A great day on the circuit at Francorchamps! Thank you Rodolphe!

The idea was to get to grips with my new Aston Martin Vantage in “circuit” conditions, and to do this I called in a professional driver. I spent just under 4 hours on the circuit, at a pace that was, to say the least, “fast”.

The Francorchamps circuit is an event in itself: the climb up the raidillon (the most beautiful bend in the world?), the descent into Brussels, the double left (not easy to negotiate at first), blanchimont, the source .... There's a reason F1 stops in Belgium. What's more, at the drivers' briefing, we're told that it's a man's circuit: understand that it can go very fast, at Blanchimont for example.

Once you're behind the wheel and you've got past the excitement of the first few laps, you have to think about two things: learning the circuit (negotiating the best trajectories) and taking into account the others on the track, better or worse.

The weather wasn't exactly on our side, but that's all to the good: driving in the wet is much more demanding and requires you to fine-tune your trajectories.

I'm going to pick out a few fundamental points from these many pieces of advice: the position of your hands on the steering wheel and the technique of looking: never look at the obstacle, but rather at the escape route. And everything happens very quickly: all it takes is for a car to overtake you, you instinctively follow it with your eyes, lose track of the ideal trajectory, and bardaf, it's the swerve - as the other guy would say. And since we're talking about a swerve (the Aston is a rear-wheel drive car: it's the rear that goes), the other great lesson is to note the intervention of the car's electronics (traction control and esp) to re-establish road holding: magical, and reassuring for the future.

As the laps went by, the ideal trajectory started to become more and more regular, the lap time kept improving, the car's electronics kept getting bored, and Rodolphe encouraged us in the cockpit: "Fantastic! But be warned, you have to earn the “Fantastic”: you only get it at the end of the day and if you've become good at it!

In the end, my best time was 2m45: still a long way off the F1 time, but not bad for an amateur.

In the end, Rodolphe gives his all during these few hours, and passes on as much of his driving experience as possible. I'd like to thank him for his advice, but also for the trust he shows his “client”: he's in the co-pilot's seat next to an amateur who hasn't come for a walk in the park, and even so, an accident can happen so easily. Not with the advice of Rodolphe, who's a pro and knows what he's doing.

By the way, a final word about another of his talents: photographer and film-maker. He masters an incredible technique and takes HD videos (and wide-angle, if you please) from inside the cabin behind his back, so much so that you can imagine a cameraman in the boot. Don't hesitate to ask him for the optional photo/video report: you won't be disappointed. And, I hope, you'll hear him tell you: "It's fantastic!

Pierre dP