TESTING AT SILVERSTONE, SEPTEMBER 2006

by Irene Beck

I managed to get to two of the three days in Sept, when the teams were practicing for the Chinese and Japanese GPs...

I managed to make it pitside and go for the pitlane walk both days. I wasn't quite quick enough on the first day I was there to get any photos of Heikki out of the car (he pegged it quite quickly from one of the trucks to the garage – hopped in and was ready to go back out on track after lunch) ... Although I did get my first shots of Nelson whilst he was being interviewed by Louise Goodman (I got photos of his Dad the day after) and shots of Lewis Hamilton (sorry to Lewis as well, he nearly walked into my camera) and Johnny Herbert.

But the final day of testing I happened to be stood outside the Renault garage in the pitlane when Heikki came out to have his photo taken with some of the military that had turned up for a day visit. So I fired off a quick couple of shots. I also had a wander over to the pit wall and saw the timings for the morning's session .... 

At the end of the day though, I got the opportunity to go back over to the pitlane, as I asked another Renault F1 fan if it was okay for me to tag along. We got over there as the crew had started packing to go home – and we ended up helping, and a white set of gloves were presented to us both to help with the task. I ended up helping taking down the boards/screens and the poles that held them in place, plus at the very end helping taking down the two lighting rigs that are over the cars.

I swear I've never been soooooooo scared in my whole life taking down poles and then having to walk with a couple of 6ft poles (at a time) in my arms and walk between the two R26s with out hitting them ... I managed very well and never touched the R26 once, but still.

Heikki at the same time was also getting ready to leave. This was getting on for after 6.30pm and Heikki made a point of walking into the garage and saying bye to the crew and shaking hands with a few of the team. What really struck me though is that there were no egos, no nothing .. It was just like another one of the crew going home .. And the garage echoed with calls of "Oi Heikki mate", "Heikki!" and "night!" ....

The team were just wonderful, getting on with dismantling and packing while chatting at the same time. And thanks to them as well, for sharing their massive take out order of McDonalds ... The last time I'd seen that many bags was when a gang of us went to my local McDonalds when I was 9yrs old...

I read in the Autosport "Three Kings" article just recently (with the genius that is Pat Symonds and the Bob and Rob show) that Heikki had changed Pat's opinion of Finns....I'd love to know what he meant...But having had the opportunity and the luck to experience what I did above...I think its only a matter of time before there is another WDC in the paddock, besides Mr Fernando Alonso....and I think that next person might just be Mr Heikki Kovalainen.

Postscript – I didn’t see Heikki out of the car at Barcelona, but I did see some of the guys that I’d chatted to at Sept testing and said hi.

I can’t believe Sept is already so far away..