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The Melbourne
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Glitz, glamour, excitement unlimited but with the possibility that the show might not live up to all the hype. That is how I would describe a trip to the Academy Awards. Luckily, I'm not writing about the Oscars, but about F1 Rejects' trip to Melbourne for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, where the show certainly did live up to pre-season expectations, and where we had our own little run-ins with glitz, glamour, excitement (and Huub Rothengatter!).
We had been looking forward to this trip for some time, thanks to the prospect of a trip into the paddock again, the fact we would have a digital camera at our disposal to record all the action, and thanks to the interest that the new rules and regulations were generating. 2003 would be the year in which Formula One would be reborn, and we would be there to see the start of the contractions... |
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In previous years a trip from Sydney to Melbourne was a matter of an hour or so by air, or a day or so by car. But our finances being what they are (F1 Rejects doesn't make us any money, you know!) and airfares being what they are, we went for the old fashioned solution: rail. Still a 10-hour train trip, mind you; some of you Europeans might like to dwell on that and realise exactly how painfully large Australia is! But making the trip overnight means you can sleep away the boredom, or, at least, attempt to sleep.
We arrived 7am on Thursday morning, rearing to hit the track. But that was not to be, because Jamie had a quick pit-stop to make at Melbourne University Library to do some research (specifically to find a book, of which the only copy in the whole of Australia is in this library), so it wasn't until after lunch we could hop on the tram and head to Albert Park. However, it had been while Jamie had his head in the books that Enoch had his head in the race weekend program, and had made a startling discovery (insert Twilight Zone theme here). |
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Paul Busby on-track in the historic demonstration (left) as Enoch enjoys the Friday test session (right). |
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In disbelief, Enoch noticed that an entrant in the historic demonstration honouring Sir Jack Brabham taking place over the race weekend was none other than one Paul Busby, driving a Cooper T82. Could it be ...? Yes it could! Paul Busby was the man who had made possible our contact with and subsequent in-depth profile of the (formerly) most obscure Championship F1 entrant of all time, American Tom Jones. Furthermore, the T82 that would be elegantly puttering its way around the track would be the very car Jones attempted to qualify at the Canadian Grand Prix in 1967.
Barely had we arrived at the track, when the historic demonstration made its appearance and so did Busby and his T82, proudly displaying number 43 on its side. We headed for the 'historic garage' in time for the cars to return from circling the circuit and be repositioned back onto display. We had a quick talk to Paul, introducing ourselves, thanking him for his help of our UK Correspondent Stephen Slater in contacting Jones, and getting a good look at the magical machine itself. |
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Another trip to the historic area later in the weekend brought us face to face with Sir Jackie Stewart, who was trying out one of his old cars out for size! But meanwhile, the Australian V8 Supercars were on track: the world's best touring car championship was on display for the assembled international motor racing fraternity to drool over as usual the V8s didn't disappoint and over the four days (apart from the Sunday when the rain brought everything undone) there was much great racing, and (more to the point for most Aussies) much hysterical Ford vs Holden rivalry!
Time for us to head to the 'GP Expo', a large pavilion set up to allow the general public to freely gawk at some out-of-date F1 cars dressed up in 2003 liveries, browse the over-priced books, videos and other memorabilia, get a shave at the Gillette stall, or try the latest F1 video game. It was enough to make you itchy for some F1 action but this was Thursday, and there's no F1 action on Thursday, right? Wrong... the sound of a BMW engine emitting its earsplitting shriek from the other side of the lake could only mean that the 'Speed Comparison' was on for another year. |
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Paul Busby and Enoch with Tom Jones' F1 machine (left). Up close and personal with a Jaguar front wing (right). |
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This pitted touring car legend Allan Moffat in a BMW road car, against ex-F1 pilot and ex-V8 stalwart Larry Perkins in a V8 Supercar and ex-Minardi Marc Gene in a Williams BMW F1 car. Gene gave a minute or so head start to Moffat and half a minute or so to Perkins, with the idea being to have all three cross the start finish line at roughly the same time. Roughly was the operating word on days one to three, with the handicappers giving each car a slight advantage leading up to the finale on race day. But it was not to be, with Sunday's rain causing the demonstration's cancellation.
