For a normal mortal, driving an F1 car is extremely difficult. Not many of us get to find out but, if we did, we¹d discover that getting to grips with the immense speed and a power to weight ratio nearly three times that of most supercars is only part of the problem. The other challenge is coping with the massive loads such performance puts on your body.
According to Honda's new guru Ross Brawn most civilians couldn't even drive one out of the pit lane let alone post lap times within a whisker of the professionals.
Which is why we're all feeling mighty proud of our own Steve Sutcliffe this week. He's a modest chap Steve so he'd never tell you himself quite what a great job he did. So I'm going to have to do some of the job for him.
I watched Sutters from the Silverstone pitlane, sandwiched between Steve's mum and Jenson Button. I don't know who was more nervous. Alongside us were the rest of Steve's family, about 50 Honda bods, video crews, plus other assorted hangers-on. If he messed up it would have been a public humiliation.
The Moment came. The boffins fired up the engine. They Honda guys pushed Steve out into the pitlane and off he went. Not a slip-up. Not a stall. We all breathed a sigh of relief and Jenson's grin got broader than ever.
The he came round, hammering down the pitlane. At full chat, or so it seemed. Steve's mum looked nervous again but Jenson didn't. He could tell that our man was in control and leaned right over the barrier to see Sutters going into Copse. "F**k me, that was impressive" was all he could say.
Then Honda's PR lady came out and asked us when James the test driver was coming in and Steve was going out. That said it all about his performance really.