What’s on this week
GUY MARTIN AND JENSON BUTTON are no strangers to this section of Autosport. Martin is something of a household name since making the leap from quirky motorcycle road racer to bona fide TV presenter. And now Button’s stepped aside from Formula 1, he’s made a strong start to a career as a pundit – having joined Sky Sports F1 for the British Grand Prix (July 12 issue). The prospect of the two together on our screens, therefore, had all the makings for a stellar combination.
The pair joining forces was a big selling point to the latest episode of Speed with Guy Martin. But it was a race between them in early 1980s Williams machinery that was the headline act of the Classic F1 Special.
But on both counts, there’s a case to be made that Monday night’s 90-minute Channel 4 broadcast was underwhelming. No doubt down to the 2009 F1 champion’s busy schedule, including both LMP1 and Super GT programmes, Button was only present for the duo’s head to head filmed at the British GP. The footage he recorded is interwoven throughout, from the first ads break onwards in an effort to expand his presence, but with choppy cuts back to Martin’s preparation with the 1983 FW08C – the same chassis with which Ayrton Senna unofficially broke the Donington Park lap record during his first F1 test.
Likewise, billing Martin and Button
– who piloted the banned six-wheel, ground-effect FW08B – as heading out on track for a genuine race made liberal use of poetic license. They were pitched together around Silverstone for five laps. Button made a mandatory pitstop from a 10-second lead after two circuits before catching and passing Martin under braking into Stowe. He then promptly disappeared into the distance. For the lack of time they spent side by side on track, calling it a run of exhibition laps might have been a more honest sell. Granted, that hardly makes for a strong pitch to draw in a diverse and potentially motorsport apathetic audience.
That said, if you could make the easy jump to look beyond either of those niggles, then the Classic F1 Special made for compelling viewing even for ardent racing fans. From a historic perspective, it ticked all the right boxes. The production
didn’t even skimp on the use of evocative archive footage, as Martin enthused about Senna’s stout late-race defence against Nigel Mansell at Monaco in 1992.
Having built a relationship with Williams when Martin tried his hand as part of the team’s pit crew at Spa last year for a previous instalment of Speed, he now integrated himself into Williams Heritage. Giving proper screen presence to the division’s boss Jonathan Williams, former chief mechanic and team manager Dickie Stanford, plus heritage driver
Karun Chandhok, was a masterstroke.
Williams and Stanford oversaw lorry mechanic Martin’s hands-on role in restoring the FW08C. Chandhok, meanwhile, was a mentor during Martin’s time in the team’s simulator, as he sought the limits in a Formula 3 car around a sodden Pembrey, and was even willing to be thrown around the backseat of a Vauxhall Astra during a lesson with renowned driver coach Rob Wilson. In fact, the latter’s inclusion was a particular highlight, a healthy section of the show dedicated to explaining Wilson’s in-demand tutelage of how to maintain a flat car while keeping corners as short as possible.
Although the final showdown between Button and Martin is oversold, that doesn’t stop it from still being a thoroughly engaging climax. Viewers have waited 80 minutes for these two to face off and while Martin understandably doesn’t offer Button much of an on-track threat, that doesn’t stop it from being a proper thrill.
Watching two thoroughly likeable personalities pressing on to a Cosworth DFV soundtrack hits a lot of right notes. So much so that it’s all over too quickly.
But then the art of great entertainment is to always leave people wanting more.