BMW Sauber F1 Team Pit Lane Park to host Mansell Masterclass

Three-times British Grand Prix winner, Nigel Mansell, is planning to climb behind the wheel of a modern Formula One car for the first time at Silverstone Circuit next Friday (July 6), when he pilots the 700bhp BMW Sauber F1 Team car within the state-of-the-art surrounds of the BMW Sauber F1 Team Pit Lane Park.

The BMW Sauber F1 Team Pit Lane Park is a touring theme park designed by BMW to allow fans to experience first-hand the sound, speed and dynamics of the world’s most high-tech racing machinery. The park will be positioned at Silverstone Circuit’s Becketts complex throughout the British GP weekend.

Next Friday, the park’s pit garages, which host myriad F1-themed interactive attractions, including a timed Pit Stop challenge, a miniature race track, driving simulators, an F1 Training Centre and an F1 Insider quiz will provide the perfect backdrop for the 1992 FIA Formula One World Champion to download his considerable knowledge and experience to this year’s Formula BMW UK Championship racers in a Mansell Masterclass.

For many of his adoring Silverstone public, Mansell’s FIA Formula One World Championship winning season in 1992 will seem like yesterday but for this year’s Formula BMW UK Championship racers, aged 16 to 21, it will be their first opportunity to see his legendary post-race celebrations. Mansell will have the Pit Lane Park’s 100-metre asphalt piste and 25-metre turning circle at either end to recreate his evocative tyre-smoking theatrics.

The ‘Introduction to Formula One’ masterclass will be the second of a series of three that series ambassador, Nigel Mansell is administering to the young Formula BMW UK Championship racers throughout the 2007 season, aiming to nurture the motorsport stars of tomorrow. Formula BMW graduate, Sebastian Vettel (Formula BMW Germany Champion 2004), recently became the youngest points scorer in Formula One history when he finished eighth in the US Grand Prix, aged nineteen.

Ten races into their eighteen-race season, there is still everything to play for in the 2007 Formula BMW UK Championship, with eight points between the top three positions. This year’s grid includes Henry Surtees and Anthony Comas (sons of former F1 greats, John Surtees and Erik Comas) and last year hosted Mansell’s own sons, Greg and Leo, before they progressed to this year’s British F3 Championship.