How to become an apex predator

How easy is it to drive a supercar quickly on track experience? We dispatch MURRAY SCULLION in an MC20 to see

- MURRAY SCULLION

Like most people attending their first session of track driving tuition, I have fallen at the first hurdle. Well, not so much the first hurdle. This is more like not doing up my laces properly.

Driving position, vision, braking. These three fundamentals are at the forefront of what I learn at Bedford Autodrome on a slightly wet and greasy Tuesday. And it is the driving position where I let myself down.

"Typically, most men tend to sit far too far back," Christian Vann tells me. Vann is PalmerSport's chief instructor, a former Le Mans racer and a very patient man. Being too far back leads to an outstretched leg position, which doesn't provide optimal power from your quads and hamstrings when braking.

Also, in the event of a crash, your leg will go through your pelvis if it's outstretched. Which, I'm assured, is not ideal.

This might all seem a bit dry considering the pictures in front of you are of a mid-engined Italian supercar. But the fundamentals, the boring stuff, are what make the biggest differences when piloting something like a Maserati MC20 at 200mph.

Now that I can actually sit correctly, I should probably start driving. We're here to find out how easy it is for a supercar newcomer to extract performance from one on a track, but I warm up in a BMW X3 PHEV on Bedford's West Circuit.

A few laps of the 1.8-mile 12-corner circuit fly by, and before I know it I'm out in the Maserati.