I'd be faster than Lewis, but slower than Max

[mik]

Interesting opinion from Misha Charoudin.

I don't know much about him - he's a youtuber but I understand he drives a 'ring taxi - so his knowledge of the track is extensive, and he's clearly skilled. Looks like he's done a bit of actual racing too - see here (although I am not sure if that covers everything? I 'm sure I saw him mention he'd won a race but I don't see any wins listed??).

So - being put on the spot by the interviewer rather than just openly boasting - Misha reckons that if all were placed (not simultaneously) into the drivers seat of a GT3RS (flavour unspecified), he'd finish sandwiched between the Stapp and Hambone in terms of lap time at the 'ring.

A bold claim!

But is it possible?

[scotta]

Meanwhile....

[integrale_evo]

Given a one shot chance, an outlap and a flying lap, I expect he’d be quicker than both. It’s a long track and he’s driven thousands of laps, maybe 10s of thousands.

I’m sure both max and ham have driven it a few times but doubt they have an intimate knowledge of the whole place, and you simply couldn’t drive it as quickly on sight as a good driver with who knows every detail.

Given a decent chance to learn the track I don’t think he’d see which way either of them went…

[DeskJockey]

I'd get to the high shelves in the kitchen much faster than either of the racers. Or are we talking about something else?

[MikeHunt]

"Pipe dreams are good in a way" - David Brent

[scotta]

For the court records I'd like it to be noted I did not choose option 5.

[Jobbo]

Meanwhile....

You can see the moments leading to the crash from about 1:21 in the video. They describe it as a chilled lap but the view of him late braking behind the GT4 don't back that up, IMO.

[IanF]

I remember someone (Tiff maybe) stating that if Schumi (M) was in a Golf GTI then he’d be faster around the ‘Ring than a normal driver in any car.. bold claim these days, but I do think F1 drivers are at an exceptional skill level (ignoring paying drivers) that would spank most. The chap in the video being a ‘ring specialist would make it interesting.. basically, no idea if he could or not!

[DeskJockey]

I've no doubt that any of the drivers from the Fx series would be quicker than most around a circuit, but given how much training they do to learn it, I would think that a good specialist would be able to beat them, especially on a circuit as long as the ring.

[DaveE]

In that case, how do we think Mark Higgins (the guy who did that silly-fast lap of the Isle of Man TT course a few years back) would fair?

Surely a more reasonable comparison/challenge to what Misha was talking about than an open-wheel, single seat, short-lap (relatively) specialist like an F1 driver?

[duncs500]

It's really all based on assumptions as to who out of LH and MV knows the track better. Reality is we know both LH and MV are still petrol heads at heart, he seems to know a bit about MVs ring knowledge probably because MV is of a generation where it's all about twitch etc so it's more public. However I think it's fairly likely LH would have driven it and may well have played on sims on there too.

All in all, whilst their intimate ring knowledge won't be up there with his, I think their superior talent means they would both spank him.

[Jobbo]

In that case, how do we think Mark Higgins (the guy who did that silly-fast lap of the Isle of Man TT course a few years back) would fair?

Surely a more reasonable comparison/challenge to what Misha was talking about than an open-wheel, single seat, short-lap (relatively) specialist like an F1 driver?

Misha seems like someone who would say he'd been offered a professional drive but he wouldn't take it because he makes a great living out of Youtube.

Mark Higgins won the British rally championship three times in a decade. I don't think Misha would see which way he went, and would crash trying to keep up.

[Brannen]

I've seen that he's doing some racing with Bilstein at the ring with a couple of other YouTubers - I got recommended SuperGT channel which he's mainly done sim racing, but has done karting and now progressed up to a 3 series. They might be doing the 24 hour race, but I'd have to go looking for an update. I've only clicked on a couple of his videos out of interest.