Friday at the Grand Prix - an essay in photographs

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 12:17 (Ref:1248484)

I have already discussed in some detail the first day of the Grand Prix at Albert Park.

The second day was the first my wife and I would share as our honeymoon, after we were married during the Brazilian Grand Prix. Friday began very early for us – we were up before 6.00am and on the road for breakfast by 6.15am. Breakfast was at the Grand Hyatt on Collins Street, as my wife thought there was a good chance of seeing some teams also taking breakfast there before heading off to the track for a hard day’s work. Unfortunately, it seems that none of the teams stay at the Grand Hyatt, as we saw nobody except for a few lonely businessmen having breakfast and a couple of Ferrari fans set to enjoy their day corporate-style.

After filling up on generous portions of eggs, bacon, mushrooms and toast, we hoisted the backpacks and set off for Spencer Street and the free shuttle tram down to the Albert Park circuit, hoping to make it there by 8.00am, when the track opened to the public. Thanks to an efficient trip courtesy of Yarra Trams, we arrive at 7.30am, only to find that we weren’t the only people keen to make an early start to our Friday.

Having discussed this with an English tourist on Thursday, I was keen to make the most of our closer than usual access to the drivers and team principals when they arrive for their day. Behind the pit complex, including the pit paddock and the media center, there are a series of roads that allow access into and out of the circuit. Most drivers and team principals will use these roads to get into Albert Park and get set up for the day. Whether by good fortune or good management (or perhaps a combination of both), there is a little venue right in front of the pit paddock entrance/exit where fans can congregate and entice their heroes over to sign autographs, take photos and generally bask in the adulation of the fans.

My wife and I are two of such fans, and I was determined to have some of the memorabilia my wife and I have collected signed by Jacques Villeneuve, in particular. Having learned from fellow fans that Jacques had arrived early on Thursday, I was determined not to let him get through without signing something.

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 12:18 (Ref:1248486)

We weren’t the only fans looking for autographs from their favourite drivers. The practice apparently began in 1996, when Melbourne hosted the Grand Prix for the first time, and has continued since. We were joined by about 50 fans to begin with, with the numbers building up over the hour or so we waited for the drivers and team bosses to come through.

My wish was granted early, as Jacques arrived early and signed plenty of autographs for everybody who was there. I had taken with me a Minichamps model of his 1997 world championship winning car that detailed his career to date, and he happily signed that, just below the model car. But I had been struck speechless by meeting my favourite all-time driver and actually obtaining his signature on something I owned. For all I knew, this could be the only time I meet Jacques, but that didn’t spur me to say anything to him. In the meantime, my wife put the digital camera through its paces, and here is one of the pictures of Jacques signing autographs for his fans now.

Jacques Villeneuve signing for his fans

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 12:21 (Ref:1248487)

After Jacques disappeared into the pit paddock to prepare for the morning practice session, the group of fans that had congregated at this special spot resumed waiting for other drivers to turn up. Toyota test-driver and former Villeneuve teammate, Ricardo Zonta, was the next driver to come, and he also signed autographs for the fans before going into the pit paddock. My wife captured him on his way over to greet the fans.

Ricardo Zonta on his way over to sign autographs for the fans

Ricardo left and Minardi’s Christijan Albers was the next man to come across and interact with the fans. Having met him at the Minardi launch on Thursday, I wasn’t overly fussed if I didn’t get his autograph, but he didn’t mind signing for the other fans and I snagged his autograph on the Minardi page of the official program. In the meantime, his activities allowed my wife to take a great photo of the Minardi driver.

Christijan Albers with the fans

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 12:23 (Ref:1248488)

The first of our team bosses then arrived after Albers, with Mr Peter Sauber, initially reluctant, joining the fans to sign autographs. With his typical grave mien, Mr Sauber signed as many autographs as he could reach, but always finding the time to chat with the fans. My wife thanked him for hiring Jacques (she is aware of just how big a fan I am) and Mr Sauber acknowledged her words with a short nod of the head. When somebody put a picture of a Red Bull Racing car in front of him, he quietly expressed his displeasure and waited for the suitably chastened fan to find the right page in the program.

Peter Sauber begins his day by signing autographs

In contrast, a happy Patrick Freisacher was keen to come over and sign autographs for the fans. Although there seemed to be little chance of Patrick driving the Minardi on Friday, he was still keen to catch up with the fans of Formula One. As I hadn’t obtained his autograph on Thursday, I was happy to capture his autograph today.

