Tomáš Enge again behind the wheel of the car he raced in the F1 Grand Prix twenty years ago

Forty-five-year-old Tomáš Enge was the first Czech driver in Formula 1 and last year he tried the Dakar Rally for the first time with a buggy. He skipped this year’s edition of the famous rally, but is already working on returning to Saudi Arabia next year. In the meantime, he’ll be training young circuit drivers so they can one day make it into Formula 1.

At last year’s Dakar, Tomáš Enge gained experience that he would like to use in the future.

“The Dakar is the longest race I have ever experienced. I practically didn’t know where I was going, and the technical glitches that you encounter in the desert are solved on the spot only with the help of a co-driver,” the car racer recalls the last Dakar in an interview with Deník.

He says that the Dakar Rally is quite a different world, but it does have one thing in common with circuit racing. In the final, everyone wants to finish as fast as possible. The question is in which category Enge will eventually compete in the Dakar next year.

His association with Buggyra is no longer continuing. “There are more options, but first we need to find sponsors for the Dakar. It’s too early to talk about it in concrete terms,” he shrugs.

For the time being, it is certain that Enge and his sister Lucie will get behind the wheel of a 1977 Ford Escort and drive a few selected events in the Czech Historic Car Rally Championship.

“That car is as young as I am (laughs). The nice thing is that our dad built it,” says the driver. They are now upgrading the Ford over the winter to be well prepared for the season.

He celebrated the round anniversary by driving the original monopost

Last year marked twenty years since Enge made three F1 Grand Prix starts with the team of four-time champion Alain Prost. He celebrated the round anniversary by driving the original monoposto.

Via the internet, he was able to find it in running condition with French collectors and even with the number 03 he raced twenty years ago. He arranged with the owners to bring it to the Czech Republic and to drive it for a few exhibition laps at the Most circuit.

“It was a beautiful experience, there was a bit of nostalgia in it. I was most pleased when dads with ten-year-old children came to the pits to have a closer look at the blue Prost APO4. They told them that when they were little, this car was at the start of a Grand Prix alongside Michael Schumacher’s red Ferrari. It was touching,” Tomáš Enge told Deník of his impressions.

Electromobility is currently on the rise and it is possible that in time Formula 1 will be electrified. The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile wants to avoid all-electric formulas as long as possible, but the World Motor Sport Council plans to increase the output of electric motors to 350 kW from 2026, which will also affect Formula 1.

Enge himself believes that the electrification of the championship is a decades-long prospect.

Source: Deník, fdrive.cz