We get a rare and thrilling opportunity to hit the Albert Park track at the AGP, as the heavens open up…
For many years, the Albert Park circuit has been hired by car manufacturers on the Wednesday before the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
This year, Ferrari nabbed the booking, but holding a track day on a fully functioning F1 circuit is a bit more difficult than your typical Winton, Sandown or even Phillip Island.
In fact, it’s so difficult that it’s amazing that Ferrari didn’t just screw up the bit of paper with the idea on it and throw it in the nearest bin, but the allure of giving customers unfettered access to an F1 track – and a street track at that – was too tempting to resist.
Around two dozen customers were invited to take part, the majority in 488 Challenge race cars but also a handful with road cars and one very fortunate, freeloading journalist.
There’s a diverse array of machinery present: a few examples of the Ferrari 488 Pista, a couple of 812 Superfast grand tourers, but also an F8 Tributo, a 458 Speciale and even a California.
Our steed is the new 2023 Ferrari 296 GTB – a 610kW, hybrid-assisted technological tour de force.
The first of many problems
The call time is well, well before dawn, but the track surrounds are a hive of activity as the final preparations are made for the weekend’s festivities.
This leads us to the first of the many problems Ferrari faced in holding this event.
With the pitlane full of race teams unpacking and setting up it’s obviously not available and you can’t just park cars on the side of the track. Ferrari has secured a car park on the inside of turn 6 on the circuit’s northern end as a makeshift pit area, but then to access the track at the start and end of each session a section of wall has to be removed and then replaced by a giant forklift.
If this isn’t drama enough, doing so renders an FIA-compliant track FIA uncompliant, so an engineer is on hand to recertify the track each time this manoeuvre is performed.
Like I said, it’s amazing this wasn’t put in the too-hard basket and thrown into the too-hard sea.
The sun brings light but it’s quickly replaced by deep gloom as dark clouds arrive bringing torrential rain.
This is a blessing and a curse. It makes conditions more treacherous, but Ferrari’s lead instructor Renato Loberto explained in the previous night’s briefing that the quicker cars – of which the 296 definitely qualifies – will be pushing 300km/h in the dry in a couple of places and I haven’t had nearly enough Weetbix for that.
It now feels very real
Finally, the first road car session arrives and we s-q-u-e-e-z-e through the opening in the wall, which feels about a hand’s width wider than the cars on each side, and line up in convoy behind the Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 pace car.
This now feels very real, the wipers furiously flick-flacking in an attempt to clear the water on the windscreen as we follow the flashing lights of the pace car for a sighting lap.
After one full circuit the pace car peels off on the outside of turn 2 and in the words of the late, great Murray Walker it’s “Go, Go, Go!”
The experience is, frankly, a bit terrifying. As part of its recent revisions, a lot of the track’s runoff has been eradicated, turning the circuit into a brightly-coloured concrete canyon for large stretches.
It’s sensory overload, not helped by the fact that Albert Park’s roads are still just that, not a racetrack. Without the thousands of passes over the course of the weekend by race cars to build up grip on the racing line, it’s extraordinarily slippery.
Through turn 8 clearly there’s a big patch of oil or fuel or similar as even at what feels like a very cautious speed (though is still about 130km/h) all grip disappears as the front slides across the surface.
The painted white lines are also like ribbons of ice strewn across the track and need to be avoided at all costs – easier said than done.
There’s also the matter of the 296 sending 610kW to the rear wheels, which in these conditions feels like about 450kW too many.
Full throttle in the first four gears is a distant wish, any attempt to do so met with instant and rampant wheelspin, yet even with a slow entry and very early braking point selecting fifth then sixth down the main straight results in almost 260km/h on the speedo.
Ferrari’s instructor team, and the participants themselves, are all offering frequent and generous thanks to the chassis control team at Maranello, as without the incredible stability control systems in these cars F1 and the FIA would be dealing with several Ferrari-shaped scars on their freshly painted walls.
No way to stop it
It’s like a theme park ride that you can’t get off, as due to the unique pit area situation once the 20min session has started there is no way to stop it.
There are procedures in place for a breakdown or similar, but otherwise there’s nothing to do but hold on and keep circulating.
With this in mind the next two sessions are completed behind the pace car due to the conditions, a frustrating but perhaps understandable situation.
It’s unclear whether the fourth and final session will be green-lit or not, even as we roll out for another formation lap.
One lap goes past, then another, but approaching the second-last corner the pace car lights go out signalling that it’s game on once more.
Whereas the first session was a blur, the brain overdosing on a cocktail of fear and adrenaline, with familiarity, some time to process the track and the car as well as a strong cup of tea, this final session is one of the greatest driving experiences of my life.
It’s not about pushing to the very last tenth and comparing lap times like on a regular track day, it’s about soaking up the experience.
Driving down the main straight beneath the Rolex bridge, taking in the signage and the landmarks that you’ve seen so many times on television, shaking your head in wonderment at the speeds a Formula 1 car is capable of.
Yes, it’s wet but even so, the 296 GTB is as fast and capable as road cars come yet in many places an F1 car is going more than TWICE as fast.
Turn five, for instance, is taken gingerly in fourth gear; a few days later in qualifying, the F1 cars will attack it completely flat out in sixth gear and change up to seventh on the exit.
I’m driving as quickly as I dare and taking around 2min25sec per lap; Max Verstappen would secure pole with a 1min16.732sec effort.
It provides a unique perspective on the incredible skills of the F1 grid.
And what of the Ferrari 296 GTB?
Well, we’ll have a full road test in due course, but on a soaking wet Formula 1 street track it’s both enormously impressive, extremely exhilarating and frequently very scary.
It has the most outrageous amount of power, and the hybrid assistance and staggered torque delivery means grabbing a higher gear doesn’t really help the situation, it still just takes off at a fearsome rate.
Nevertheless, the fact that we both survived in one piece is a testament to the car’s drivability and the incredible calibration of its many electronic systems.
Let’s try again next year with the sun shining, shall we?
