Culture club

While his drivers indulged in all sorts of sporting pursuits, team boss Christian Horner went all high-brow on us. Most people who visit the sights in Sydney settle for a tour of the harbour and looking at the famous Opera House from the outside. Not so our dear leader. He actually went inside to see a performance of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly. Everyone in the team was suitably impressed until Christian let slip the fact that, “I didn’t realise it would all be in Italian!”

One of the hot stories in Melbourne this week was the disappearance of a good dozen members of the Sierra Leone athletic team who had been in the city for the Commonwealth Games, which ended last weekend. They were eventually found on a beach in Sydney. Melbourne really is sports mad and to add to the excitement of having the Grand Prix in town, the Aussie Rules Football season starts this weekend. There’s a match taking place at the famous MCG and even the nearest team to the race track, St. Kilda, have got a game on.

As for the drivers, they had to change their plans, apart from DC who flew back to Europe for testing, as they had been due to head up to Cairns, on the Barrier Reef. But the area was hit by a cyclone, with winds blowing so strong that Klien, our little Austrian lad had to have someone hanging onto his ankles to stop him blowing way. Instead, they headed for the more up-tempo delights of Surfers Paradise. Robert Doornbos heard there had been a shark attack in the area a week or so earlier and was therefore not keen to go out too far on his surfboard. However, spotting a possible opportunity for a race drive, he was particularly keen for Christian to paddle out into the deep water.

Hot story of the day: former Minardi boss Paul Stoddart is planning a Formula 1 comeback for 2008.

http://www.f1technical.net/news/2341