“Racing is dangerous, so please come back in one piece” was the order of the day before we were unleashed onto the Sepang International Circuit in Formula BMW FB02 race cars.
It really was as surreal as it sounds. Rewind back about ten days ago and it was just another day before the official invite came in. Being able to drive a Formula race car is one of the biggest moments in any petrol head’s life and perhaps just anyone’s life, so you can just imagine the agony as the week crawled by.
Tom and I were invited to drive the Formula BMW FB02 by Petronas Formula Xperience, a racing school formed in 2006 that serves to bridge the gap between karting and open-wheel single-seater formula racing. And while the school’s selection criteria is based on age (15-18), karting experience and accredited qualification, the two of us had, at best, the regular drunken kart nights every other Friday or so as experience, game on.
6a.m, Monday morning: sprang out of bed in excitement even before the alarm went off, had spent the whole of the night before watching videos on Formula racing and repetitions of the classic Senna at Monaco video but nothing could prepare me for the sensory overload that was about to come our way in a few hours.
At the circuit and after a light breakfast (had to keep it light, plenty of ego and bragging rights at stake here) and introduction, we were assigned to our official race attire of the day, a racing suit, shoes, gloves, balaclava, helmet, name it, it was the full works, minus fireproof underwear.
After changing we were assigned to groups and depending on which group you were in, you either had to get into the car and practice shifting and get accustomed to the car, observe the entire procedure and how it’s done, or attend theory class where the instructors discussed topics like under and oversteer, braking, racing lines, and fitness.
Getting a lucky break, we were first in the car, but first, seat fitting. There were three drivers assigned to one car so it was up to our mechanics and our instructors to find the right comfort level for each driver, but this is a race car, and we were only going to trash it for one day, so the process didn’t take too long as the three of us agreed on getting rid of the padding altogether. And since I was going to be the first one out, I got to play “lab rat” to see if the seating was fine.
The cockpit of the FB02 is a very comfortable place to be. You are driving while lying down, so that means your head is leaned up front onto your chest and the strap from the helmet is choking you from the minute you step in, almost completely cutting off your air supply. And because you're lying down, your whole body feels everything and takes the brunt in the car, something you'll continue feeling over the days, like a good massage.
If you think that’s luxurious you will love the death grip the seatbelts have on you and the nut-frying heat from underneath the car. Definitely a true racer’s Shangri-La, for me, it was just a lead up to the final moment.
Besides the luxurious seating, it’s quite barren in the car, there’s around 7-8 switches that control things like the ignition, starter motor, radio and fire extinguisher. There are three pedals - accelerator, brake and clutch (it doesn’t get more obvious than that considering this is an entry level racer and not something equipped with paddle shifters), and a manual shifter on your right.
I wasn’t too intimidated because I drive a manual every day, but shifting with your right hand now that’s something else, even if it’s a sequential gearbox. We live in Asia, its okay to be complaining about shifting with your right hand, can you imagine getting it off with your left? It’s sort of the same thing.
Besides that there was a whole lot of carbon fiber everything! That made me pause for thought as I wondered what would happen if I messed it up and entered a wall sideways or flipped the car, but there was no way I was about to chicken out of it, if anything, I was going to push it to the very limit, figured that if I was going to go out might as well make it a spectacular exit. I later found out that the car is able to withstand 12 tons of pressure on the sides and 45 tons at either end, thankfully nothing happened then or it would have just hurt a lot rather than knock me out.
So this was it then, the final moment. It was now that I was about to find out what every racer since the days of Farina in the 50’s and before felt like sitting in a cockpit with immense pressure on his shoulders from all the expectation. I’m not talking about a run for the World Champioship; see we were told that every driver who steps into the FB02 for the first time definitely kills it when driving off, and that’s a very embarrassing situation to be in with the camera’s rolling and journalists snapping away.
Starting the car required the correct combination of switches; first the master, the ignition, the starter button and then wait as the starter cranks to life the four stroke in-line four powerplant sourced from the K1200 RS BMW motorcycle. It may just be a bike engine, but it takes on a different character in the FB02, not only is it more powerful but when mated to the bike it takes on a smoother more linear power delivery suitable for sports touring, but in the FB02, its pure evil.
The teaser video below will give you an idea of how it sounds like but if I had to put it into words, it can only be described as 'holistically glorious' as it not only devours your senses, but it taunts you to push it and push it hard, like a pornstar wanting to be spanked harder and harder. Screams like one too.
I made it off the line perfectly fine, the surprisingly light clutch (it’s a single plate if you were wondering) and sensitive throttle made the biting point easy to judge, and after riding first gear for a bit it happened. It had to happen.
