From Down under....

We had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Australian GP last week and thanks to Stephens were able to attend turn one corporate seating 3 levels above the track. Awesome.
The race has been hashed and rehashed alreay on fchat so I wont bother with going too far into to it except to say the early race pace Kimi put down was really astounding in person. You could really "feel" the speed he was gaining over the field.
I remain a big Massa fan and am glad Ferrari has what I feel is a great team this year. A true gentleman.
Hamilton is the real deal, big future.
I still don't like Alonso but he is very talented.
Kubica is also a very strong talent rising quickly.

Mostly I wanted to relay a couple of stories I was told on the flight home. The gentleman I was seated next to is personally involved with several aspects of F1, knows the drivers, team principles etc. We talked a great deal and I learned a lot from him about inner workings etc.
He told me two stories that may or may not have been previously posted but I am sure will be new to at least some of you, as they were me.
He told me that when Hamilton was 11 years old, Mika Hakkinen and some other top level drivers visited a cart track in London where Hamilton drove his cart a lot. Apparently they went out in some form of timed competition and Hamilton was over a second faster than Hakkinen and the others. At age 11! Of course less weight in a cart is a big advantage but still pretty amazing.

He also told me that unbeknownest to Ferrari, Kimi had flown back to Finland, just the week before the race and had competed in a snowmobile race with 1200 other drivers. Which he won. I wonder if his post race interview went better than the GP one!

 

Come on, the dust has hardly settled. I have a rule, post no pics until the bags are fully unpacked!!

coming soon