A sum up of my British Grand Prix Experiences 2009

It’s the Monday after the British Grand Prix and after camping for 4 days, it’s nice  to be clean once again and having had a wicked nights sleep – everything is back to normal.

But what did I make of the weekend? Well firstly it seems a British Grand Prix at Silverstone can’t pass without more news being generated from off the track stuff than the racing itself.

FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) WILL form a break away series for 2010. That was the first bit of lovely news we woke up to Friday morning even before a single wheel had been turned on the circuit. This was ahead of the deadline Friday night for the FOTA teams to drop their conditions and then the FIA to announce who would be racing in 2010.

That deadline passed so the FIAs response on Saturday was going to be dramatically important for obvious reasons.

Talking of Saturday, guess how I was woken up!

Lee Mckenzie

“Goodbye!” said in a lovely Scottish accent outside my tent.

I was 99% sure of who it was and it nudged my mate saying “I dunno if it was just my dream but I swear I just heard BBCs’ Lee Mckenzie saying good bye to some one outside”. He thought otherwise but I got up, got dressed and there she was standing outside my tent interviewing the happy campers of F1.

I was just desperate for some news on the FIAs response over the teams failure to drop their 2010 conditions and upon asking her she gave me all the latest info which was the FIA have extended their deadline and are open to talks. Awesome news! And thanks to Lee Mckenzie for the latest because my dam 3G wasn’t playing ball on my phone all weekend that’s for sure.

Bernie Backtracks over Silverstone

Then Bernie Ecclestone says he’s trying to come up with a deal to give both Silverstone and Donington a Grand Prix contract. Where the hell has that come from?! He’s said no, no, no to a British Grand Prix at Silverstone in the future for the last year or so and now the sudden u-turn. From my personal sources, Donington is in real trouble with their development and I think that is now on Bernie’s mind. We need a British Grand Prix and Silverstone really is in a position now to build the pits needed to keep them in check with Formula One standards.

Anyway, rants over about the issues off the track.

The race itself was pretty dull from a spectator’s point of view I have to say. We were in the back row of the Abbey grandstand and there was no action at all for the duration of the race. I personally think the only fans who would have had their moneys worth were those at Vale and Club after seeing Heikki Kovalainen be smashed into by Sebastian Bourdias and Lewis Hamilton drop a wheel and 360ing his McLaren.

Sebastian Vettel Keeps Championship Alive

I’m glad Sebastian Vettel won, even at the British Grand Prix. Yes, it would have been a great atmosphere if Button had done it but it didn’t look great after qualifying did it.

The championship fight is now on. Vettel has 2 victories for Red Bull this season but is only just ahead of Mark Webber who is doing a superb job also. He must be only races from his break through victory. I truly believe Brawn GP have to be looking over their shoulder now at the Red Bull challenge.

To finish this little number off – I have to mention to incredible distress I felt during qualifying with my bowel. I had a can of beer during Q1 and by the end of Q2 I thought I was going to need to the toilet soon. As soon as Q3 started I took a turn for the worst and have never been so desperate for a pee in my whole life. I just wished the cars would all spin off and the red flag would be thrown. Once every car had finished their last flying laps (which was early I may add!) I started to run to the toilet which almost made me collapse it was so painful.

An important lesson learnt.