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<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not every day that the owner of a sports team gets to sample what their organization does. Robert Kraft won\u2019t be lining up in a New England Patriots pre-season game any time soon.<\/p>\n
Yet motorsport can offer such an opportunity, in a way \u2013 one that Gene Haas grabbed with both hands on Friday. He, and his Formula 1 team, were appearing at the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed motoring and motorsport extravaganza for the first time, and to mark the occasion, Haas got behind the wheel of a VF-23 for a run up the iconic hillclimb.<\/p>\n
The run was the brainchild of team principal Ayao Komatsu, who drove before Haas on Thursday alongside Toyota factory driver Kazuki Nakajima.<\/p>\n
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Gene Haas found going slowly the hardest part. Bob McCaffrey\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Ayao first asked me about driving here at Goodwood, it seemed like an awful lot of work just for an excursion up a hill,\u201d said Haas. \u201cI didn\u2019t know about the Festival of Speed beforehand honestly, but it was intriguing to me, and now I understand why so many fans come here. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the event to see so many different cars \u2013 old and new, not only Formula 1 cars \u2013 so it really does offer an opportunity for fans to see cars that they\u2019ve only seen on TV or in the movies. I\u2019m liking the cars from the ’40s and ’50s because it\u2019s amazing that those teams were making cars that went 150mph with the basic tools they had compared to now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The run up the hill gave Haas a new perspective of what he\u2019s been backing for the last decade. But while driving an F1 car is a feat in itself, Haas had another challenge to contend with. Grand Prix cars are designed to do one thing: go fast. At Goodwood, that\u2019s one thing he wasn\u2019t doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first impression of being in the Formula 1 car was that it\u2019s very tight in there,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are a lot of nuances you have to learn about the clutch, shifting, and there are a million things going on. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe hardest thing to do though is to try to drive a very fast car at a very slow speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haas F1\u2019s 10-year celebrations continue over the rest of the weekend, with race drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman both set to appear on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n