Video: Get up close and personal with a Benetton B197 at Hockenheim

28th June 2024

Rachel Roberts

How often is it you get the chance to get up close and personal with a Formula 1 race-winning car? Well, today’s video allows you to stand right in the garage alongside Jean Alesi’s Benetton B197 F1 car in between stints of racing at the 2024 Hockenheim Historic back in May, an event honouring F1 champion Jim Clark, who had his fatal crash at the circuit in 1968.

The B197 was driven by Alesi and Gerhard Berger during the 1997 F1 season, the Austrian delivered the car’s best result – victory at the that year's German Grand Prix, so it’s something special to see the car return to the site of its greatest triumph almost 30 years on.

Helpfully, the specs are nicely laid out at the start of the clip, reminding us all of the 420PS (309kW) V10 engine that rev to 11,000rpm – a quick look at the comments tells you how much adoration there still is for this wondrous era of F1 cars, and that unforgettable sound they made.

This video is divided into sections which give us a look at the car standing out on track with its bright blue livery, and then close up in the pits, and we mean, really close up – right into the engine, under the floor, at the front sans nose.

But it finishes where we’d all rather see it, in all its glory back on the track with screaming flybys. As a way to spend five minutes of your day, this isn’t half bad.

Welcome to Goodwood Elevenses, a helping of motoring-related amusement to help break up your day. Watch the last video: Roaring opening lap at the Nürburgring in a Porsche 911 RSR