David Croft taken aback by Supercars laps

Formula 1 commentator David Croft is "walking around like a kid in a candy store” after riding shotgun in a Gen3 Ford Supercar.

Croft went for a hot lap with Anton De Pasquale in his #11 Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford on Thursday morning.

The laps came ahead of this weekend’s Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix, the third round of the 2023 F1 season.

Croft has called F1 action for Sky Sports for over 10 years with former racer Martin Brundle by his side.

The Briton is a noted fan of Supercars, and even called an Albert Park session with Neil Crompton and Mark Skaife in 2020.

A day out from F1 hitting the track, Croft joined Dick Johnson Racing on Thursday morning for his first onboard taste of a Supercar.

It came in a brand new Gen3 Ford, no less, with Thursday’s laps the first for the new cars around Albert Park.

Croft’s laps come after Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, both Grand Prix winners, sampled Thomas Randle’s Castrol Tickford Mustang.

Gasly and Ocon drove the Tickford Gen3 Ford at Calder Park’s Thunderdome in a filming day on Wednesday.

Alfa Romeo star Valtteri Bottas drove a Bathurst-winning Holden Commodore at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival on Sunday.

“The thing I’ve always thought about the V8s is the noise is just beautiful,” Croft told Supercars.com.

“I love coming here and experiencing the V8s. So to have to chance to sit in one of them… we could’ve done it at 5am, and I would’ve been here at 3.

“Over on the back straight, you can feel he’s really leaning on the car, and the car is still performing miracles of downforce at huge speeds.

“I’d been reassured Anton has been doing this for a while, and he gave me a thumbs-up down the main straight."

Croft’s laps came just hours before the new generation cars hit the track for opening practice at the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint.

It’s the fourth time Supercars will race for points at Albert Park after events in 2018, 2019 and 2022 — but the series has raced in Melbourne since 1996.

Croft has been there since 2006, and reminisced about how the loud V8s caught his eye back then.

However, having now enjoyed time in the hot seat, Croft enjoyed an all new outlook of Australia’s premier racing series.

“They look phenomenal,” he said of the new cars.

“Dick is an absolute legend — I walked in and said hello, and we had a chat like we were old buddies.

“Everyone is really stoked for the celebration that is the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

“It’s a spectacular form of racing, it’s a special series. And I’m walking around now like a kid in a candy store after that lap.”