Time to head back to our hotel, then, and prepare for a pre-planned meeting with a friend of ours, one of BBC 5 Live Radio's commentators Peter Slater, who was to introduce us to a couple of the top F1 journos to have a bit of a yarn about some of the worst (and unluckiest) drivers in recent GP history, and about F1 generally. After talking to Peter for a while, we were thrilled to meet Motorsport News' Tony Dodgins and Simon Arron, and chat with them for about half an hour. Autosport's Mark Hughes arrived at the end, then all four disappeared, off to their next function, no doubt. Ahh, the busy life of the F1 journalist. |
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But we had more to look forward to... for a start we would be seeing a Friday test session for the first time. We took this novel opportunity to walk around most of the track during the session and watch the big boys of motorsport in action from all angles. The was much cheering for hometown hero Mark Webber, and he didn't disappoint, while Allan McNish was the first test driver to officially take part in a race weekend this year. Then followed open practice, and although by the end of both sessions all the spectators who'd been around since morning were now thoroughly deaf, they were loving it!
But it was all a warm-up for the piece de resistance of the new Max Mosley-branded Formula One: single lap qualifying. And from our vantage point in the Clark Grandstand on Turn 9, we have to say that while Bernie hates it, we love it! Why? It puts the pressure fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the drivers, giving everyone just one chance, not umpteen, to perform at their best. What was stunning, though, was Rubens Barrichello's scorching lap whilst still acting as track-sweeper. What wasn't stunning, though, was Ralf Schumacher screwing up big time. |
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Peter Slater, Mark Hughes, Simon Arron and Tony Dodgins say hello (left), while DC racks up the laps (right). |
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Still, Saturday would be the day that mattered as far as the grid was concerned, and Saturday would be the day that mattered as far as we were concerned, because Saturday afternoon would see our entry into that oh-so-restricted Mecca, the F1 Paddock. But first things first, Melbourne had much more to offer before the start of final qualifying. There were aerial displays from the RAAF Roulettes and demonstrations of the Royal Australian Navy's helicopters hoping to lure new recruits to join the Australian Defence Forces (or maybe they're the Australian Attack Forces now?).
Plus there was the always-enjoyable Mini Celebrity Race: oft derided because the term 'Mini' is usually more descriptive of the participants' celebrity status than the Mini Coopers they are driving. But this time thrown in among the no-name B-grade TV personalities was tennis champ Pat Rafter and world-renowned jazz trumpeter James Morrison. Not to mention the BMX riders and their crazed stunt jumping, the displays of vintage and GP rally cars, the Nations Cup GT and Porsche SuperCup support races, and some corporate karting challenges. Plenty to see while killing time waiting for qualifying... |
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Exciting as it was, with the added unknown of what fuel levels drivers were racing with, it was hard to read much into qualifying. The Saubers hadn't much juice on board, that was for sure, the McLarens would rather forget their laps, and Paul Stoddart's games put Minardi in a position to win big if it rained during the race (which it didn't!). But everything worked smoothly, and the grid had been suitably shaken up for the race!
During the weekend, the GP organisers had arranged for various public appearances and autograph sessions, by the support race drivers, Mark Webber and others. This day saw an appearance by Gustav Brunner of Toyota, Nav Sidhu of Jaguar and Ian Phillips of Jordan. Jeremy Shaw was doing the interviewing, and was open to questions from the public. An opportunity for F1 Rejects no doubt Enoch seized the microphone and reminded Herr Brunner of his days at Reject teams like Zakspeed and Rial, asking what it was like working for them compared to a big team now like Toyota. |
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Pat Rafter in the Mini Celebrity race (left), while Gustav Rrunner responds to F1 Rejects' probing questions (right). |
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The answer was a little surprising: instead of saying how much more money he has to play with, or saying how much better it is actually getting results on track, he said that it was much better and more enjoyable with the smaller teams, because the expectations weren't as high as they are with a large team! Fair enough if you've got Totoya management breathiung down your neck, but considering your move from minnows Minardi to multinationals Toyota, obviously the pay packet compensates, eh, Gustav?
It was now late Saturday afternoon, and it was time for what we had been waiting for all weekend: entry to the Holy Grail of the F1 nobody, The Paddock. We met up with Peter Slater again, who handed us our freshly-negotiated passes and we were away. Most people were doing post-qualifying interviews with all the various media, so there were plenty of people to look for. No sooner were we in than we saw David Richards getting friendly with Eddie Jordan, plus Ralph Firman and Antonio Pizzonia sitting outside their respective garages having a coffee and a chat. |
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We worked our way down the field, until we saw the man everyone in Melbourne wanted a piece of, Mark Webber, doing an interview with an Australian radio station. He was soon finished, and Peter introduced us, and Mark was kind enough to let us have a photo taken, which was a highlight of the weekend for us! A bit more wandering and we spotted Jenson Button and Jacques Villeneueve (not on speaking terms by this stage, apparently!) plus we got a photo taken with Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta.
