The Formula One Young Driver Tests 2013 are being held at the UK’s Silverstone, the current home to the British Grand Prix, making the event remarkably accessible for the very many UK Formula One fans. The event has also been reasonably priced, at £15 for a day or £35 for the three days, helping to make sure that there were plenty of people in attendance.
I was particularly lucky to be there as a guest of the Caterham team, which meant spending some of the day in the paddock in general, and in the Caterham garage in particular. It was wonderful to stand in the garage and watch a pit stop, as well as watching other pit stops from other teams up and down the pit lane from where we were. I have to say that Caterham were wonderful, wonderful hosts, making sure that we were enjoying ourselves, and explaining everything that was going on. It was a fantastic day.
We arrived and were taken to the paddock by Kevin May from Select Motor Racing, who also was outstanding at looking after us. It’s always fun to walk through the paddock and bump into the various personalities of the Formula One circus.
Almost as soon as we arrived, we saw Paul Di Resta walking through the paddock, and through the rest of the day, we bumped into a few other familiar faces, some of whom we stopped for a photo.
Some of the teams had cars, or at least replica cars, on display for fans to see, including those who took part in the pit lane walk at the end of the event.
As well as watching some – quite a bit – of the testing from the Caterham pit garage, we also walked around some of the circuit, and stopped to take some more photos as we went. There were some familiar faces testing cars too, with Pastor Maldonado in his Williams, Paul Di Resta in the Force India for some of the day, and Daniel Ricciardo in both the Toro Rosso and the Red Bull at different times of the day. There were also plenty of faces who may be less familiar to the Formula One fans now – but very familiar to those fans who follow other motor sport series – and who are very likely to be familiar to Formula One fans very soon. Alex Rossi, the GP2 driver and Caterham test driver, who had tested the previous day, was kind enough to spend quite a bit of time chatting to us.
A very big thank you to both Catheram and Select Motorsport for making today happen. For those who bump into me over the next few weeks, do expect me to talk about it. A lot.
Here are a few photos of the day….
