The Professor and the Pupil rock Ricard

With Red Bull engine partner Renault taking its World Series programme back home to France for a round at the amazing Paul Ricard Circuit in Provence what better way for Red Bull to celebrate than to get not one, but two Gallic racing heroes to blast an RB6 down the Mistral straight.

Representing the glorious past, four-time F1 champion and all-round legend Alain Prost was joined at Le Castellet by the potential-packed future of French motorsport in the shape of Jean-Eric Vergne from the sister team Toro Rosso, and both drivers wowed the crowd with some fully committed laps in the 2010 F1 Constructors’ Championship-winning Red Bull Racing car.

First up, on Saturday, was Jean-Eric, and despite heavy rain JEV pushed hard to put the RB6 through its paces.

“It was really, really wet out there,” he smiled after his run. “I was being pretty cautious to be honest. There was some pretty big lightning out there, but that kind of adds to the effect!”

In true U2 style the weekend was a sort of homecoming for JEV, as he won this event in WSR 3.5 last season, and the 22-year-old driver admitted that he felt totally at ease in a paddock he virtually grew up in.

“It feels really nice to come back to WSR in a Formula One car and especially to drive here at Paul Ricard,” he said. “I spent four years in World Series – two years in the 2.0 litre cars and the rest of the time in the 3.5 litre cars.

“A year ago I won the 3.5 race here, so to come back as a Formula One driver is really something quite special,” he added. “It’s been great seeing everyone in the paddock again and talking to everyone; the teams I used to work with, all the people who helped me out along the way.”

Vergne also took time out to grab a quick word on the 3.5 litre grid with Red Bull Junior Team driver Antonio Felix da Costa. Whatever he said to the Arden Caterham driver must have worked as da Costa promptly went out and took his second win in as many weeks, the Portuguese driver adding a dominant victory in a wet race one at Paul Ricard to a race two win in Hungary.

Afterward, though, Vergne insisted da Costa needed no advice. “Antonio is a really good driver. He knows what he has to do to win, so I just wished him good luck, but it seems he didn’t need it!”

The following day it was Prost’s turn behind the wheel of the RB6 and the F1 legend afterwards said that the feel of the car wasn’t so different to the last time he drove an Formula One car – when he tested for McLaren in 1996.

“Overall, it’s not so different to the last car I drove, which was in 1996, except that everything is obviously more perfect. It looks like we have improved in every department,” he said.

“Maybe the biggest difference, especially for me, is in terms of the ergonomics, how the driver is installed in the car,” he added. “Your legs are very high and you only have two pedals and the clutch is on the steering wheel. You have to left-foot brake, which is very strange for me because I never did that before. There are a few things that feel different. But you feel that you can be quite well installed in this car.”

He admitted, however, that the 2010 car was a major step forward from the Renault car he raced to second in the 1983 F1 championship.

“I drove my car of 1983 at this track last year and that was really something strange: you really ask yourself how could we drive these kind of cars?” he smiled.

“The gearbox in this car is fantastic and the engine is great in how the power comes in – it’s very linear,” he concluded. “I’m very impressed and quite happy to have been able to have been able to do this kind of test because it allows you to look at the current races and the work the drivers do in the different way. It’s very useful to have the experience of these kind of cars, so thanks a lot to the team, I’m very pleased.”