Christian Horner's passion for racing once led the Red Bull team boss to skip school to sneak into Silverstone circuit to watch a day of F1 testing at the British track.
As a young karter with a big dream back in 1991, Horner closely followed Grand Prix racing and earmarked on his calendar an F1 tyre test at Silverstone a month before the British Grand Prix.
On the morning of Horner's D-day, the young aspiring champion got behind the wheel of his fake Porsche/real VW Beetle, purposefully steered clear of his school and made his way to Silverstone for an unforgettable experience.
"With the British Grand Prix up next, I was remembering back to 1991 and one of my earliest F1 memories," he told the Red Bull website.
"I had not long had a driving licence and had an imitation Porsche that was really a Beetle, with a Porsche spoiler on the back and exhausts out of the side.
"Back then, Goodyear were the tyre suppliers and they used to do two days of testing at Silverstone around a month before the British GP.
"I had been to Silverstone previously to see Johnny Herbert in a Formula 3 car, I’d also seen Eddie Irvine in Formula Ford, but this was the first time I saw an F1 car driving around the circuit.
"So I sneaked a day off school and instead of driving there, I drove to Silverstone. I managed to find a hole in the fence and made it into the pit lane. Having got in there, I definitely wasn’t going to leave."
Not only did he not leave, the future team principal got a lot more what he had bargained for.
"I managed to get in front of the Williams garage, who had developed a phenomenally quick car that Nigel Mansell was testing — which would have been one of Adrian [Newey’s] cars.
"I met Nigel and he was very generous with his time. I then went to the back of the pits and I bumped into Ayrton Senna.
"We stood face-to-face and he saw the jacket I was wearing, which was from one of the karting teams that I drove for. He recognised the kart manufacturer and started asking me about karting.
"So not only had I seen Nigel, who was my boyhood hero, I also met this other icon in Senna.
"So driving home in my Volkswagen Beetle, I was over the moon. It did not help my A Levels, but I had a great day!"
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