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Formula One food with Honda at Hockenheim

The foodies among you have not had much to savour on this blog recently. With that in mind I took my trusty camera along to the Honda motorhome on Sunday for lunch just before the Grand Prix. Having to fulfil these sorts of appointments is part of the tough life we Formula One correspondents have to cope with.

In truth Honda is among the most hospitable teams in the paddock and their food is among the very best, if not the best(the Honda chefs certainly put Toyota, Ferrari and McLaren in the shade I would argue). What they need now is a car to match their culinary competitiveness.

Pictured is the red snapper(first class), the feta cheese, the apple and blackberry crumble(which got the thumbs up from Garside) and the brandy snap(which was pole position good). Time to go for that run...    

Mid-season gap and an imagined post about Ferrari

While Mosley and the News of the World thrash out the rights and wrongs of the privacy issue, I am taking a few days off, mid-season as it were. I will be back on Monday as we begin the build-up to Hockers(not my favourite place on the schedule, it has to be said).

I was going to do something on Ferrari - are they and their drivers becoming error prone to a point where it should be ringing alarm bells? Luca di M is obviously getting a little irritated. A big challenge for the new regime led by Stefano Domenicali one imagines. How many errors have there been by the drivers, how many by the pitwall? In the absence of my contribution, perhaps you guys can sort this one out. All your comments will be posted as normal while I am elsewhere.

This is another marathon season with more going on away from the track than on it and I feel knackered. I can hardly believe we still have nine races to go. I know Lewis is only 23 and super-fit, but I seriously wonder how he can keep going at the pace he is. I hope he gets the chance just to do nothin' for few days - kick around the house, talk to the dog, watch the telly, get on the PlayStation, get bored, stare into space, eat a few "wrong" things and listen to some music. He could be world champion if he does...

Here are a few relatively dreadful pics from the crap photographer, trying to keep his camera dry at Silverstone on race morning. Click on images to enlarge if you really feel you have to...(the Williams car's not bad though)...

The Ponytail: That Menu In Full

I know some of you are transfixed by Formula One food and, in an attempt to satisfy your curiosity, here is the full menu from the Toyota dinner for the British F1 hacks in downtown Montreal on Thursday night. This is one of the culinary highlights of the year(even if we sit down at what is midnight UK time). For the record I had the filet mignon which was outstanding. The head waiter at La Queue de Cheval still "performs" the menu when you arrive which seemed almost exactly as irritating this year as last. (Click it to enlarge)

 

Vijay Mallya brings back the glamour and the glitter

You can't fault Vijay Mallya's commitment to Formula One. The Indian billionaire has come into the sport he loves with serious intent and he is revelling in the opportunity he has created for himself to play the game in motor racing's toughest arena.

Having been out to Bombay to meet him and got a sense of how he operates - I was at the team launch in early February - I have a strong feeling that he will not be content to see Force India remain as a backmarker for long and Mallya will gradually put the people and funding in place to enable the team to move up the grid. You only have to look at his business interests - especially his airline Kingfisher - to see how ambitious he is.

Mallya strikes me as a classic Formula One team owner - fabulously wealthy with a huge appetite for life and a real passion for motor racing. Despite his extensive business commitments, he hasn't missed a minute of this season and last night he hosted an enormous party on his superyacht, the Indian Empress. The boat was moored out on the Bosphorus in a setting which gave a great view of Istanbul at night(which is worth seeing, if you've never been here, with the many mosques and bridges spectacularly lit along the shore). We accessed the yacht via the Kempinski Palace hotel which is quite a setting itself, and then went aboard via ludicrously large launches which were on the move, to and fro, all night. It was no shoes on deck but we were offered extra red socks and a fleece to help us keep warm.

The Empress is absolutely vast and was previously owned by the Saudi Royal family, so that gives you some idea. Multiple decks, acres of immaculate teak and enough space for more than a thousand people to enjoy without feeling cramped. Who(apart from Vijay) knows how much the party cost - £50,000 maybe, £100,000 - probably even more than that. Just as in Bombay where I last went aboard, the music was ridiculously loud and so it was a bit of a shouting match. There were people there from all walks of Formula One plus plenty of the local party set. There were at least two sessions of fireworks from barges moored nearby and, despite the evening chill(which felt more like England than Turkey), Mallya created a fun atmosphere. I arrived at nine and left before eleven by which time the food was just beginning to appear so it looked as if this was going to be a long evening.

It was not all pleasure for Vijay. When I arrived a fairly comprehensive group of team principals(Red Bull, BMW, Ferrari, Renault to name a few) plus Bernie were leaving after what appeared to have been a mini Formula One summit on board in one of the many drawing rooms which were out of bounds to us ordinary mortals. Interesting that this gathering was held on Vijay's territory. No doubt we will find out in the coming days what was discussed...

Pic of Indian Empress by Anirban Bonnei via flickr

Which Formula One driver would you like to share a pint with?

Michael Bowen suggested this would make an interesting subject(in a comment on the post "The power of Kimi") and I agree. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top. To make it worthwhile, let's have at least one reason behind your choice. There are two categories - current Formula One drivers, and drivers from the past. (You never know we may even get some statistical analysis from IDR at the end if enough of you have a go). Of course in Europe, America or South America, it is unlikely to be a pint...

To get the ball rolling here are my choices:

Current drivers
My choice would be Kimi. When I met him in Barcelona during pre-season testing, I was amazed by his general easy-going warmth and humour. The guy may not be the biggest intellectual on the grid but you can tell he would be a laugh and a half to have a drink with(and I would imagine one pint would certainly not be enough).

Driver from the past
There will only ever be one James Hunt. My wife adored him so did millions of Britons. A vulnerable individual in many ways from what I can tell but with a wild and rebellious streak. A night in the pub with him would certainly have been character-forming. (Interesting that Kimi chose to call himself "James Hunt" when entering that skiddoo race in the pre-season last year).

