A fan is born (sort of)

I took my seven-year-old son, Ollie, to see his first live F1 at Silverstone for the British GP qualifying. He was excited to see what I’ve been spending so much time watching on TV since he’s been alive.

I saw my first race at Silverstone in 1992 and remember literally taking a step backwards as Michael Schumacher turned in to Copse during 1998 qualifying. I thought Ollie would love it, too.

He spent qualifying rolling down the grass banking behind Vale, so I assumed he’d not been bitten by the bug. We set off back to the car, but stopped by the start/finish straight as the F2 cars were lining up, and I convinced him to watch for a while. Once the cars started their engines, he said: “Wow!” We walked round to Abbey, and when we got there he asked if he could go and sit by the railings to carry on watching.

A few days later I asked what he thought of the day. He responded: “The quiet cars were boring, but the loud ones were brilliant!” Disappointing for me and F1 that the spectacle is not as it was, but at least F1’s V6 hybrid engines have created another F2 fan. Paul Everitt By email