It is a rare occasion that one gets to measure one's driving skills against a Formula One driver, and rarer still that the opportunity presents itself to do so against a future Ferrari driver.
But such a rarity was available last weekend at the Nürburgring at the Superfund Kart Grand Prix. An event organised by the Minardi sponsor for F1 teams, drivers and us hapless hacks, the Grand Prix featured 70 teams of three or four drivers battling it out around the venerable Nurburgring's kart centre. Naturally, the Irish, made up of the The Irish Times, RTÉ and the Irish Independent, felt duty bound to participate.
Indeed, in the last such event in Barcelona, the Irish were narrowly pipped for the top step of the podium by the Colombians of Radio Caracol, a defeat immediately protested on the ground that we felt the Colombians had not been adequately drug tested.
This time out it was disaster, however, as teams made up of mechanics resulted in wholesale cheating as they tweaked their karts so that they ran some five seconds a lap quicker than anybody else.
Regardless of the cheating, there were some interesting moments, not the least of which was the chance to run on the same track as one Felipe Massa, who has been at the centre of the first salvo of F1 "silly season" rumours to emerge this summer.
According to those rumours, not only was our competitor a current Ferrari tester, but also a future Ferrari driver, with the speculation centring on just when the young Brazilian will take up that role.
A few weeks ago, when the principals at Ferrari - Michael Schumacher, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, Paolo Martinelli et al - signed with the team until 2006, the name of Rubens Barrichello was conspicuous in its absence.
Rubens though has a contract until the end of 2004, so it appeared he was safe at least until then. But now the rumour suggests that that contract may not run its full course and that Massa may be installed in the Ferrari for next season, with Barrichello being farmed out to Sauber, who have a long-standing relationship with the Scuderia stemming from its use of year-old Ferrari engines.
Personally, I feel that Barrichello will get his final season at Ferrari before the team begins its preparation for life after Schumacher (Massa being tipped as his eventual replacement in 2007) and that it will be Massa who returns to Sauber, despite Peter Sauber's less than enthusiastic response to the Brazilian's efforts in 2002.
But, shave a million or so off the cost of engines and Sauber is likely to look a great deal more fondly on the previously wayward Massa. However, if there is any movement between Sauber and Ferrari, it seems likely that Nick Heidfeld will be the driver making way.
Heidfeld comes to the end of his Sauber contract this year and could be on the hunt for a new home.
The German remains, however, under contract to Mercedes for whom he was a test driver in 1999, the year he also won the European F3000 title for McLaren's junior team, sponsored by West. Adding two and two together and making a number of your choosing, paddock conspiracy theorists have thus linked Heidfeld with a move to Jordan, who are increasingly likely to be powered by Mercedes customer engines next year.
So where does that leave Jordan's drivers? It would seem that Ralph Firman, despite some fine drives and an increasing confidence in the one-lap qualifying, which was hampering his public image, would have to moveover.
So the driver merry-go-round begins to crank up, and by the end of the summer some driver will have held the seat, some will have changed and some will have fallen off.
And until otherwise told, I'll be telling everybody that I raced against the man being tipped to replace Michael Schumacher. If anyone asks if I beat him, I'll just use that old Formula One excuse - his team's resources were so much greater than ours, they have the best technical people and the best kart and that we couldn't possibly compete at that level. . . yet.