Two of the leading contenders for the Red Bull Air Race World Championship will be touching down at the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford, UK at the weekend.
Defending champion and current leader in the overall standings, Paul Bonhomme, and third-placed Nigel Lamb will be at the show with their Red Bull Air Race planes. We caught up with the pilots to find out more about the International show and the Red Bull Air Race...
So, you're both heading to RIAT this weekend. What will you be up to there?
NL: We’re basically on a meet and greet with our Red Bull Air Race aeroplanes and I’ll also be doing my bit for Breitling who also have a presence at RIAT, so I’ll spend a bit of time there meeting the fans.
PB: The main purpose of our visit is to show off the aeroplane to the UK fans. We don’t have a Red Bull Air Race in the UK this year and the question I most commonly get asked is, ‘When is the next race in the UK?’ Seeing as there isn’t one, we thought that in conjunction with Nigel, we’d go over to Fairford and meet the fans there instead. The fans will be able to see the plane close up rather than going past at 230mph on the TV.
What makes the Royal International Air Tattoo such a special event?
NL: It’s huge and very diverse, so it has a very big programme and it’s one of the best-known air displays in Europe and it has a lot of military teams from around Europe. It’s huge and very popular.
PB: The RIAT is the biggest air show that we have in the UK. I think they’re expecting about 150,000 people over the weekend, which is by far and away the biggest.
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Which particular display or exhibition are you looking forward to the most?
NL: The F22 Raptor is the one I definitely want to see. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I see that because I’ve not seen that before. That will be the highlight for me. I’ve heard that it’s absolutely incredible. It’s the world’s most advanced jet fighter and it’s very, very rare that you can see it, especially outside the USA. It’s an aeroplane that’s completely unconventional in that it doesn’t fly in the same manner that other fighters do and that’s what’s amazing about it.
PB: I think for me that the aerobatic formation teams are always interesting to watch, especially the foreign teams that we don’t get to see much and also the latest bit of kit to come over from the United States will be something to look forward to.
Of all the many, varied types of aircraft that you've flown, do you have a favourite discipline?
NL: I do really enjoy the Red Bull Air Race because I love the black and white of it. It’s man, machine and clock. I really enjoy competition aerobatics, which I did for eight years, and I enjoy the challenge of teamwork in air displays particularly. To create a real spectacle using several aeroplanes, where everybody has to gel together to make a good show, I enjoy that. Film work I’ve loved too because the challenge of trying to interpret what is required through the lens of a camera can be an incredible challenge. Vintage aeroplane flying – just presenting it to a crowd – is also another challenge. They’re all different, but I love them all.
PB: I would say that the one I’m in at the time is my favourite, but I think I would narrow it down to an aerobatic aeroplane. Just in terms of the fact that in an aerobatic aeroplane you are the limit to what you can do. In a 747 or a Spitfire or anything else, the limit will be the aeroplane and the pilot has to fit within the aeroplane’s limits, whereas once you get into aerobatic territory the limit is then the pilot. That is then great fun because you as the pilot can try and improve your own skills knowing that the plane is going to be able to put up with it.
You're both battling it out to win the Red Bull Air Race World Championship. How do you see things panning out now that the schedule has changed?
NL: Obviously I’m very disappointed that the championship has been shortened, which of course is good news for Paul because in a way it increases his championship lead in that there’s only one race now in which to overtake him. But for sure the championship is still a possibility for myself and Hannes [Arch], so we have to try and beat Paul substantially enough to overtake him. Anything can happen in a race. You can get just one no-fly and everybody else get points. If you look at Formula One it’s a similar situation, where someone can be doing very well and then they have a race where they get no points for a technical reason or they have a very bad race, so the championship could still be wide open. It’s not completely out of reach.
PB: I’m just in the process of getting my head into gear for the next race in Germany to make sure that we don’t slip up on any banana skins there. I think the really important thing is to try and get out of the mindset that there were more races to follow the one in Germany and try and say to myself that there was only ever one race left. Anything can happen at this stage. It's far from over.
The Royal International Air Tattoo takes place at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, UK on July 17-18. For more information, head over to RIAT.
Click here for our Red Bull Air Race Lausitz event page.
Christian Pondella/Red Bull Photofiles
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