Jordan King has enjoyed an eye-catching year in 2009, with victory in both the prestigious Kartmasters outing and CIK-FIA Asia-Pacific Championship in Macau – but still none of that compared to the moment when he made history by becoming the youngest driver ever to get behind the wheel of a 160mph, FIA Formula Two Championship single-seater.
Jordan is rightly recognised as one of Britain’s very brightest budding young motor racing prospects, and as he bids to follow in the wheeltracks of countrymen Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and one day be crowned Formula One World Champion, he is clearly heading in the right direction – and fast.
The Warwickshire star was invited to try out during the group Formula Two test in Valencia off the back of a track day at Bedford Autodrome – owned by championship founder and ex-grand prix racer Jonathan Palmer. There, Jordan had tested a Formula Palmer Audi (FPA) – what he described with characteristic understatement as being ‘pretty quick’ and ‘a good car to drive for a first single-seater experience’.
Still, nothing could quite prepare the Harbury ace for his Formula Two bow, one made in the company of drivers of the calibre of reigning series champion Andy Soucek, former Champ Car and A1GP front-runner Dan Clarke, erstwhile British F3 race-winner and McLaren/Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Steven Kane, 2009 FPA Champion Richard Plant and others with a season in the championship under their belt already – but he insisted that he did not feel intimidated in the slightest by being the youngest and least experienced driver in attendance by some margin, and the youngest ever to drive the car by more than two years.
“I was quite relaxed and pretty excited about it, and felt I couldn’t really lose to be honest,” he reasoned. “If I was quick obviously that would be good, and if I wasn’t then it’s not like I’m going to race a car like that for another three or four years anyway, so that wouldn’t have been a major deal.”
He need not have been concerned about not being quick. Eleventh-fastest of the 16 drivers present on day one, Jordan improved to an impressive tenth on day two around the Circuito Ricardo Tormo in Valencia – his maiden visit to a track that regularly plays host to F1 testing and staged the 2009 MotoGP finale. It might have been a considerable leap from a 90mph kart to a car capable of reaching speeds almost twice as high, but he handled it like a seasoned veteran.
“It was quite hard to begin with just to get my head around it all, because there was so much to take in,” he confessed, “but I didn’t really have any prior expectations of what I could do. I thought the circuit was really good; it doesn’t really have any slow corners as such, which allows you to get a feel for how cars like that go round fast corners. You learn the track whilst learning to drive the car and what gear you need to be in where.
“I thought the power would be a lot more of a shock than it actually was; it all just came pretty naturally to tell the truth, and it only took me half a day or so to really start to feel comfortable in it. There was a bit of lag from the turbo before it really kicked in – after you get on the throttle not a lot happens initially, and you have to wait a little bit before you really feel it – whereas in a kart I’m used to having an instant response as soon as I accelerate. That was the only thing I found to be difficult, and where I was probably losing the time.
“The brakes are really powerful – you can brake from 120mph about 20 metres from the corner, and go round it at 50mph. The braver you get, the harder and later you can hit them – and the further you go before slowing down for the corner. You do have to get used to the G-Forces, and the strain they put on your body; my neck was hurting a little bit afterwards, but mentally I was fine.
“Just before lunch, I put on new tyres at the same time as another driver; he was inside the top four at the time – and I lapped only six or seven tenths of a second away from him. I ended the test mixing it with the mid-pack runners – and my benchmark now if I go in the car again will be 50 per cent higher at just seven tenths away.
“Being a racing driver, obviously I was a touch disappointed with being seven tenths off, and I knew in myself that I could probably have gone a little bit faster – for me, whenever I’m not quickest, it’s not good enough! Afterwards Jonathan Palmer and everyone else there told me I had done really well, though, and considering that F2 is just one step below F1, that I’m only 15 with at least four years’ less experience than most of the drivers who were out there and that I’m physically smaller too, I was really happy with being so close to the pace first time out.
“It was just an awesome experience, and if anyone had told me back at the start of the year that I would be testing a Formula Two car by the end of it, I would have told them they were crazy! It just feels so weird – completely beyond my wildest dreams.”
Be that as it may, the 2008 British Karting Vice-Champion turned more than a few heads with his scintillating raw pace, mature composure beyond his years and attentive and eager-to-learn approach – and whilst he came to motorsport relatively late at the age of 11, the Repton School pupil has wasted little time in playing catch-up, to the extent where it is now his rivals who are trailing him. Both Button and Kimi Raikkonen made the graduation to F1 less experienced than most – and both are now world champions.
“I’m just focussing on another year of karting at the moment,” Jordan insisted in conclusion. “I haven’t really thought about cars yet.”
On the basis on his Spanish showing, he might want to start that thinking process soon.