Patrick Freisacher looks happy to be here

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 12:54 (Ref:1248507)

If you don’t count Jacques, Juan Pablo Montoya was the first of the ‘big-name’ drivers to come through early in the morning. He seemed to be in a happy mood (you can never tell with JPM) and he signed plenty of autographs for the fans. The press photographers had been beginning to congregate at the same point, though they weren’t constrained by the fences and security guards that we were constrained by, and when Montoya showed up, they started to go feral. They started moving in on the driver, hoping to capture that great shot for publication. But it didn’t seem to faze JPM, as he went up and down the line of fans, signing as many autographs as he could (including an autograph for yours truly).

Juan Pablo Montoya makes a fan happy, as he signs another autograph

After JPM went into the pit paddock to link up with his new team for his first official practice session, a man with great hair and great sunnies came. Dropped off by his team, there was no way that Jarno Trulli could ignore the shouts from the crowd of fans (still growing, by the way) to come over and sign for the fans. Jarno duly obliged despite looking like he had only got out of bed a moment or two earlier.

The cool Jarno Trulli

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 12:57 (Ref:1248510)

Felipe Massa doesn’t quite subscribe to the same theory of getting to the pits early to prepare for the big day that his teammate and boss subscribe to. In fact, with the cap and the sunglasses on, despite the fact that early Friday morning in Melbourne was neither sunny nor warm, Felipe looked like he had been out partying for quite a while the previous night. Still, that didn’t stop him from signing autographs – though when you see it, you wonder why he bothers, as it’s a mere scrawl that looks, at best, like ‘FM’. Still, beggars can’t be choosers.

Felipe Massa, complete with sunglasses and cap, despite the fact it's 8.30am on a cloudy Friday morning

Then it was time for the home-country hero, as Mark Webber popped along to say ‘hi’ to over a hundred of his fans. He was kept busy for about five minutes signing autographs for all and sundry, as the press photographers crowded in to take their own photographs of the man from down-under.

How many times as Mark Webber signed autographs in the last few days?

He was joined by BAR-Honda’s Takuma Sato, and the contingent of Japanese fans who had made the trip over from Japan went absolutely wild. I’ve met some pretty wild and fanatical fans in my time, but I have to say that these fans of Takuma Sato take the cake. They had made their own very elaborate banners that proclaimed their undying love for Takuma (or something to that effect, anyway). Even though there was only a group of about ten of them, they made enough noise for at least five times that amount, and there was no way they would let Sato pass by without coming over to greet his fellow countrymen and women. And once he was over, then he couldn’t escape without signing autographs for the other fans, while they waited for Webber to sign.

Bigger than Jesus amongst the Japanese, it's Takuma Sato

Lonicera · 10 Mar 2005, 13:03 (Ref:1248515)

Good reading / photos Dixie, keep going!!!

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 21:13 (Ref:1248964)

Thanks Lonicera! I had to stop last night because it was past midnight.

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 21:23 (Ref:1248977)

After the kerfuffle over Webber and Sato died down as they went into the pits, the fans resumed their waiting game. But we didn't have to wait too long, as Renault boss Flavio Briatore arrived. His car pulled up close to the entrance to the pit paddock, but we needn't have worried, as the FB (it's how he signs himself with the fans) strutted over to sign some autographs for the fans. There happened to be a couple of girls who were big fans of Fernando Alonso in particular, and they made it very clear who their favourite driver was. But nothing fazed Flavio as he went up and down the lines, signing autographs.

Flavio Briatore braves the media pack to reach the fans

After charming the crowd, Flavio disappeared off for work but he was soon replaced by "Quick Nick" Heidfeld, who still looks like he should be turning out for school rather than climbing into the cockpit of a Formula One car. By this time, the press photographers had all cottoned on to what we all knew, and he had to fight his way through the press scrum to make it to the fans. I was happy, though. Within 15 minutes I had the autographs of both Williams drivers:

Surrounded by cameras, Nick Heidfeld signs for the fans

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 22:52 (Ref:1249035)

Jenson Button was the next, and last, driver to stop off and sign some autographs before getting ready to go out to practise the circuit in about two hours' time.

If I may, I always thought that Jenson had an air of arrogance about him (probably as a result of the aborted move to Williams last year). However, when I saw him interact with the fans this morning, my opinion changed completely. He was very friendly to the fans, signing whatever they were willing to present to him and asking the fans how they were going. He was accompanied by his father, John, and fiance Louise, and I suppose that some people recognised Louise, as she climbed out of the car which had transported them and came over to sign autographs. John Button stayed unobtrusively out of the way, observing his son and future daughter-in-law work the crowd.

