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On February 19, 2010 - The firm belief that
the other teams are working tirelessly to raise their game this year has
fuelled Bonhomme’s own competitive streak. He may have a Red Bull Air
Race World Championship win under his belt but British pilot Paul
Bonhomme isn’t taking anything for granted as he prepares to defend his
title.
The unflappable
and extremely calculated pilot has spent the winter planning how to
raise the bar in order to remain ahead of his rivals in 2010. He is
fully focused on the challenge that awaits. You might think the pressure
would have eased now that he's proven he is worthy of the title. Not so.
Bonhomme says there is still plenty of tension this year, despite the
trophy on the mantelpiece.
“It kind of evens
out to being about the same as last year but for different reasons,” he
admits. “Instead of trying to shake a demon off my back I’m now keen to
do as well as I placed last year. I’m personally not bothered by
exterior pressure of people saying ‘will you win the championship’ –
it’s more about personal drive to not do worse than last year.” |
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Bonhomme may project a calm exterior but this
man clearly wants to win – he wouldn’t have invested time and money
into further improving his Edge 540 otherwise. Technician Wade
Hammond has stripped down the race plane, re-built it and
consequently reduced the overall weight in a short space of time.
It’s been a pretty intense month or so since the Edge arrived in
“It was no secret that we focused on aerodynamics last
year and put weight and power on the back burner whereas a lot of other
teams – notably Hannes ¬ – went for a light weight airframe and put a
bigger engine in, but didn’t do much with the aerodynamics. Even though
we won the championship, if you look at the net times, Hannes was in the
quicker aeroplane.”
With the unveiling of a radically re-modelled race
plane in 2009 it was easy to spot where the team had focused their
attention. This year – and after having had their fingers burned with an
underperforming engine in 2009 – Bonhomme says no stone has been left
unturned in the quest for engine power. “Probably to the untrained eye there won’t be any difference, although we have stripped the plane right down and rebuilt it,” says Bonhomme with an air of confidence, adding, “it is very different even if it looks the same. Believe me we’ve made a lot of changes. Halfway through last year we discovered that the engine we were flying was… well, crap. We were promised a lot of good things with that engine that didn’t quite materialise. It was far from what we were expecting in terms of power.” |
Last year the
team’s Edge was also way off the minimum stipulated race weight of 540kg
but it’s been on a serious diet over the winter and shed those vital
pounds.
After a relaxing
Christmas at home with the family, Bonhomme is now in overdrive
preparing for
Put the calm
façade to one side for a moment, however, and you can guess Bonhomme
won’t want to see the title slip from his grasp now he has it.
“Yes, there was a huge amount of relief to get the title last
year and to a certain extent it makes it a lot easier but at the same
time I don’t want to come second again,” he confides. “If you have a
realistic goal and you never quite achieve it then that’s frustrating.
In life it’s important to have high goals to keep progressing and in
this case the frustration was coming second, certainly in 2007. It was
so painfully close; if the rules had been very slightly different then
it would have been in the bag. To have that goal and to have not
achieved it was frustrating but now I have and that’s a good feeling.” So should we expect a Bonhomme first place finish in all 8 races this year? “That would be nice,” he smiles, before quickly switching back to a matter of fact response, “the goal for this season has to be to do at least as well as last year – so winning the championship. Can we do better than last year? Yes, I suppose we can win more than half the races.” |
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