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Photos: Motorsport Images, Jakob Ebrey
Learning the ropes: Ben Collins chases Justin Wilson in Vauxhall Junior in 1995
F3 graduation came with Class B in 1996
and wings with all the kids. Fortunately, with his experience of driving fast road cars, he didn’t kill himself straight away! He was on the grid with the likes of Dario Franchitti and Kevin McGarrity. I went to watch him a few times – if anything just to validate the stories of derring-do that he would come back with – and I really enjoyed being in the paddock and being part of the scene. There was a different language, there was the hustle and bustle. But it still felt a million miles away from me doing doughnuts on a quadbike in a field outside our home.” MN: So if being a racing driver wasn’t your plan, what was it? BC: “I had always wanted to be a fighter pilot, that was the dream, but that turned to dust because they had very stringent and particular requirements with the eyesight. Although I have got perfect eyesight, they didn’t like the conditions in one of my eyes, so that was parked. Not long after that came the chance to get in a singleseater at Silverstone – it was one of the school’s own Formula Ford 1600 chassis.
Mike Newton (l), Tommy Erdos (c) and Ben Collins at Le Mans in 2011 According to them – and I don’t know whether to believe these things or not – I was under their school lap record in the first session, but then the engine blew up through no fault of my own. Steve Deeks was my instructor, and he said to my dad that maybe we should give it a shot. Sitting in a single-seater with your arse on the floor and looking at all the gauges, those first laps, it really cemented everything for me. The car was so ultra-responsive: it was like putting your hand into a glove. There was such an incredible bond with those cars. It was an immediate addiction and it was all I could talk about from there on in.” Question: Was it just grand prix racing or nothing for you when you first realised you wanted to race? Emma Facey Via email BC: “I very much drunk my own KoolAid [an American expression for those who dream big despite the high risks]. I read two books, and they were the only
things I had in my armoury. One was the Gilles Villeneuve book by Gerald Donaldson and the other was about Ayrton Senna. The Senna model seemed to be fairly clear, which was that you won all the races. That was the goal, but it wasn’t a practical aim in your first season, hence I had so many crashes to begin with because I was very uncompromising. It took a while to sink in that you can’t win all of them. It was some time before I realised that you had to gauge risk, rather than be bull-headed. It took three large crashes for that to sink in, and it was only when someone said ‘if you do that again, you won’t be racing anymore’ for it to finally register. It was the team manager, he said there was nothing left to crash. I was on my last chassis. That actually gave me a useful sense of fear. I was enjoying myself, not thinking about the risks or the damage, and it was only the threat of not racing that really spoke to me and it was very powerful.” MN: By the time you got to Formula 3, you seemed to be more of a classical
driver, a smoother driver? Is that true? BC: “I had definitely learned the right way to drive by that point, that was embedded. To become complete, I still had lots to learn and I was still making some silly mistakes even into the F3 years, but a lot of that came from frustration because I was desperate and hell-bent to get to Formula 1 and nothing else really was in my consciousness. We knew we had been handicapped in F3 and we had an engine that was down-onpower, which I know is the perennial whinge. I would love to have done more in F3 and won more. It was the ultimate proving ground, it was so close and there were so many good drivers there.” Question: You drove for Jackie Stewart’s Paul Stewart Racing team in Formula Vauxhall in the Winter Series in 1995. How much advice did he give you? Russell Scobbie Via email BC: “He is an incredible man and at that point in my career, I was totally in awe of
him. He is such a professional, and I guess it was like holding up a mirror to myself. He would come to the races immaculately dressed, prepared, he had a schedule. His influence was everywhere you looked in the team. It was just perfectly presented, and so driving for PSR gave you this incredible confidence. You could eat your breakfast off the floor of the awning. The car was so well prepared and they had thought of everything. Graham Taylor was the team manager and he was very astute, even to the smallest of things. Even down to things like them using different brake pads in qualifying than in the race. It would be more aggressive and the tyres could handle it in qualifying when they were brand new, but might have been prone to locking when the rubber was used. They taught you the package as a driver too. They were strict, but they taught you how to get the most from yourself as a racer.” Question: Who was the best of the crop you raced against in your early single-
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