Top marks to Jenson, though, he really did his best to please all the fans that had gathered there that morning, before going into the pit paddock to ready himself for practice:

Jenson Button with the fans

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 22:55 (Ref:1249036)

After that, it was fairly clear that no further drivers would be coming through to sign autographs for the fans. We had seen DC, the two Ferrari drivers and Kimi all go through without stopping, and if anybody had recognised Tiago Monteiro, well they had kept their recognition to themselves because none of us had seen him go through.

Ron Dennis had also driven past in a Mercedes (what else?) and Geoff Willis was driven past in a red Honda Integra (of course) but they must have found different ways of obtaining access to the pit paddock, because we had not seen them go past.

So, with Jenson in the pit paddock, the general consensus was that we had finished with the autographs for the time being and we should actually go back to our seats and prepare for the first official timed practice session of the Grand Prix, sans the Minardis for reasons canvassed elsewhere.

With heightened anticipation, my wife and I found our seats and readied ourselves for the first serious roar of the Grand Prix cars. Oh, Antonio Pizzonia had driven a Williams on the Thursday as part of the speed comparison, but that didn't really count.

Finally, the lights went green

Dixie Flatline · 10 Mar 2005, 23:08 (Ref:1249040)

Pedro de la Rosa was the first to thrill the crowd, flinging his McLaren around the track

De la Rosa was the first to show off the distinctive addition to the McLaren's aerodynamic configuration as he drove the McLaren around in bright sunshine. Like the previous day, Friday was turning out to be a lovely day to watch motorsport and the fans were pleased to see the cars out on the circuit, if only to take their minds off the developing controversy regarding Minardi and the FIA.

De la Rosa was soon followed by the first of the Jordan drivers, as rookie Narain Karthikeyan got to grips with learning a brand new circuit, allowing the Toyota to open its throat and roar down the main straight.

We stopped a moment to remember Eddie Jordan, who wasn't in attendance at the Grand Prix. His cars looked somewhat denuded with the familiar Benson & Hedges sponsorship replaced by Sobranie, a brand of cigarettes I'm reliably informed is not even available in Australia, and the cars themselves looked unhappily bland.

Dixie Flatline · 11 Mar 2005, 02:14 (Ref:1249108)

I'll just pause here a moment to point out the fences.

A few years ago, these fences were nowhere near as tall or as tightly packed. The death of track marshal Graham Beveridge (sp?) required the AGPC to re-examine its safety protocols, particularly in relation to the fences. As a result, the fences were made much safer for the marshals and the fans. For that, we should be thankful. Unfortunately, they tend to play havoc with good photography.

For example, I had taken several shots of the Ferraris and the BAR-Hondas pulling up to their pit boxes to be worked on by the mechanics. However, the interruption of two sets of the fences such as those seen in the photos above make it very difficult to see anything worthwhile. Hence, I haven't posted them yet.

JeremySmith · 11 Mar 2005, 03:24 (Ref:1249128)

Dixie... I wanted to say thank you for sharing all of this with us! You did a GREAT job!!

Dixie Flatline · 11 Mar 2005, 03:29 (Ref:1249129)

Thanks mate!

I'm not done yet either. Still have the rest of Friday, then Saturday and Sunday to share with you all.

Hopefully I'll be finished in time for the Malaysian Grand Prix next weekend!

Dixie Flatline · 11 Mar 2005, 06:13 (Ref:1249152)

To the great delight of the crowd, Mark Webber soon came out to play, allowing the BMW-WilliamsF1 to open up down the main straight. The expectations on Webber were huge - he had moved from a disappointing team to a team that had given another Australian a world drivers' championship, and Webber was seen as the great white hope for winning Australia its fifth world drivers' championship. We'll see, however, whether the machinery underneath him is capable of delivering good results this season.

In the meantime, he goes flying past our seats at almost 300kmh!

As I mentioned in a previous post above, there were plenty of supporters for BAR-Honda's Takuma Sato. Australia used to be a very popular holiday destination for the Japanese (I'm not sure whether it still is), and Sato-San is certainly somebody they can get behind - he seems to be at least slightly (tongue-in-cheek) better than Ukyo Katayama or Shinji Nakano, for example.

Of course, at this stage, we didn't know that the BAR-Hondas weren't going to perform particularly well this weekend, or that Sato would fling his car into the wall during the first qualfiying session - that was all in the future.

So, instead, let's watch Sato scream past us

Dixie Flatline · 11 Mar 2005, 06:18 (Ref:1249154)

The morning session came to an end, and it seemed like that we hadn't seen everybody out on the track.