Pic of James Hunt by Michael P. Whelan via flickr

That lunch menu in full

For those of you(such as my sister) who are interested in Formula One food(following on from my breakfast with JYS in Melbourne), here is what the good people at Honda laid on for our lunch at Sepang on Friday. Food at Honda is always among the best in the paddock and their waiting staff are among the friendliest, even if their uniform this season is a shocker.  I had the prawns(delicious and served piping hot), the red snapper and the lemon tart which was absolutely top dollar; tart, lemony and not too big. Still, a trip to the gym cannot be far away. (Click on images to enlarge).

With Jackie for breakfast

As some of you may remember I had the chance to have breakfast with Sir Jackie on race morning in Melbourne in the Williams motorhome and the great man was on top form. Jackie is one of Lewis's biggest fans and his admiration for the young British driver knows no bounds. We talked about many issues some of which I am saving for later, but here is a flavour of his views.

On McLaren and the performance by the team in getting two cars on the front two rows of the grid:
"I didn't expect it. I thought that because of all the hassle over the winter, McLaren would have been put off their stroke. The interruptions, the lawyers, the investigations, the raids, the hundred million fine. Think of all the management teams in each department - they had to answer questions and think about what they had to say, and talk to lawyers...I would have expected them to have their eye taken off the ball just enough because when you have disruption you usually lose performance. I expected that. If anybody could overcome that I suppose McLaren could with their infrastructure. But even with that infrastructure I can't imagine how many hours Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh and the financial director and heads of each department have been taking time out from what their day job is. It's nothing to do with Lewis, I don't think it affected him as a driver..."

On Lewis in qualifying:
"I think, first of all, he drives very well. The car must be very good because there is very little hand movement and he doesn't over-drive the car. So it's a combination of having a very good chassis to be able to do that. Both Ferrari drivers were using the steering wheel more. Everybody went off the road because of the new techniques and the loss of traction control when the throttle is off...."

Melbourne: a tough weekend, well sort of...

I know there are quite a few of you who like reading about what we hacks get up to during a Formula One weekend, so with that in mind, I thought I would give you a flavour of how Melbourne is shaping up. The first thing on the agenda is a shit of a flight, economy class, on Emirates from Heathrow on Monday evening. The plane goes via the giant shopping centre in the desert that is Dubai airport, where I normally spend a few hours staring in a stupefied trance at people making shopping decisions in the middle of their night.

Last year Kevin Garside(the Daily Telegraph's man in the paddock) and I flew on the Sunday and got diverted to Kuwait because of a plane malfunction at Dubai. That turned out to be a total nightmare and we ended travelling for 38 hours by the time we touched down in OZ. Anyway, let's hope that doesn't happen again.

Once we get to Melbourne the first thing to do is get our season-long accreditation. This is the red pass we have to wear round our necks at all times and is issued by the FIA who require an amazingly exhaustive application process. Even The Times correspondent is supposed to send a recent copy of the newspaper in for perusal in November so the FIA can check whether it is a responsible organ(some of you think it isn't, I'm sure).

Last time I got my accreditation and then spent the rest of the day wondering around in another exhausted trance. The track stuff starts on Thursday when we turn up at Albert Park where they are normally putting the finishing touches to the circuit. Last year I got a drive round with Jason Swales, the BBC Radio Five Live F1 producer. (It was in a minibus, but we got a bit of an idea!) In fact at that time I was doing a lot of "work" on PlayStation in preparation for each race. This year, that's gone out the window because our console at home is broken.

Melbourne being the first race of the season, there are some set-piece PR events that you tend to go to just to get your bearings and get a feel for who looks confident, nervous, or whatever. One of the main ones is a traditional pre-season lunch for the press hosted by McLaren at a (no doubt) vastly expensive restaurant on the Melbourne sea-front. Last year this was where Lewis and his brand new friend Fernando did their James Bond impressions, walking out of the surf after getting to the place on a rib. Won't be quite the same this time I guess.

There are team lunches, dinners and press conferences every day leading up to qualifying. For example Toro Rosso have got a lunch on the Wednesday(I don't think I'll be in a sensible condition for that one), there is a Vodafone dinner on the Thursday(probably drag myself to that) and also on Thursday(it's going to be busy) there is a big Shell-sponsored press conference where Felipe and the Kimster will appear. Everything will be in red and it will be very Italian/formal at a location in what the Aussies call the CBD.

Of course there is practice on Friday - I can't wait for that(seriously) - and I'm sure there is something on that night. Then it all kicks off for real with Saturday practice and then qualifying. One thing you can be sure of, I will be on the grid on Sunday drinking in the atmosphere and checking out the vibes with Lewis, Kimi, Felipe and yes, Heikki and, not forgetting of course, Fernando.

In fact race day is going to be a great one for me because at 9.00am I have the honour of having breakfast with Sir Jackie in the Williams motorhome. It's not that often that you get the chance to have breakfast with a sporting legend and his views are always perceptive and informed. (Clearly I'm not in the Max Mosley camp when it comes to JYS, a man whose heart is most definitely in the right place.)

Well, that's about it. It may sound like non-stop fun, but there is work to do and the flying tends to drag it all down for a few days. I will be in Melbourne for two more days after the race, before I fly to sunny Malaysia for episode two.

Pic of Melbourne race start by meu336 via flickr   

   

Bovine sport

For those of you who are waiting patiently for the new season to begin(and this blog), and who are fed up with the debate on racism, I am grateful to Douglas for this update on the cows(who, of course we featured prominently last season, especially at Brazil). It seems our bovine friends are not content merely grazing the infield at Interlargos..