in a paddock where so many people have the enthusiasm and the passion for the sport; so it has been a really enjoyable event. I was glad to have been able to get into the lead when one of the other cars blew up, but the Lotus got stuck in 5th gear. I was hoping maybe the safety car would stay out so I could win, but it didn’t and the 6-wheel Tyrrell of Martin Stretton got past me on the last lap or two. I went to change down and it just stuck. Still, it was good fun.
I didn’t find it too difficult to get used to the Lotus 72. I think this must come from experience. You learn to develop a feel for driving a car quickly. Normally that means you can get to grips with other circuits and other cars quite quickly. Certainly, there are some special characteristics to this car, especially the big rear tires and the chassis is quite soft. We had a lot of understeer, which was not very nice but the oversteer was even worse in the faster corners, especially in the tunnel and that was an unpleasant experience. I think that was something in the set-up of the car, and I know the car is very heavy at the rear and it is going to do that a little, but it was doing it quite a lot. I think this is something aerodynamic or mechanical which needs to be sorted. Of course, it’s very different than a normal Formula One car, not having any of the electronics. There is a lot of wheel spin. It’s crazy that on Saturday in the wet, I was getting wheelspin in 5th gear all around the circuit!
At the end of the day, though, it’s four wheels and a steering wheel and you just drive it. I didn’t expect to have any problems adapting to the car. Even though we don’t use a gear stick in F1, you do in F3 and F3000 and it’s the same H pattern, so I didn’t experience any difficulty there. For me, really today was all about learning the circuit for next weekend and obviously I didn’t want to do anything silly because it’s not my car and it costs quite a bit. I was glad it was dry today because you don’t learn much about a circuit in the wet. I wished I had been able to do more laps but it has helped me for next week; and I won’t have to worry about so many things and I will be able to concentrate on driving. In Formula 1, you get absolutely no time to learn and in our case no chance to test, so every little bit helps. Now for next week I don’t mind if it rains or is dry, it will be fun.
Photo: Peter Collins
