Speaking of struggling and fighting and biting, here’s Caterham reserve driver Alexander Rossi wrestling a 1967 Lotus 49 around the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.
Gears! And a clutch! But can you imagine what it would have been like on 1967 tyres!
That is why I don’t like drifting. In the old days, cars drifted – and struggled, and fought, and bit – but masters like Fangio could wrangle and finesse them to the finish line. It was a limitation of the car though, a limitation of the technology. These days research and technology can keep the car glued to the road — they don’t drift, they either stick to the road or they fire you into a wall. And you walk away from that wall, again because of the technology. The performance tells the true story though — faster and faster and faster, despite new limitations thrown at the cars every single year.
Drifting isn’t about being first across the line though, or “proper” performance, it’s a display sport; and even then I object to giving it the “sport” title. It’s in the same category as synchronised swimming. I’m sure it’s interesting to look at if you’re into that kind of thing, but personally, it bores the balls off me. I’ll stick with the F1 and rally cars thanks. At least the rally cars do it because they have to. For now.
Ultimately, you have to ask yourself: What Would Fangio Do? I certainly can’t see him in a drift car, despite the amount of drifting he used to do…