Silverstone has featured many different guises down the years. But, in the eyes of Bertrand Gachot, who drove several of them while ascending the UK racing ladder, the British Grand Prix venue's core appeal has been successfully retained.
A winner at the circuit in British Formula 3 in 1987, a Formula 3000 polesitter in 1988 and a points finisher in Formula 1, a key part of Gachot’s racing education came at Silverstone in Formula Ford slipstream-fests. He claimed back-to-back titles in FF1600 and FF2000 in 1985-86 with Pacific-run Van Diemen and Reynard machinery.
“I always liked Silverstone, it’s the heart of Formula 1,” says the Dubai-based Belgian. “This is the track that shows the potential of an F1 car with those high-speed corners and it’s just a very special place.
“Even today’s version [unchanged since 2010] is interesting. It’s very high-speed, a beautiful layout. When you see Copse corner then go up the hill and have the S [complex of Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel] leading onto the Hangar Straight, this is just amazing. You enter this with 300km/h, full power, don’t lift and you take a lot of Gs. There you show what a Formula 1 car can do.”
Gachot’s earliest visits to Silverstone came before the Luffield chicane was installed in 1987, with the flat-out blast from Club through the left-hand Abbey kink only briefly interrupted by the fast Woodcote chicane. That and the limited power of Formula Ford machinery meant Silverstone habitually produced pack races, but drivers who worked together could partially alleviate this.
Gachot would go on to win the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours for Mazda alongside Johnny Herbert, but the two came to blows at Silverstone in an FF1600 clash that the Briton regales gleefully in his autobiography, What Doesn’t Kill You. “He still laughs today about this!” Gachot sighs.
Source: Autosport