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good to see GCM!
The paddock area at Indy is much different than when we were in Monza and Faenza. In Europe, all the teams have their lavish hospitality suites...but Indy has a "street" behind the garages with offices for each team and accross from those each team has an "outdoor hospitality area" where one can sit back and have a cold one, eat, or just shoot the breeze. In the afternoon the teams set up driver interviews and you can see some pics of those.... speaking of journos.... that Louis Goodman ITV(sp?) is a pushy bitch......she came a little late to the Ferrari briefings and then tried to move some of the other journos out of their seats plus argue with the Ferrari Press people on the order of who asks the questions........and she looked absolutely ridiculous on Sunday in driver overalls.....
The atmosphere was very laid back...I brought some of my old pics and I was pleased on hos gracious Alonso, Fisi, Tonio, Speed, Weber, DC, and Massa were in signing them.....also had one of my all time favorites, Jacques Laffite sign 2 pics and we talked about the "good old days". Ger and I also ran into James Gilbride who was still on a high after Wurz Montreal podium.
This was a weekend for the young-ins...... Hamilton had not only a great weekend in the car, he was very personable and became a crowd favorite. I was also impressed by Vettel (saw him at Monza last year) and Sutil as well..... The Spyker is slow in a straight line and is like pudding in the twisty bits, but he was up there with people he had no business to be with..he is kicking "the Prince's" ass. Masa was best of the rest and had Kimi covered.... The Renault really looks "pretty" and so does the Honda paint scheme when seen up close.... though the teams would much rather see them much faster !!!
It was great to see Massimo, Irlaria, and the fabulous Fabiana again along with the rest of the Faenza family......
ciao
murph
Alas, there's a good chance this was probably the last year for me at Indy regardless of whether or not the contract is renewed...times have changed and so have the people I typically spend the week there with. If I go to a GP in 2008, it'll be to Montreal (which is closer to home anyway) or I'll throw some bucks into a big Champ Car weekend instead (read: Vegas or LBGPs).
[Edited on 24-6-07 by ThunderboltSeven]
[Edited on 24-6-07 by ThunderboltSeven]
What's with the 'Prince' title? Did he leave a bad taste in the Minardi guys' mouths?
I love the city of Montreal and from 1978 thru 1984 I went to the GP there..... but back then ( key the nostalgia for the "Good Old Days" )you could go just about anywhere around the circuit to watch the action and take pictures... THAT Montreal is past history. You get your 3-day ticket and you are stuck in that one stand and GA is a joke. I hate Indy as a F1 track.....Ger couldn't believe just how Mickey Mouse it was until he saw it in person...but Indy does allow me to walk around the entire track on Fri/Sat and take pictures from a lot of different views if I want to. I then can go to a track in Europe (Monza, Imola, and Spa) to relax and enjoy the scenery without worrying about shooting a ton of pics..... plus Indy is dirt cheap compared to Montreal. Next year the plan is Hungary (the gals want to see Budapest, Prague, and Vienna) with Monaco a possibility for a"quickie" trip......
A couple of other notes about the weekend....
"the Prince" was the nickname given to CA by a couple of people we knew at Minardi..... I always thought he was very good with us but..... When you are in the paddock and a driver is walking down the "avenue" the F1 photographers are all over the guy snapping his pic..... except for Ralf !!! he was "dead man walking" at Indy. No one..I mean NO ONE aknowledged his existence.... It was so cool to see Trulli show up in the paddock area on his Harley with a bud....and then when Ger and I were leaving the Speedway and driving down the road we see Jarno and about 4 buddies fly right by us on their bikes. Jarno has allot of "Old School F1 driver" in him....
ciao y'all
murph
Sutil is the real deal...... his weekend at Indy reminded me of Fred's in the Minardi back in 2001....both were fighting for a few laps with teams they had no business in being competitive with.
"Heidi's" Beard........ as an old "beard guy", I would have thought that it would have been fuller since he's had it for over 6 months at least....and the "stash" has allot of growing in to still do.............
And finally, listening in on some of the drivers Thursday Press Conferences was kinda interesting..... Fred seemed fine and Massa was really good with the press as well....I had left Kimi's after getting some pics but Ger hung around and related that one could hardly hear Kimi but out of the blue he raised his voice and said "Don't ask me stupid questions" and the Ferrari PR gal was instantly whispering in his ear....
And I almost forgot..... in the "bullpen session" for the 3 podium drivers after they finished doing their World Feed Interview with Peter Windsor, it is interesting to see the groupings of the various media ( German...Italian....Latin America....English...and the Fox US guys )..... anyway..... Fred was just finishing talking with the Brits and was being led away to talk to RTL and the Germans when someone in the Brit group said something to him, Fred turned back to the group and flipped off whomever said something to him, and then he turned and walked over to the RTL group. I have no idea what was said or who said it ( It was not the 2 ITV morons as James Allen and Louise the Bitch, both dressed in racing suites for God's sake, as they had left after they had gotten to speak to "Our Lewis" )but Alonso seemed in pretty good spirits during the podium ceremony and through out the interview process before this incident and after it as well....... I checked to see if Viges was down in that Limey Group but I didn't see him.......
ciao, y'all
Don't knock Nick's beard either, jerk. :(