Dreams do come true
When my friend and team mate Benoît Claeys offered me to drive his Benetton B188, I couldn’t believe my luck.
This car, driven in 1988 by Belgian Thierry Boutsen and by Italian Alessandro Nannini, is an icon. Designed by famous engineer Rory Byrne, it was a beautiful, innovative and very competitive car.
Thierry Boutsen was ‘best of the rest’ behind the unbeatable Mclaren-Honda’s MP4/4 of Senna and Prost that year.
He told me the car was excellent, and that he could go flat-out through ‘Eau Rouge’, the chassis and the aero being that good.
For me, it was an emotional moment (picture below), having dreamed about this since my childhood.
Of course, I was far for finding the limits of the car, but going flat out in sixth gear through Blanchimont was a wonderful feeling.