Red Bullseye European GP
There was a lot of collective moaning from the F1 workers when the prospect of an early May weekend in the Eifel mountains first reared its head, with the prophets of doom predicting all sorts of misery and meteorological mayhem. But they had to eat their words, as the weather was hot and sunny for the entire race weekend, a good crowd turned out to see their local hero Michael Schumacher take his second win of the season and generally the whole event was a great success.
A lot of the men in the F1 paddock are walking around holding their stomachs in, trimming their nasal hair, washing more often and generally trying to make a good impression. Why? Because the ladies are planning their own version of Red Bull’s Formula Unas, called the Formula Unos. Yes, the girls are getting their own back, when they nominate their top ten bits of F1 beefcake in time for a get-together in Monaco. Sonia Irvine, who runs the Amber Lounge nightclub over the Monaco GP weekend has donated a night at the club to all the women who work in the sport. In the past the female F1 contingent used to be able to meet at the Ferrari motorhome in the paddock, so few of them worked in the sport. The numbers have definitely grown over the years and several hundred are expected to turn up in Monaco in two races time.
Sonia Irvine is sister to Former grand prix driver Eddie Irvine and a story was doing the rounds in the Nurburgring that someone had stolen his car – not just any car, but a quarter of a million dollars worth of Rolls Royce Phantom, from outside one of his properties in the USA.
The expression “making a pig’s ear of something” took on a new meaning at the ‘Ring. Three times world champion Niki Lauda has a standard joke every time the series rocks up at the ‘Ring: “maybe I find my ear this time,” is his favourite phrase. Lauda almost lost his life and suffered awful burns after crashing during the German GP on the old circuit on 1st August 1976. To mark the thirtieth anniversary this year, Niki, with son Mathias, Bernie Ecclestone and Arturo Merzario, one of the drivers who helped pull Lauda from his burning car headed out to “Kilometre 10.6”, the Bergwerk corner where the accident happened. Also present was Karl Heinz Zimmermann, one of the paddock’s more eccentric caterers, best known for firing a real cannon from the roof of his motorhome when the drivers he liked best won races. This time Zimmermann produced a pair of pigs ears which he discretely left at the side of the road for Lauda to “find.” Well, it beats talking about wing angles or tyre compounds!
