Throwback Thursday: driving the 1987 F1 title-winning Williams FW11B

He also pointed out that he did not know the track, car or engine, and that there were no tyre blankets available on the cold December day. But, to quote Watson, "that's enough of the standard racing driver's excuses...".

Inside the carbonfibre-monocoque-based FW11B, there was a quickly detachable steering wheel and pedals positioned "very closely together, due to the narrowness of the footbox", allowing the driver to "depress the clutch at the same time as rolling your foot onto the throttle pedal for downchanges".

The layout was simple. As Watson described it: "On the spokes of the tiny, 10in steering wheel are two button switches, which control car-to-pits radio and the electric pump for the drinks bottle. Directly in front of you, there's a digital boost guage and rev counter, which activates at 7000rpm.

"Below those two readouts, again displayed in LED form, are oil temperature, water temperature and air intake temperature. On a seperate panel on the left-hand side, there's a fire button, which isn't easily accessible, the tail-light switch an the main ignition switch. There's no fuel pump switch. Behind that is the knob controlling the brake balance, which, judging by its inconvenient position, isn't something that is adjusted often.

"On the panel to the right is the turbocharger boost switch. The amount of boost is dictated by fuel consumption and varies from circuit to circuit. It's rather pleasing, though, to know that if you need an extra spurt of power, all you've got to do is reach down with your right hand and click the switch up a notch."

Watson continued: "The short gear lever is not the slickest I've ever used. Specifically, in the first-second gear plane, the lever has to work against a fairly strong spring forcing it towards the driver, while the second-to-third change goes from a heavily sprung gate into an almost unsprung one. It's not a naturally comfortable gearchange."

Of the car's V6, however, he had no complaints: "Honda has made terrific strides with the engine. When it re-entered F1 [with the Spirit team in 1983], the engine was based on motorcycle thinking, which called for a large bore, short stroke and the ability to rev high, the thinking being that power was the key to success.

"As the team has learned, however, power is not the sole key to success. There's no point having 1000bhp if it's only available in a 1000rpm rev band. The Honda engine in the back of the 1984 Williams FW09 was very powerful but rather like a switch – either on or off – making the car very difficult to drive. By the middle of 1985, Honda engineers had produced an engine that was far more driveable.

"It was shown during the 1987 season that Honda had a better grasp of engine technology than anybody else. The cars were able to run more quickly in race trim for less fuel than their rivals – an impressive achievement.

"There are many aspects of it that differ in philosophy from other competition turbo engines. During my exploratory lap, I was amazed at its remarkable tractability. There didn't seem to be one area in the power curve where a flat spot was detectable. In fact, it's only when you get above 7000rpm and the boost pressure beings to build – and at that point, it starts to build very quickly – that you actually become aware of how much power you've got under your right foot."

After a few more laps, Watson remarked: "Once over my initial surprise at the engine's power delivery, I was able to settle down and assess a little more of what was happening around me. 

"I had already decided that I didn't particularly like the dinky steering wheel, which felt very much like what you'd get on a go-kart. The steering itself is light but with quite sharp kickback if you happen to touch a kerb. The physical effort in steering the FW11B is actually quite low and would therefore make it less stressful to drive than some other Formula 1 cars I've experienced.

"The braking system, which employs cast iron rather than carbonfibre discs, nevertheless provided really reassuring performance It was undoubtedly aided by that barn door of a rear wing, for as soon as you lift off the throttle, it feels as though someone has stuck out a giant hand and stopped the car. While such a set-up may be fine for providing a little extra margin for those unfamiliar with the car, it's creating far too much drag for a racing situation.

"The throttle pedal is surprisingly short in its movement, and initially I was worried about not being able to modulate it precisely enough when full power was coming in. Once again, my worries were ill-founded.

"Ride quality is not too bad, and therefore the obvious question is asked; no, the test car was not set up to the latest belly-banging ride height that produces a shower of sparks from the titanium skid pads. Such an arrangement worsens ride quality, but it also increases the amount of chassis downforce – as opposed to wing downforce – that is available.

"In terms of feel, the FW11B is quite forgiving and therefore relatively easy to drive. Like with any racing car, though, getting the best out of it on the limit is difficult, even though it appears to retain its poise and controllability in such circumstances.