As mentioned Frank had a dry sense of humour and he was quick with his quips. I recall one occasion I was hosting a driving event with the team’s two drivers. Something I did annually with whomever was the driver lineup. Multiple different driving activities in rotation for the invited VIP guests. The team’s drivers were expected to be there this particular year was to give our guests fast laps and some doughnuts in M5 provided by then partner BMW — an F1 driver interaction as a highlight among the other race-car, rally-car and off-road activities we’d laid on for the VIP guests to try their hand behind the wheel. Sometimes we held this at Jonathan Palmer’s facility in Bedford or as on this occasion at Silverstone. I was enjoying participating too but had scheduled a work meeting with Frank at Grove later on that afternoon. Naturally I wanted to stay at Silverstone to indulge in the fun. As the time for me to bail out approached Montoya was having a go in the rally activity over in the Silverstone rally school and he was clearly enjoying the challenge of this different discipline on the loose with a school rally instructor. So much so he was it hard to get him to hand over for my turn behind the wheel. When eventually they came in for the swap I was thinking I should pass and get on the road to my appointment but instead I asked how long I should allow to get from the track to Grove as he had done the journey. This was the era before smart phone sat nav app, normally I travelled direct to the Silverstone from my home. Montoya said 40 mins. So I decided to have my go in the rally car rather than leaving before. Turns out I was late getting to the factory and as I arrived Frank was in the corridor as he often was taking some exercise in his wheelchair. I apologised for being late and explained that I’d taken advice on journey time from Juan Pablo. Quick as a a flash he said said “… don’t worry Steve, F1 drivers always think they are quicker than they really are”. With that and a trademark wide smile / wink we went to his office and got down to business.
It was lovely to see Sir Lewis take Sir Frank on similar road car lap of track recently on a TV feature. Quite a few FiA F1 world championships between to two occupants that day and nice to see them sneak in a cheeky second lap rather like me not wanting to leave the fun when I probably should’vehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rT5S8sV9ppY
Steve
Reply With Quote