PRE RACE AUSTRALIA GP Fun Facts - No Spoiler, Just Humor

(from autosport)


*Amid all the hoo-haa over the future of the Australian Grand Prix, there is little doubt for most of the Formula One fraternity that Melbourne is the absolute perfect place to start the season.

It may be a bit of a trek to the other side of the world, but when the pre-season media events are talking places on the beach in glorious sunshine, rather than a cold transporter at Silverstone, you can see why everyone loves it so much.

This year, it was the turn of McLaren title sponsor Vodafone to kick start proceedings with an appearance for Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen at Williamstown Beach, a little way out from downtown Melbourne.

On a pretty blustery day, the McLaren duo were put up against local sporting stars Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup from V8 Supercars, and Luke Power and Adam Simpson from the Australian Football League, in a beach kayak race.

Putting that many sporting heroes together in one place was always like to turn the fun event into something serious - so it was no surprise to see Kovalainen grab his opportunity to put one over his new teammate as he tore off into the distance away from the start line.

However, just as luck deserted him on Sunday afternoon in the race with bad timing on the safety car and then accidentally hitting his pitlane speed limiter, so Kovalainen had misfortune this time out too.

He took the wrong route at the turnaround point, going outside a big marker buoy rather than inside it. Hamilton had the good luck to be inside his rivals so was turned around with them, as they made a dash back to the beach.

Poor Kovalainen's extra distance moved him from first to last, but he took the defeat in good spirits – even if he politely declined the chance to stand on the third step of the podium as a consolation prize.

* Green trousers. They were the buzzwords on the first day back at school, as Formula One finally descended into Albert Park to catch a glimpse of the new team uniforms for the first time.

While there weren't many changes in kit for a lot of outfits, it was Honda Racing's radically different look that caused a few raised eyebrows when the personnel started wandering into the paddock.

With Honda Racing's 'Earth Dreams' campaign in full swing, (the team donated £50,000 to the Lighthouse Foundation charity to help homeless people ahead of the event) it was obvious their uniforms would have an environmental theme too.

But it was the bright shade of lime green that meant Honda's staff were probably the only members of the paddock visible from space!

There was further bad news for Rubens Barrichello too, when he found that a pair of Nike trainers he had bought in Melbourne were just a tad too popular.

Meeting him at the Stokehouse restaurant in St. Kilda for Honda's annual pre-season drinks reception, Barrichello could not believe his luck when he found I had bought the exact same pair of shoes as him.

Not wanting to fall foul of F1's equivalent of 'wearing the same dress to a party', Barrichello smiled when I spotted him a new pair of Converse trainers later in the weekend. "I'm taking the other pair back," he smiled.

Maybe I should go out and buy some Converse...

* Being a world champion brings with it many benefits, but the Australian media let Kimi Raikkonen know who was boss when he arrived in Australia for the first race of the season.

Raikkonen's first official engagement was a press conference in downtown Melbourne for Ferrari sponsor Shell. There were of course the usual questions about the weekend, racing and his rivals.

But then a local television reporter asked him about his attitude to binge drinking in light of the growing importance of the issue. Cue smirks from the audience, but a deadpan response at first from the Finn.

"I live as I always have been living. Like any of my people, I like to go out. I don't see any problems with it," he said.

That wasn't enough for the intrepid questioner, who responded swiftly. "But how do you manage it?" he asked. "Do you abstain during the season and then hit it pretty hard at the end?"

Raikkonen was unmoved: "I do what I want. I'm not responsible for telling people what I do off the track. I don't need to explain it. So far it seems to be working pretty well, so there's no reason to change it."

Ferrari may well let Kimi Raikkonen do pretty much what he wants to do, which perhaps explains how they have been able to get so much good out of him, but the same cannot be said of the FIA.

On the Thursday of the first race of the season, all the drivers make an appearance at a special photographers' enclosure. They must dress in their overalls and carry their helmets so they can be captured with their new look for the first time.

With the blazing Melbourne sunshine pushing temperatures up to around 37-degrees centigrade, Raikkonen was clearly unimpressed at being suited up and having to stand around for pictures. Which explains why he stayed for a grand total of seven seconds, before turning around and walking away.

This obviously left the photographers irate, and the FIA too – who made it clear to Ferrari that Raikkonen's behaviour was not acceptable and that he would have to come back and do it again.

So a few hours later, Raikkonen had to get dressed back into his overalls, traipse down to the photographers and have his pictures taken again.

After about 15 seconds of pictures, one of the photographers cheekily shouted out: "Heh Kimi, are you waiting for something?"

And with a shrug of his shoulders, Raikkonen turned around and marched off…

*Minardi boss Paul Stoddart made an historic return to work in the Formula One paddock in Melbourne for the first time since he left the sport at the end of 2005. Well, sort of.

Stoddart may still have some ambitions of coming back to F1 as a team boss, but his job at Albert Park was as a guest commentator for local radio station 3AW. "Yep, I'm going to be with you guys," the Australian said to us ahead of the weekend.

And the historic bit? Well, that was tucked away in his top left pocket.

Stoddart was carrying a big chunky pen around with him and could not help but tell people about why that pen was so special. Because it was the exact one that had been used to sign the historic unification document between Champ Car and the IRL earlier this year.

"I was in the meeting where the deal was agreed but when they came to sign the document, they realised they had forgotten to bring a pen with them," said Stoddart. "Luckily, I was well prepared."

 

I thought this was funy stuff.