ernie Ecclestone might have earned a reputation – rightly or wrongly – as a man rather more prone to taking than to giving, but the F1 ringmaster was in generous mood indeed as he rewarded Ash Hand with a money-can’t-buy trip to Monza for the 2010 Italian Grand Prix, where he will greet the Nuneaton karting star with a personal reception.
Ash endured an up-and-down campaign in the Ecclestone and Lewis Hamilton-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship and fellow national series Super 1 last year, but when he was on it, the 15-year-old was really on it. Witness, as examples, his superb victory in the prestigious annual Kartmasters meeting at PF International to clinch the title of British Grand Prix Champion, his searing charge through the field from ninth on the grid to triumph by almost three seconds in Super 1 at Rowrah and his nail-biting final lap duel with Matt Parry when FKS visited Whilton Mill, expertly outwitting his arch-rival in what was widely-held to be the most exciting race of the season.
All of those brilliant performances were easily enough to justify Ash’s inclusion in a ‘Fast 50’ list compiled by specialist publication Motorsport News – but the drive that really caught the eye was the Maple Park teenager’s dominant showing in FKS’ Kimbolton curtain-raiser, as he quite literally left the pack trailing in his wake to take the chequered flag nigh-on five seconds clear of anybody else.
That earned the P1 Racing ace the coveted ‘Driver of the Day’ accolade – and with it his very own Italian Job, as reigning F1 World Champion Jenson Button dropped in on FKS’ 2009 awards ceremony to make the special announcement.
“It was beyond my wildest dreams,” Ash confessed of the moment he discovered what he had won. “It meant a lot to me to be chosen as ‘Driver of the Day’, and that out of every driver competing that day they thought I was the best – but I’d just expected it to be like any other award if I’m honest, certainly nothing like that.
“I was completely surprised and very excited about it – I didn’t really know what to say! I was a bit shocked when they told us what it was. I’ve never been to a grand prix or to Italy before, and I’m really looking forward to it – I can’t wait to go! The whole experience just sounds amazing, and Bernie’s the main man, isn’t he, so it’s a really good opportunity to be able to meet him.
“I’d never met Jenson before either, so that was really good; he seemed very friendly and down-to-earth and to really care about giving something back to young drivers in the sport. I’m a fan of his, and last year he proved that he’s one of the best, and that his struggles in the past had been down to the car rather than the driver. It was good that he kept the title in Britain, too!”
A title, indeed, is something that is very much on Ash’s radar in 2010, as the George Eliot School pupil prepares to translate his sporadically scintillating form in 2009 into a consistent challenge for the British crown 12 months on, bidding to emulate the achievement of 2008 F1 World Champion Hamilton a decade or so ago. Boosted by his recognition from ‘the main man’, he is now out to show his Junior Max adversaries a clean pair of heels over the remainder of the Winter Series – before launching into his summer campaign with a vengeance.
“The aim has to be to win,” he mused of his upcoming outing at PF, where the last time he raced he had fairly stormed back through the order following an early knock to artfully recover from plum last to third position. “I’m feeling really confident, because we’ve done lots of testing there over the winter and nobody has been able to get to within four or five tenths of me. I know I’ve got the team behind me and the equipment underneath me, so the rest of it is down to me. We’ve got to do even better this year – and we’re going out there to win!”
