Ammermuller takes the streets of Sao Paulo

The one thing you can be sure of if you sign up to drive for Red Bull Racing is that your job description will not stop and whizzing a grand prix car around a race track. Our new third driver, Michael Ammermuller found that out on Thursday morning in Brazil when his alarm clock went off at the ridiculously early hour of four o’clock in the morning. (Most F1 drivers don’t even know there are two 4 o’clocks on the same day!)

The reason for the wake-up call was that he would be waking up a large part of Sao Paulo by driving his Red Bull Racing F1 car through the city streets. The run took place at five in the morning to avoid causing traffic chaos, although in Sao Paulo you have to wonder how you tell the difference between traffic chaos and normal traffic. In fact, no onewho has ever been to Brazil ever asks that silly question is why there have been so many great grand prix drivers who have emerged from this country. Michael duly thrilled the few people who were awake at that time of day - down and outs, drug addicts and all-night petrol station attendants and as a little side show, he triggered off a stream of flash photographs from all the speed cameras on the route. No wonder as the German reached a top speed of 245 km/h. “I took it easy as the roads were so slippery in the rain,” he commented afterwards. “Anyway, I don’t think I’ll get any speeding tickets as the car does not have a number plate.” Tomorrow Michael tackles the far easier task of driving his car on a race track.