Inflation in Formula 1

Formula 1 moves at such a pace that it’s not only the race cars that are constantly changing. Even team kit gets revised and updated during the year, but sometimes you have to ask yourself if there aren’t better ways of spending money. With cool conditions expected, but failing to turn up, at the Nurburgring, the BMW-Sauber crew were kitted out with new jackets.

Remembering that their new hospitality area looks like an up-market Airport Lounge maybe it should not be a surprise that these new garments, just like life jackets on planes, came equipped with a mouthpiece and tube to blow them up. Apparently, this is not to save the mechanics in case they fall in the harbour in Monaco for example, but to build a layer of hot air to keep them nice and warm. Formula One and Hot Air.Who needs a special jacket when everyone talks so much hot air in the paddock.

The BMW crew were not the only people getting hot here on Thursday. Christian Klien took part in a charity initiative that involved giving competition winners Taxi rides around the Nurburgring race track in road cars. Once our Austrian racer had done his share, he insisted on taking his race engineer Cyron Pilbeam around for a couple of laps, when inevitably he turned up the heat in terms of his driving style, setting out to scare the engineer to death. And the final touch to this little story is that to make sure the man who runs his race car felt as uncomfortable as possible, Christian had secretly turned up the heated passenger seat control to maximum.