Fifth Gear presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson is a self-confessed adrenalin junkie and reckons she should be flying a Jaguar . . . if only she wasn't too old.

Now she turns her attentions to her TV show Be A Grand Prix Driver.

If I could choose another career, I'd love to be a jet fighter pilot. I came across my alternative dream job when I was lucky enough to have a passenger ride in a Jaguar jet fighter plane a few years ago.

It blew my mind. The G-forces and multi-dimensional abilities of the plane made a big impact on me.

It is still, by far, the best work-related experience I've ever had. And I've been lucky enough to do some great things - for example, drive a Formula One car, and be driven by ex-World Rally Champion Richard Burns in his Subaru Works car during a suspension test.

But that Jaguar plane was almost out-of-this-world. I asked the pilot what I needed to do to become a jet fighter pilot.

"You must be under 25," he started, but I had to cut him off then and there because I was already 25 years old. A cruel and quick end to what I'm sure would have been a super career! But there you go.

However, I have been fortunate enough lately to witness 1,000 hopefuls of all ages and backgrounds trying their luck at winning a competition to race a Formula One car (televised on five, called Be A Grand Prix Driver on Mondays, 8.30pm).

All sorts of people with various careers applied - train drivers, mechanics, builders, JCB drivers, athletes, etc.

The prize was to race a 1985 Tyrell ex-F1 car at Monza in Italy (in a race with cars of similar age and engine capacity), and the name of the game was to find the best person to race it.

So, various heats were organised to whittle the 1,000-strong field down to this one lucky and talented future racer.

The rounds consisted of fitness tests, saloon car instruction at racing circuits, single seater driving, media experience and being able to interact with racing teams.

There were tears and triumphs for many people, and we have yet to find a winner, but we are currently down to the last two competitors.

It is a sort of Pop Stars for wannabe racing drivers but this is different, because the winner must have talent.

It's all well and good if the victor is 'easy on the eye' and can just about string a sentence together, but it won't mean diddly-squat when they're racing at 150mph with a load of other highly powerful cars battling for the same piece of tarmac.

And that's been the wonderful thing for me to witness the real emergence of a talented driver who would otherwise be plodding along with their life unaware of their gift.

We shall know the winner at the end of May, and I hope they can make some sort of success within the racing world.

But in the search for the winner, I came across some pretty grand reasons why plenty of others 'should' be in that F1 car.

At one of the earliest fitness rounds, many people came up to me and said: "I'd give everything I've got to be a Grand Prix Driver."

Which is good, and it means that they're willing to go broke for their dream.

But when I pushed them further on the subject, they were unwilling to sell their Porsche, or they weren't prepared to downsize on their house, or re-mortgage it, to finance their first couple of steps on the ladder to a possible F1 career.

'No pain, no gain' it's a saying which has embedded itself into our language for a good reason. It's true. And it was certainly true when I found out I was too old to start the career of my dreams. And I even missed out on the 'gain' part.