Tom Cruise drives Red Bull F1 at Willow Springs Raceway +video

TC gets tips from DC

In case you hadn’t noticed, F1 is heading back to the U.S. and Red Bull are in the States in the F1 summer break glad-handing the locals.

Just this week we had DC driving the Red Bull off-road in Texas, and now the team have decamped to California and found themselves a rookie driver – a certain Mr Tom Cruise.

If you want to get to play with an F1 car – particularly one owned by the must successful team on the grid at the moment – it helps to be famous. And talented. And wealthy. And well-connected. Fortunately for Tom, he ticks all the boxes.

We also know he can handle most things on four wheels well enough (he did a sterling job on the Top Gear SIARPC) and he has a distinct penchant for motorbikes too.

We also know that Tom’s idea of fun – after he’s blatted his Ducatti Desmosedici RR round the Hollywood Hills – is to burn off spare adrenalin piloting his Pitts Special S-2B stunt plane.

So he seems well-qualified to attempt to drive an F1 car with something approaching the counter-intuitive speed required to keep it on the road.

Because if you try to run an F1 car through a bend at a sane speed, it falls over. It needs speed – and warm tyres – to stick to the road, which is why most amateurs, however talented behind a wheel, fail miserably – certainly initially.

So how did TC get on in the Red Bull F1 under the tutelage of DC? Remarkably well, it has to be said.

DC says Tom has a feel for the car which is remarkable. That with a few days of track time, he could be putting in competitive times. We assume he means competitive for a 48yr old amateur, not competitive for an F1 driver. But who knows?

Who knows, because Tom Cruise seems very talented. Talented enough to take on board all DC told him and put it in to practice. Even when he tried to emulate DC’s antics from Austin and ended up taking the Red Bull off-road.

You may have noticed; no taking the piss out of Tom Cruise in this piece. Which should be a given. But the man is truly talented, and not just on the ground. After the F1 run he took to the skies in Red Bull’s stunt helicopter – and excelled there too.

Tom Cruise; man and machine – seemingly, any machine –  in perfect harmony.

Count us impressed.

By Cars UK