(from autosport) The French Grand Prix is traditionally one of the quieter paddocks to manage a weekly news cycle during the Formula One calendar, or so autosport.com's F1 editor Jonathan Noble told me. And after the chaos of Montreal, with its gravel stage hairpins, traffic-light pile-ups and maiden winners aplenty, perhaps it would have been a welcome relief for him. If he'd turned up, that is. Instead, Jon was indisposed, meaning that as autosport.com editor, I was called up from the bench to take on France! Imagine my surprise then, when I arrived in the paddock to rumours of a drivers' strike! Walking through the gates of the circuit on Thursday morning, I half expected Fernando Alonso and co. to have formed a picket line waving 'fair pay or no play' banners. Given that the rumours related to a potential strike at the British Grand Prix over the escalating costs of superlicences, it was no surprise to see the Fleet Street platoon marching from GPDA director to GPDA director earnestly seeking the truth behind the noise. The saga quietened down after the drivers' meeting on Friday, despite Jarno Trulli emerging in comic pose, arms aloft, shouting "strike, strike!" Drivers' spokesman Pedro de la Rosa confirmed that no such plans were ever truly in the offing. Instead a quiet line of communication with the FIA would remain open to resolve the matter. Speaking of Fleet Street, Lewis Hamilton put the red lights on a story that appeared in the British national press in the run-up to Magny-Cours, the report suggesting that he had forked out more than £200,000 for a number plate marked LEW 1S. The McLaren driver seemed less than impressed that anyone would even consider him the type to personalise his luxury Mercedes-Benz road car. "That sounds about the worst number plate I've ever heard of," he snapped in the Thursday press conference. "I'm not stupid enough to spend a couple of hundred grand on a bloody number plate. "I wouldn't spend a hundred pounds on number plate. A number plate's a number plate. It doesn't mean nothing to me." It was a star spangled conference, with the top four drivers in the championship, including Robert Kubica, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen all present. But the spotlight was clearly on Lewis, thanks to his Montreal penalty and the encroaching British Grand Prix. It wasn't his fault that so many questions thus came his way, but such was the depth of the inquisition that Massa, in mock frustration, pushed his microphone away and sat back in his chair, to the amusement of Raikkonen and Kubica. Travelling to Magny-Cours proved an expensive proposition for the Autosport editorial team. The five-hour trip to Nevers from Teddington was always going to rack up the expenses with the ever-rising cost of diesel. But having forked out 45 Euros when the unhelpfully ignorant peage attendant failed to believe that the previous station was not issuing tickets, we should have expected the 90 Euro fine we got for speeding, when within the 30 minutes of the circuit. The rest of Haymarket's F1 press core wasn't at all surprised, and they proceeded to explain to us about the 30-mile radar cordon the French police set-up every year for the event. So if you are planning a trip next year, you have been warned. But if our voyages through France were stressful, they were nothing compared to those of Autosport columnist Tony Dodgins's laptop. Tony's misadventures regularly appear in Paddock Life, but this is almost certainly a first. Having already left the circuit on Friday night, he received a phone call from F1 Racing's Peter Windsor enquiring if had his laptop bag. The answer of course was a startled no, followed by stark panic. "No problem," said Peter, as held his phone in one hand and dug Tony's laptop out of the press car park gravel in the other. It transpired that Tony had left his bag on the floor as he opened the boot of his car. And while waiting for his colleagues to put away their gear, he not only forgot his bag, complete with computer, digital camera, dictaphone and notepad, he reversed over it too. Amazingly, all his kit survived intact. Clearly this is one remarkable bag, but when pressed on where one could be acquired, he simply replied: "It's a cheap knock-off from China! No problem." One of the highlights of the weekend was the accommodation. A key criticism of Magny-Cours has always been the lack of anything resembling life in the area surrounding the circuit. In fact one commentator described it as "so quiet you can hear your fingernails grow." Well noisy it certainly ain't, but it's not short of beauty spots. We stayed in the stunning Chateau de Prye, a 17th century chateau in La Fermete, a mere 20km from the circuit. So impressive was it, that McLaren also chose the venue to launch 'McLaren - The Cars 1964-2008', a hardback book featuring every car the company has ever built, conceived by William Taylor with consultation from the team's principal, Ron Dennis. Dennis and Mercedes Motorsport boss Norbert Haug were both present for the event and stayed on through the buffet to regale journalists with tales of some of the cars that appear in the exclusive, highly detailed tome - which by the way can be purchased by visiting www.mclarenshop.com and www.coteriepress.com. Expect reviews of the book in autosport.com's Journal and Autosport magazine in the coming weeks. A book of condolence was on display inside the entrance to Toyota's hospitality, so that the Formula One paddock could pay its respects to Ove Andersson, the team's spiritual creator, who died last week. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone made signing it his first priority when he arrived in the paddock on Saturday, and it spoke volumes that by the time he did the book was already half full with thoughts and anecdotes for such a hugely admired individual. All the team members wore black armbands over the weekend, and even the car bore a black ribbon across its nosecone. It was fitting then that Jarno Trulli should score Toyota's best result of the season, finishing third in the race. "The result is important for the team, for the fact that we wanted to pay tribute to Ove Andersson who did great things for Toyota Motorsport in general," said Trulli. "It's a shame that we lost him right now, he couldn't see us, cheering us up on the podium."
