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This Lucky Brit Got the Test Drive of a Lifetime: an F1 Car on the Dubai Autodrome

Between July and August 2015, Infiniti ran a special campaign in the UK called “The Infiniti Ultimate Test Drive.” As the name suggested, the winner was going to get the chance to drive something truly spectacular.
Infiniti F1 test drive 18 photos
Photo: Infiniti
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Usually, that something is a tuned-up version of a street model or, if available, a racing conversion of one, but Infiniti had something else in mind. Taking full advantage of its connection with the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, the Japanese brand promised the winner a test drive with a full-blown Formula One car. If that’s not enough to make you want to try out an Infiniti car, then we sincerely don’t know what is.

Because that’s all the contenders had to do: go into one of the Infiniti showrooms in the UK and go through the painstaking experience of test driving one of the models there. Oh, the sacrifices one has to do for the chance of being an F1 driver for a few minutes.

But even after Carl Lawrence from South Godstone in Surrey was declared the lucky winner, things weren’t as straight-forward as some might expect. He had to go through a very strict testing and tuition program. After all, you don’t just give someone the key to your Formula One car and ask them to be back before sundown. Because, you know, it has no headlights.

Carl first went to the Red Bull Racing factory in the UK where his skills were tested by a professional F1 simulator. After a few classes that must have seemed to last forever, he finally made it on the Dubai Autodrome. There, he was put aboard an Infiniti Q50 with Russian Formula One star Kvyat, and he set out to learn the circuit.

The big moment arrived a little later, but not before Carl was asked to drive the circuit in a junior single-seater. Finally, he was deemed ready to hop into a race-specification Infiniti-branded Formula One car and have a go on the track. And since he was already in the neighborhood, Carl was asked to stay and watch the Abu Dhabi GP as a VIP guest of Infiniti.

After the driving experience and before the race, Carl said, “The immense noise, power and speed of these cars are so intense it is beyond words, how they race for nearly two hours and then step out for interviews immediately afterwards is just unbelievable. I will be watching the race in Abu Dhabi, thanks to Infiniti, in a completely different frame of mind. My only problem is that when I tell anyone back home what I have been up to this week, nobody will ever believe me. Wow, what an experience!

These initiatives are great and offer ordinary people the chance to experience what F1 pilots do every week. But I have just one question: what if the winner turned out to be a 6’7” 240-pounds guy? No F1 driving for you, sir.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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