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“It’s the best circuit in the world…”

That was the verdict of Valtteri Bottas as he looked back at Suzuka, venue of last Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.  Williams didn’t have a great weekend (again) but that did nothing to dim Valtteri’s enthusiasm for the circuit and for the F1 disciplines in general.  We tasted a flavour of that at another great circuit last week when Valtteri chauffeured friends and Williams team partners around the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in a hot little Renault Clio.  Mundane the car may be (by F1 standards); perfunctory his lap was not – and I hope we captured a little of its flavour in a short clip within this week’s edition of The Racer’s Edge.  In the Teddington TRE studio I was very pleased to welcome back our friend and regular technical expert, Craig Scarborough.  There have been plenty of rumours recently about Red Bull possibly running some form of KERS-related traction control;  Scarbs tackles this theory head-on as well as providing his own, inimitable, detailed analyses all of the teams’ latest developments.  And I’ve always wanted to chat to Alex Lynn, the very fast young Englishman who won prolifically in Formula Renault before graduating to F3.  Alex has now won three rounds of the ultra-competitive 2013 Euro F3 Championship and I think you’ll find him refreshing in his approach:  he chose to drive for the front-running Italian team, Prema Powersport, (a) because it would leave him with no excuses and (b) because it would take him out of his British comfort zone.  He’s risen to the challenge.  On top of all that, Alex also finds time to race his father’s ex-Bob Jane 1965 Lotus-Cortina, so there’s no doubt that his heart’s in the right place.  It’s been a sad week but I hope you enjoy Episode 33.  It’s about people who love our sport and the passion that they engender.