APRIL 27, 1998

How to crash a Williams

WINFIELD last week hosted an interesting test session at Barcelona during which World 500cc Motorcycling champion Michael Doohan and World Rally Champion Tommi Makkinen both tested a Williams-Mecachrome FW19.

WINFIELD last week hosted an interesting test session at Barcelona during which World 500cc Motorcycling champion Michael Doohan and World Rally Champion Tommi Makkinen both tested a Williams-Mecachrome FW19. Both Doohan and Makkinen ended up having fairly big accidents as the cars proved to be a lot more difficult to drive than they had anticipated. Doohan wiped off one corner on Wednesday and Makkinen demolished two corners on Thursday morning. Both were caught out by the impressive acceleration of the modern generation of Formula 1 engines. "I will take the experience of driving a Formula 1 car for the first time with me for a very long time," said a rather chastened Doohan. "It was an awesome experience." Doohan said he had no plans to embark on a motor racing career when he retires from bike racing.

Jacques Villeneuve was present at the promotional event and said he would loved to have ridden Doohan's Honda 500cc Grand Prix bike but Frank Williams would not let him...