Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Tony Cairoli will drive an F1 car for the first time tomorrow (June 6) after being invited to a Red Bull Racing Formula One test.
Cairoli will face a new motorsport challenge in Austria as he joins up with the Red Bull Racing test team for some flying laps in an RB12.
The 32-year-old is already an accomplished Rally car driver and has also had the opportunity to put down some fast laps on a Red Bull KTM MotoGPTM machine at Valencia in 2017.
But an F1 car, even a two-year-old model is a little more out of his comfort zone, to say the least.
Speaking exclusively to KTM Blog about the event, the nine-time world number #1 has admitted to feeling nervous about some aspects of the experience but is equally stoked about the opportunity. “Itās exciting to have done MotoGPTM and now Formula One,” he told KTM Blog.
Although Cairoli will have no delusions of emulating the great John Surtees, there’s no doubt this a big deal for the champion and is great for raising the profile of motocross. And it sounds like he has already raised some eyebrows with his time in the F1 simulator. “They were very surprised by my laps. My times were actually very close to the driversā and not far from Verstappenās! I cannot wait to test a real one.”
If Cairoli needed a pick-me-up after his epic Matterley battle with his team-mate Jeffrey Herlings, then this is the perfect tonic.
You can read the excellent interview in full over on KTM’s blog. It’s well worth the read.
