HUNGARIAN GP 2007 - FRIDAY AT THE PADDOCK CLUB WITH ING

by Iryna Vale

Incredible! Amazing! Fantastic! That was my week-end at the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix – in a nutshell.

I was incredibly fortunate to be invited to join a press-tour to Hungary for the Russian journalists from the motoring press. The tour was organised by the Russian office of ING Life Insurance, in order to show the Russian press what F1 is about, and to explain (with their help) to the public the goals and purposes of ING presence in Formula-1. ING provided us with the transportation, hotel, meals, grandstand tickets for Saturday and Sunday, and the most importantly – with the access to the very exclusive and expensive Paddock Club on Friday.

Upon arrival to Budapest we were met by the ING representatives. To be perfectly honest, I am still not quite sure who those girls were, they were dressed up into Renault team shirts, they were obviously responsible for the smooth running of our trip, but they never went with us anywhere! Nothing F1 related happened that day, apart from us observing the crowds of F1 fans outside every single expensive looking hotel in Budapest! At the Boscolo hotel people were waiting for Kimi. At the Kempinski – for Fernando and Renault guys. I actually had an idea that Kimi was staying in the Corinthia (I saw a few Team Ferrari cars outside), but decided against telling the fans at the Boscolo entrance :) In case Corinthia was Felipe’s residence :)

And then the main event day arrived, Friday, The previous day we were given a “survival kit” in our goody bags – a seat with the ING Renault logo, baseball hat (which I didn’t need, because I came prepared and packed Heikki’s MadCroc hat!), earplugs, plastic raincoat, and a season guide. On the way to the circuit we received a press pack from ING, together with a nice box, in which upon opening I discovered a pass to the Paddock Club! It is a plastic thing, which needs to be used at the turnstile at the entrance to the Paddock Club. I always wanted to pass through one of those beeping thingies, I was hoping that we will have to use them at the entrance to the paddock, just like the racing drivers, but it turned out that our entrance is different. But it’s ok! We came upstairs on top of the paddock, where I used the pass for the first time – fun!!! The sound these turnstiles make is exactly like one of the turnstiles at the paddock entrance … beep-beep!!

So we wandered in, and then – oh yeah!!! – champagne! The view from the reception was great! We could see the whole pit-lane, and the pit-exit. Directly underneath us was Super Aguri garage, and next door – Spyker. Not much was going on as it was still a bit early, so it was only some occasional photographers wondering up and down the pit-lane. We got more presents – more earplugs in a pretty Paddock Club box, and a programme. But really, why wouldn’t they give us a bag where we could put all this stuff? The problem was solved shortly, when we were invited into the special hospitality suite booked for us by ING. The suite was huge, and there were some other people, we didn’t know who they were. On the chairs there were more goody bags!! Without further ado I opened my goody nag – I LIKE PRESENTS! :) Inside were another baseball hat, a model car, flash-card, and a very nice looking pen in a pretty box! The drinks and snacks were unlimited, but I still had to remember that I was supposed to be working there! There also was a race simulator, 4 HP printers in which we could instantly print our pictures, and an imitation pit-wall – tall chairs in front of the computers with all the technical data from the track. In the meantime the first practice started, so we took our places right on top of the Ferrari garage. Our photographer discovered a small print on the passes – no professional photography is allowed! Which made his day there pretty useless, but after a few words with the ING representatives we were allowed to take pictures.

Just before lunch we had a visit from Nelson Piquet Jr. He came with a guy from Renault, and we just listened to him answering the questions the Renault guy was asking him. After the interview Nelson very kindly stayed with us for about 10 minutes, signing autographs for everyone who wanted one. Well, I wanted 3! So I got my programme, a hat and a car signed :) thank you, Nelson!