Still, it was great to hear the engines fired up in anger for the first time this season, and it was terrific to watch the drivers fly past at speeds approaching 300kmh. For my wife, this was the first time she sat on the main straight. She didn't particularly enjoying watching the cars for the split second they roared past us before we switched our attention back to the super-screen that was positioned opposite us - did it really merit the $400+ we splashed out on the tickets?

I, of course, having sat on the main straight several times previously, as well as at other positions around the track, knew what happens on Sunday when the race is about to kick off, and I told her to wait until Sunday is over and done with before making her final judgment.

In any event, end of the first practice session brought us perilously close to lunch, and on a lovely Friday early afternoon we decided to stretch our legs and experience the second practice session, a matter of only a couple of hours away, from a different position.

Picking a direction at random, we walked down behind the grandstands on the main straight to the last turn. At this time, the so-called "celebrity drivers" which the AGPC continues to insist inflicting upon us each season, had commenced their qualifying run and I was able to observe they came through at a nice pace for some good photographs. In consultation with my wife, we decided we would stay here for the second practice session and in the meantime, enjoy our packed lunch.

f1_carzy · 11 Mar 2005, 08:47 (Ref:1249216)

Dixie...keep the good stuff coming...great entertainment...

Dixie Flatline · 11 Mar 2005, 11:47 (Ref:1249383)

Thanks, f1_carzy!

Setantra · 11 Mar 2005, 11:56 (Ref:1249393)

Fairplay to you, mate.

Thanks for sharing your experiences

Dixie Flatline · 11 Mar 2005, 12:11 (Ref:1249406)

Thanks, Setantra!

Dixie Flatline · 11 Mar 2005, 12:18 (Ref:1249415)

Okay, the after-lunch practice session duly commenced and my wife and I were in a primo position, as I said above, on the last turn. Where we were sitting the cars were doing probably a tick under 300kmh, which meant that my poor camera had to really work hard to capture a good image, and I had to time my shots well in order to take a good photograph. We hoped that by moving to the last corner, the cars' corresponding reduced speed would make it easier on us.

Well, you can be the judge of that!

We certainly weren't the only one with this idea, however, as quite a few people keen to take photographs of the cars in action had congregated at this spot.

One poor bloke, terribly burned by the sun (which was ironic since he was selling those St John Ambo survival kits) saw my JV t-shirt and we passed some time talking about Jacques before the cars hit the circuit. But when they came out, it was all business, though of course we had to wait for them to finish their installation laps before beginning their proper practice.

Here is one of those Red Bull Racing-Cosworth going into the pits after completing an installation lap

Toyota were keen to get as much track time under their belts as possible, and they therefore were one of the first teams to put on a show for the fans in the second session:

A Toyota (I think it's Ralf) hurtles past our position

McLaren were also out to learn as much as they could about the track, and it was interesting for a while to see the comparison between the McLaren and the Jordan following it. The gap was small to begin with, but you could see the McLaren pull away lap after lap.

A McLaren being tailed by a Jordan

Dixie Flatline · 11 Mar 2005, 12:36 (Ref:1249435)

I took a lot of photos from this vantage point as the drivers learned the circuit throughout the one-hour practice session.

Of course, I was looking for special photos of JV, and this, I think, doesn't let me down!

The Sauber certainly looks like a very elegant car, doesn't it?!

The man who eventually would hold up the winners' trophy on the podium hit the track to do some work:

Giancarlo Fisichella looks good in his Renault

At this point in time, the aura of Ferrari's crown had been rejuvenated somewhat by the news, announced over the PA, that Jean Todt had reluctantly agreed to back Paul Stoddart, assuming that Stoddy had the backing of the other team-members. It seemed for a while that the crisis was going to be avoided, as Stoddy waited for the stewards to deliberate over Minardi's inclusion. There were pictures being shown on the superscreens of Stoddy waiting by the stewards' office with a bottle of sparkling wine in case they ruled in Minardi's favour. As we all know, however, the cork stayed in the bottle and instead, Stoddy left for an urgent appointment with the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Well, that was a longwinded introduction to this photo of the Ferrari coming around the final corner!

The menacing sight of a Ferrari rounding the final corner

As the session progressed, more and more drivers came out to try out the conditions and the track.

Here is "Quick Nick" Heidfeld gearing up for a blast down the main straight

A Renault flying on the main straight

markysjag · 11 Mar 2005, 20:58 (Ref:1249885)

fantastic well done Dixie!

Dixie Flatline · 12 Mar 2005, 23:58 (Ref:1250542)

Thanks markysjag!

I'll endeavour to complete Friday and start on Saturday and Sunday over the next day or so.

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