When 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button talked about the new car being a little bit softer, offering more mid-corner oversteer, Petter Solberg was in. And on it.
A storming drive from 16th on the grid to win Saturday night’s The Legends Trophy Race in Portugal (via the Solberg gaming room in Mitandersfors, Sweden) was enough to lift Petter to third in the championship. Two weeks into the five-week series, the Monster Energy-backed Norwegian is 10 points behind Button and 14 off leader Emanuele Pirro.
Running as part of The Race website’s All-Star Series powered by ROKiT Phones, The Legends Trophy does what you’d imagine: brings a bunch of legends – including a guest appearance at last week’s race by four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel – and puts them all in 1975 Brabham BT44B race cars. The winner? That’s where the Trophy part comes in.
At last week’s championship opener in Sepang, Petter managed a solid sixth and fourth. At Portugal’s Estoril track this weekend, he was sixth, first and over the moon.
“That was so much fun,” he said after climbing 15 places in 10 laps to win the reverse grid race. “I’m really getting into this now. Before we started the championship last week, I won the race at the Nürburgring – that’s two wins from the last three weeks.
“We changed the car to the Brabham (from McLaren’s M23) and I really like this car. It’s quite difficult to drive, but it’s very rewarding when you are getting it right.
“I did the Virtual Dutch Grand Prix with Renault last week. That was using the 2019 Formula 1 car and everything was so precise; more like driving a little bit on the knife. Is that way you say? But this Brabham, these older cars, yes you have to be really careful because they have a lot of power in the rear [wheels], but they’re quite soft as well.
“When I was competing in rallying and rallycross, I liked to run my cars quite soft to take great traction – but it also meant you could really pitch the car at the corner and drive through it on the throttle. This race car is a lot like that. I love it.”
What’s not to love about a Gordon Murray design, grunty Ford DFV and solid, strong Hewland gearbox?
“I showed how tricky the car can be when I had a spin in a long left-hander in race one [in Estoril]. I was so cross with that. And then I hit David [Brabham] a little bit (actually, he hit Brabham a little bit… twice – sorry for that!). I was third at the time and that dropped me to sixth. Without that, maybe I could be leading the championship.”
But tell us about the win?
“It was fantastic. I made a good start and got into a good rhythm. I braked a little bit too late on a couple of corners, but otherwise it was just working really nicely. Maybe it helped a little bit that Jenson was on his roof in one corner?
“You know, when I was asked to do this thing by the guys at The Race, I looked at it and thought: “Yeah, it shouldn’t be too tough…”
“Bloody hell! It’s so difficult and you can get quite stressed when the big pressure is coming. But honestly, this is the proper Saturday night fever!”
If you want to catch up on that Saturday night’s fever (which, incidentally, doesn’t feature John Travolta or the Bee Gees), have a look at this…
Source: automobilsport.com