OVERTAKING’S GREAT COMEBACK
For so long racing drivers thought the idea was to follow each other, cross the line, and then say ‘for sure’. Fortunately, this year they snapped out of it
Le Mans: 911 vs Ford GT
No surrender!
As Toyota dutifully pounded its way around La Sarthe to win overall with its unchallenged factory LMP1 car, Le Mans 2018 turned to the factory
(or factory-backed) and vaguely production-based GTE class to save it from tedium. Fortunately GTE got the memo, the race-long Porsche versus Ford struggle for supremacy boiling over four hours from the chequered lag. Sebastien Bourdais’ Ford had the pace; Fred Makowiecki, in the awesomely pretty Rothmans 911, wasn’t up for rolling over. Bourdais tried again and again, frustrated by some textbook defensive driving – and some shameless weaving, for which the Porsche driver was later investigated but unpunished.
Formula 1 Overtaking’s back on the menu, boys!
Sure, the dreaded wake still thwarted many late-race charges. And for every relentless Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton there were still too many drivers happy to run to the lag in whichever position they found themselves just after the start. But the 2018 F1 season undoubtedly had more lunges, runs around the outside and cute feints than has been the case for years. Daniel Ricciardo’s inspired lick-it-and-send-it charge through the top 10 in China set the tone for a season alive with midield brawling and lawless Lewis Hamilton overtakes.
In such a climate each driver’s character was writ large across the races: Hamilton’s aggression tempered with wily riskmanagement; Sebastian Vettel’s brittle in-traic frailties; old hands Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso’s hard but fair perseverance; Max Verstappen’s Senna-esque sense of entitlement…
Goodwood Revival
Gentlemen brawling
Every now and then you might be tempted to go see a classic race event other than the Revival. Perhaps it’s easier to get to than Goodwood; it’s probably cheaper. But you’ll regret it. Go somewhere else and, if you’re anything like me, you’ll soon be struck by a nagging sense of being uncomfortably underwhelmed, and for reasons you can’t quite place for an hour or two. Loud and gorgeous old cars being raced? Check. Outrageous engine noise and lurid, drifty cornering? Check. And yet… Then it dawns on you. The drivers aren’t very good. Even the guys racing the veteran F1 cars are shifting down where Alan Jones never did (then shifting back up, mid-corner, before exiting with yards of unused track and an unhurried, ugly gearshift).
Goodwood’s racing is sensational because the Revival’s a weekend o¤ from leading BTCC races, winning Le Mans or being a living legend. Goodwood’s like this every year, agreed. But it still went up a gear in 2018. Don’t even think about going anywhere else in 2019.