First three green lights erupted from the steering wheel, then three yellows race up, then three reds and then three red blinks furiously begging for an upshift. Clutch in, pull at the lever and bam, upshift, floor it again all the way to 8500rpm and crack the whip and suddenly we’re at the point to turn out to the pit straight. It took about less than 8 seconds to get there from the other end of the pit lane. Thankfully Lotus F1 test driver Fairuz Fauzy was on hand to shakedown the cars and had already brought them up to temperature earlier, so the brakes had some heat in them and worked fine.
This session was just about gauging the behavior of the car and getting accustomed to it, so we were just running up the pit straight and then the opposite direction in the pit lane before going back out on the straight and doing it all over again for a good 10-12 times. It was the session after our theory class that we were looking forward to the most, free practice.
The great thing about this event is the fact that we were allowed our own pace on the circuit, it was our time, us against each other. No other event organizer would do that and a tip of the hat to Petronas for allowing us to get up to no good. Back in the cars, we were required to do about 7 laps behind the pace car, we had only done 3 then it was back in the pits again as it had started to rain!
Never ones to back down from a challenge, the PFX pit crew immediately reeled us into the pit garage and swapped our slicks for full wet tires. Though this meant slower lap times, I was actually pretty excited about it, if you have ever kart in the wet, you would know what I mean. However, by the time we went out and finished our pace laps, it had dried up and it was back on full slicks and out on an empty north track with nothing to stop us.
One of the instructors had tipped me on what to expect from the car, "a little oversteer when pushing is to be expected, it's pretty stable under heavy braking so you can concentrate on braking later, past the 50 meter mark is fine. If you ride the clutch and engine speed correctly, you can use engine braking to your advantage, but don't lock the rear or you will spin out."
Out of the pit exit and riding the throttle and second gear I took it easy past turn 1, snake past turn 2 and get on the throttle hard, the rear wiggles a little and when it finds grip, catapults me into turn 3. The sweeping rightie is also at the point where a shift from third to fourth is needed, so in the middle of it, while you're fighting the G's, you have to take your right hand off the wheel while all the muscles in your left work to keep the car in line, summon fourth gear then fifth and hold on for the short straight to turn 4.
Ride the apex on turn 4 and flat out towards turn 5, one of the most challenging corners of the circuit and my personal favorite, it really tests the balance of the car and throttle sensitivity of the driver. Lift off just a little at entry, get this right and the car flows past turn 6 and back again at the pit straight, we were tearing up the north track and not the entire circuit sadly.
After a few rounds of this and getting familiar with the throttle blips, it all started to come together. You’re in a zone where it’s almost instinctive, you brake at the same spot, accelerate at the same spot, basically almost everything’s the same. Then it starts to get mundane so I thought why not push it harder, and this is where it all went wrong.
Ayrton Senna once said that "once you reach your limit, something happens and suddenly you can find more", so I started braking after the 50 meter mark, trying to hold the car in one place with my weaker arm while blipping and shifting. Now I began to work my way up the field and was closing down on Tom who had the ATCC and Super Taikyu champion Farique Hairuman in his crosshairs. So I began to push harder and harder, squeezing every last horsepower from each gear, braking later and accelerating harder. It was about 3 laps of all out pushing hard when the car began to slide beneath me into turn 1, at the exit of turn 2 and the "I'm not Senna" moment came at turn 4.
I wasn’t too worried about the car sliding because I really was at the very limits of grip. I also had the instructors voice in my head, it went something like “if your car is not sliding, you’re not pushing hard enough” so I was rather pleased with all that counter steering.
However, when you carry so much speed into the entry of a corner, you tend to take a deeper apex and because you’re pushing harder, you tend to position the car to ride the kerbs a little more, now this happened at every other lap but at the last lap I lost it at turn 4.
Having got used to the high G turn three, I learnt to carry more speed at the short straight to turn 4, but because I was carrying more speed, I misjudged my braking point and still did it past the 50 meter mark. The most annoying thing about mistakes is you only realize it once it has been done, and it was only at the entry of turn 4 did I realize I was way too fast and way too late to do anything about it.
One 180 degree spin later and some deriding stares from the ones I overtook, I straightened it back out and it was back in the pits. Lesson: no matter what you drive, grip has a limit.
Back in the pits, we were done driving for the day and it was time to change out of the race attire. We had subjected our bodies to forces like never before but it was only over the next few days that everything truly came into perspective. With an aching everything, I found myself with a deeper sense of respect for the men and women of motorsport.
We as fans are always at awe at their performance on track and are quick to judge and deride a mistake but it was only after the Petronas Formula Xperience drive did I truly realize how much it takes to be a racer and that it’s never about the race itself, but everything before that as well, even down to what you eat. So racing is not a hobby, or a job, or a passion, it takes over your life, if you want to race, you will need to know how to live like a racer.
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The PFX was truly a life changing experience for me, sort of like a baptism of fire to be instated as a hardcore track junkie. And now with the aches in my fingers, my back, my neck and my arse, I rest displeased at the thought that very few cars are going to be able to make me feel like that around the track again, that's a problem.
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