Our host of the day was Perry McCarthy (the original ‘Stig’ to everyone who ever watched Top Gear). ING asked him to be there in case any of us have any questions about F1, and need any help. He also went with us when we had a tour of the paddock and pit-lane. Yes, the tour. We were given ANOTHER pass, which allowed us an entry to the paddock. So here we are, in front of the Renault hospitality, with a guy called Renato, who very enthusiastically was telling us about the way an F1 team operates. It was exciting to be standing in the paddock, during the race week-end, and watch people going about their business. Nelson appeared from the garage, and playfully slapped Renato’s head from behind, which really didn’t help Renato’s concentration on facts and figures!

Then something else happened, which really affected MY concentration! And that something was the sudden appearance of Heikki from the Renault motorhome! As we stayed a bit to the side of it, he walked out, and was sort of on his way to the garage. Mind you, the first practice had just finished, and he was on his way to the engineers, cleaned up and dressed into jeans and T-shirt already. Talking about perfect timing! If I was in the second group for the garage tour I most definitely would have missed him! But as it happened, Heikki walked out of the hospitality, and when I saw him I obviously waved at him to attract attention. Renato was immediately forgotten :) Heikki saw me, waved back and jogged quickly over to me – how very nice of him! But it was very obvious that he couldn’t stay for long, so all I had time for was a very quick “hello, how are you”, and then he apologised that he had to run. And although we said “see you later” to each other, I knew full well that that was it for this weekend. We wouldn’t have another chance to go to the paddock. But I appreciated that Heikki had a job to do, so I’m just hoping to see him sometime soon, somewhere else, where he is not so busy :)

After that brief encounter with our hero I was brought back to Earth, sort of, when we were taken to the Renault garage, where the mechanics were very busy dismantling and polishing the cars. Renato told us about the main parts of the car, how it works, dragged Heikki’s seat and a steering wheel for us, and showed how everything worked. Renault mechanics (some of them I knew from the tests in Silverstone) didn’t help poor Renato and put the level of the background music to its highest :) Screaming on top of his lungs about the aerodynamic qualities of the Renault F1 car, Renato finally gave up and took us to the back of the garage, where a little room was, sort of mini-cinema, where very very VIPs are usually seated. We were allowed to have a little look inside, but no pictures were allowed. We also saw Heikki’s and Fisi’s helmets and gloves, I can’t even start describing how much I wanted to touch them! :) But specifically for the people like me there was a “don’t touch” sign. Oh well…We touched these helmets before, so I wasn’t too upset about it.

The tour of the paddock was almost over, but one of the guys from the party and myself wanted to see a bit more of the paddock, so we had to swear to Renato that we will only run to the other side of the paddock, to Spyker and back, and it will only take us 5 minutes :) Poor Renato resigned to his fate that he can’t keep track of the escaping Russians, and trotted after us. We literally (being very responsible adults!) just took some pictures of the different motorhomes, although in the McLaren case it was more like taking a picture of a huge mirror wall – you couldn’t see a damn thing inside it! Honda, on the contrary, was very open and airy, and at the table closest to the entrance we saw little Christian Klien. Took a picture, and carried on with the run. Very soon we saw Marcus Winkelhock, who was getting ready for an interview or whatever, and looked very busy, so I just snapped a quick picture of him, and unfortunately it didn’t come out very well. The sun was ferocious, and it was impossible to see what exactly I am taking picture of. By that time we realised that we couldn’t try Renato’s patience any longer, so we turned around and went back to the paddock club – and Renato’s happy face was a real picture :) I think he really thought that he lost us in the paddock :)

When we got back we were told that at 2pm we will have an interview with Nelson Piquet Jr, so I had to think quickly about any questions I want to ask him. I won’t bore you with his answers, there was a lot of the usual corporate talk, although I did make an observation, that he was perfectly fine answering Renato’s questions (he obviously had done all this before), but when we started asking our questions, he was not so confident with his answers. He was with us for only 15 minutes, but still many thanks to the ING for arranging for this opportunity for us. About an hour later we had an interview with Pat Symmonds. Once again, 15 minutes is all we had. But he must have been too busy and couldn’t stay any more than that.

The rest of the time was spent on drinks :) we discovered very nice red wine, plus I developed a taste for champagne, so overall we had a great time! Our transport came at about 5.30p, and took us away :( Unforgettable day, is all I can say!