Mercedes Benz Driving Experience 2008 - Part 4

We proceeded to the next part of the exercise, where we learnt how to brake properly when approaching a corner and avoid an obstacle up ahead. We were able to practice on the part of the track, where Felipe Massa spun out during the F1 session in Malaysia this year. We had a go on all cars. The E230 Avantgarde turns out to be most scariest car, as the 2.5 V6 provides so much torque, that it’s probably the hardest to brake and maneuver around the cones. But no doubt, I finally mastered it and Lincoln was definitely most happy with my improvements.

We moved on to the next part where Dean was there to teach us on how to take on one of the corners in the F1 circuit properly without overspeeding. We were taught to be able to enter slowly and exit a corner fast enough so that we are able to catch up to the next car ahead, in case that we were in a race. This was definitely important to learn, as most people aren’t able to properly gauge how fast they are going when they are approaching a corner.

Finally, we approached the last part of the course, where Chow wanted us to maneuver over a slalom course and brake within the box again. This was probably a way to benchmark us and time us on how well we learned and perform today. This was definitely an inter-group competition, to see who times the fastest over the slalom. If you brake and park outside of the box, you will be penalized 1 second for exceeding each cone outside of the boxed area. I did not know my time, as Chow wanted to keep it a secret.