Right at the end of the pitlane, of course, is our sentimental favourite team, Minardi, all the more because it is now Australian-owned. And the man himself, Paul Stoddart was outside. Again, Peter introduced us as friends of F1 Rejects' UK Correspondant Stephen Slater, whom Stoddart has met. We had a quick chat, and Paul invited us into the Minardi garages as he put it "after all, we're the only team with cars in our garage!". Through we went, and as we squeezed through on our way to the pitlane we brushed past none other than F1 Reject Huub Rothengatter, who is Jos Verstappen's manager. It would not be our last brush with Huub! |
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David Richards and Eddie Jordan get chummy (left), while Mark Webber meets F1 Rejects (right). |
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Minardi were practicing their pitstops at this time, and had one car out in their pit bay, and Stoddart was nice enough to let us take some pictures. We looked down the pitlane as the cars of the other teams got rolled past the Minardi pit toward scrutineering, with a marshal close by each car making sure there was no monkey business by the mechanics! Before saying goodbye, Paul posed for a pic with us, and it wasn't until we looked at the picture later that we discovered none other than Huub himself was looking on somewhat bemused in the background (maybe he's seen our profile of him!).
We left the Minardi pits and had another wander up the paddock again, spotting Louise Goodman filing a report back for ITV, Rubens Barrichello and Ross Brawn speaking into tapes, Olivier Panis and Juan Pablo Montoya giving interviews, plus we almost bumped into Huub Rothengatter again, who had seemingly followed us for some reason! Meanwhile Patrick Head was giving a virtual press conference, so many scribes were crowding him for the latest soundbyte. We were killing some time now before our next thrill that had been lined up by Peter: an interview with an ex-F1 driver. |
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Soaking up the atmosphere, we ambled back down to Minardi's end again, where our subject, now an expert commentator, was completing a spot for Irish television. But, yea, behold there was Huub again, eyeing us suspiciously from a nearby table. Feeling somewhat stalked, we waited until our interviewee was finished, which was not long. He came across and we shook hands with the one and only David Kennedy, the man with the most DNQs without ever qualifying in F1 history (but we didn't mention that at the time!).
As we bid adieu to the Paddock, and handed back our passes, we explained what our site was about and found a spot outside to accost him with our overly-researched questions. David was very open, very interesting, very informative and above all very funny. We will be completing an in-depth profile of him very soon, and the interview we conducted with him will be posted in all its glory then. As we thanked both David and Peter profusely, and left what was, for us, F1 heaven, we came to the conclusion that whatever happened on Sunday, it would be something of an anti-climax! |
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In the Minardi pit with Stoddy and, behind, Huub Rothengatter (left). Interviewing Dave Kennedy (right). |
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What we weren't expecting was for the heavens to open and make the F1 race one of the most exciting (if confusing) in recent memory. Unfortunately the unwanted precipitation also had the effect of making Sunday's support races largely dominated by the sight of the Safety Car. As we sat getting thoroughly drenched in our open-air grandstand seats, we started to wonder if Minardi with a full-wet set-up were going to win the race! But it soon dried up and by the time the F1 cars did a few pre-race exploratory laps, it was clear to us (if not the teams) the best tyre choice would be dries.
And so it proved. Regardless of how staunch a Ferrari fan anyone might be (and we're pretty big Ferrari fans), I think everyone was somewhat satisfied when we saw a Ferrari-less podium evolve. We had a walk around the track at the completion of the race, examining the crash sites and tyre marks before leaving Albert Park for what might be the last time in a while. After the weekend we'd had, we were more than satisfied with our 2003 Australia GP experience. |
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But the Melbourne experience wasn't quite over yet. We made it to the Melbourne International Motorshow that evening, having a look at some of the exhibits outside (including some fascinating auction items) and popped into the Crown casino complex for a spot of dinner and to generally while away the evening. Some daring night-time artistic photography sessions followed, as did another 10-hour train trip back to Sydney during Monday, but as for F1 Rejects' 2003 Melbourne trip, that was all she wrote.
Thanks again to Peter and Stephen Slater, David Kennedy, Paul Stoddart, and all that made our undeserved indulgence possible... and for those of you keeping score at home, when in Melbourne, F1 Rejects chooses to stay at the Downtowner on Lygon! |
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The Safety Car played a major role in Sunday's race (left). The Yarra River by night (right). |
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