Paddock Life Monza Edition
Credit - McLaren Media Centre
If one is so inclined, a life in Formula One is filled with opportunities to play as hard as you work. There are the party races, the home grands prix, and all the sponsored opportunities to crack open the wine and set out some canapés.
As the last race of the European season, the Italian Grand Prix sees teams making the most of their motorhomes, before the transforming beasts return to storage for another winter.
On Thursday evening in the Monza paddock, Ferrari excelled themselves with a cocktail party in their hospitality suite. Guests were treated to a selection of regional delicacies, ranging from local meats and cheeses to larger options including polenta and risotto.
Saturday saw HRT celebrate the 100th grand prix of driver Pedro de la Rosa. The popular Spaniard has raced for a range of teams over the course of his career, and teammates past and present turned out to celebrate the centenary.
“Very few drivers are able to stay up there for that long and gain the respect of everyone in the way that Pedro has,” said team principal Luis Perez-Sala. “He’s an admirable driver and person and we’re extremely proud for him to reach this mark with us.”
De la Rosa’s centenary wasn’t the only historic moment for the Spanish racers in Italy – on Friday morning. Ma Qing Hua made history by becoming the first Chinese driver to take part in a grand prix session.
Luca di Montezemolo made his traditional appearance at Monza; in addition to his press duties the Ferrari president was on hand to oversee the delivery of a one-off Ferrari 599XX that was being presented to the winning bidder at an auction Ferrari put together to raise money for victims of April’s Emilia-Romagna earthquakes.
Elsewhere in the paddock could be found Monza habitué Maria Teresa de Filippis, Formula One’s first female racer. Those astute enough to engage her in conversation were treated to anecdotes about her years spent racing alongside the likes of Jean-Manuel Fangio and Jean Behra.
For at Monza it is impossible to escape history. The ninety-year-old circuit is heavy with the sense of the past, from the crumbling villas in the royal park to the slowly decaying banking that once played host to the fastest cars in the world. Photographers’ tabards are in high demand; watching practice trackside at Monza is one of the highlights of a journalist’s season, matched only by the thrill of doing the same in Monaco.
No visit to the Italian circuit is complete without a walk around the parkland, a quiet pilgrimage to the banking that played host to so many historic races at the Autodromo of old.
But it’s not all pink-tinged sunrises and romantic parkland. The F1 life contains its downsides, and one of those is the inevitability that, at Monza, someone will get robbed. Italian car thieves replicate the electronic signal used in remote locking, and then empty cars with no signs of external damage when fans and journalists are dining around the circuit.
This year’s unlucky winner saw all of his expensive technology stolen. Worse, however, was the loss of his passport – the last thing anyone needs, after a weekend in Italy, is a reason to deal with more bureaucracy.
Kate Walker