First Ferrari: Piers Ward
Posted by Piers Ward at 5:00PM on Thursday 14 June, 2007 3 Comments
Driving your first Ferrari is always going to be a nerve-racking experience.
But the sheer wide-eyed terror was worse for me, because I happened to be sitting in a Ferrari 360 Challenge in the pit lane at Monza about to do the practice session for a Pirelli Challenge race.
So, I've got the historic and fearsomely fast track twisting around me, over £100,000 worth of metal underneath me, and not far off £7,000,000 worth of other Ferraris to avoid at 160mph.
Nervous doesn't start to cover it. But at least I didn't crash...
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3 Comments for "First Ferrari: Piers Ward"
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This is by far and away the best way of driving a Ferrari for the first time, if I could choose between a quiet drive round a twisty b-road and some bare knuckled thrash round a racetrack.
I'd take the track every time, even if I crashed right after the green light at the pit lane exit.
AHHH! Don't leave us hanging, man! How'd it turn out? Provide us with closure on this anecdote this instant.
Apologies, no hanging intended. The weekend was eventful, and one of those that when I got back in the office on Monday morning, I thought I should really retire right then and there because it could never be bettered.
I was sharing the driving with another journalist and we got on reasonably well. Qualifying was very much a learning experience (as was getting used to having pits-to-car radio) but the race was fantastic.
Lots of bits of Ferrari littering the track, massive amounts of nerves at the driver change pit-stop, scary moments as faster cars lapped me, but crucially, we finished. With no damage of our own except a cracked windscreen.
It's difficult not to be cynical about car manufacturers sometimes, but this Ferrari experience sucked me in good and proper.
Read the full story of my Monza moment