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I've had a bunch of people ask about our Barcelona F1 race trip so I figured I'd share it here.
As a car guy, there are certain things we must must do before we die (bucket list), like top out a car on the Autobahn, drive certain road courses like the Nurburgring, and of course attend several key motorsports events. One of the key things I have not managed to do yet was attend an F1 race...
We found out several months ago that McCall and his wife were going to be in Spain around the weekend of Barcelona F1 race this year so we all planned a 2 week vacation around that time. My wife and his planned a nice tour of several Spanish cities and found a deal on F1 tickets, and McCall lined up a rental car (BMW, of course) and we booked rooms in some incredible hotels.
My wife Amy had been a contracted Bridgestone autocrosser (and won a National Championship on their tires) so she called her contact here in North America (thanks Rod!) and he got us in touch with with Bridgestone Motorsport UK's PR rep Rachel. She then totally hooked us up with GP2 Paddock Passes, F1 Paddock passes and said something about a guided pit tour for the four of us, all of whom were former Bridgestone autocrossers. We were psyched, but of course skeptical - it sounded too good to be true. They even added a 5th pass for a German friend of ours (Flomaster!) who was joining us at the race. Amy FTW!!!!
Left: F1 flag bearers. Right: The fans were nuts for Fernando!!!
We flew into Barcelona and did some city touring stuff to stay awake and fight jetlag, but starting Friday morning we were at the track for the weekend. We spent Friday scouting around the track for good places to watch the race, and sat in all of the grandstands, hillsides, and across from the pits on the main straight. WOW - these cars are loud. Even with hearing protection... loudest cars ever.
Left: Hamilton looked good in Friday practice! Right: Alonso's home track so the fans were all decked out in Ferrari red
We met up with the Bridgestone rep Rachel on Saturday morning and nearly got run over by a brigade of Spanish motorcycle police that were escorting a big 600 class Merc going into the track entrance tunnel at HIGH speed... what the?! We looked in there and it was Bernie Ecclestone! She then took us through the entire F1 paddock that morning, showing us all of the team trailers, buildings and pointing out all of the famous people. We got a tour of the F1 Bridgestone tire area seeing all of the tire mounting and given all sorts of interesting technical tidbits about F1 tires, talked about the future of Bridgestone in F1 for 2011 (doesn't look good), etc. Then she takes us over to the McLaren garage facility. What the... ???
Left: We got to meet the Bridgestone Motorsports director. Right: McCall and his wife meeting the McLaren rep
OK, so I'm like... a HUGE McLaren fan, starting back in the early 1990's. Ayrton Senna fan and I've been a Lewis Hamilton supporter since his first race. So as we were walking into McLaren F1 pits and Lewis' garage (!?) I was kind of freaking out. The McLaren rep Chris was giving us the "normal random person" PR drivel, but McCall and I started peppering him with real tech questions about things like the F-Duct, illegal ride height control at Red Bull, etc.
Chris started giving us pretty candid answers to our many questions, interesting stats about Lewis and Jensen, and we picked his brain in their pits for half an hour - while standing over their cars, pointing out each thing. He discussed the new updates for this race as well things going on at other teams and within the FIA. Meanwhile they wheeled in Jensen's car, which was coming in from F1 scrutineering, and we got to see both his and Lewis' cars have all of the fairings and such pulled off - a great look "under the hood" of an F1 car, as it were.
Left: Me and Amy at the entrance to Circuit de Catalunya. Right: I'm standing in Lewis Hamilton's pits... !!!
Left: "me and Rubens!". Center: McCall and me getting a guided tour of the frakking MCLAREN PITS!! Right: Slapping on a VoMo sticker...
Left: "Me and Bernie" (that's my back there at left). Right: "Me and Dr Mario Theissen" Director of BMW Motorsport.
Left: Jenson coming by to chat... hey wait! Center: They found the VoMo decals! Right: The McLaren building takes 15 transporters to build!?
This was such a cool experience I cannot describe... huge thanks to Bridgestone Motorsport & McLaren F1 for their hospitality!!! Cannot believe they did all this for a quartet of autocrossers from the USA. I'm now a Bridgestone customer for life.
I snuck into view of no less than SEVEN news broadcasts... just causally walked in front of the camera. Over and over.
This was an experience of a lifetime... but that was only Saturday morning! Amy's contact at Bridgestone hooked us up with GP2 Paddock passes on Sunday letting us loose in the GP2/GP3/Porsche Supercup paddock on our own. I won't bore you with the GP2 paddock pictures (they are here, in a forum discussion about pit carts and pit vehicles). The gallery below has hundreds more pics from the event, if you are bored:
L: Bridgestone had a huge presence at this event. R: Lewis was robbed a 2nd place finish when his LF wheel came off with 2 laps left!
That's all - thanks for reading!
As a car guy, there are certain things we must must do before we die (bucket list), like top out a car on the Autobahn, drive certain road courses like the Nurburgring, and of course attend several key motorsports events. One of the key things I have not managed to do yet was attend an F1 race...
We found out several months ago that McCall and his wife were going to be in Spain around the weekend of Barcelona F1 race this year so we all planned a 2 week vacation around that time. My wife and his planned a nice tour of several Spanish cities and found a deal on F1 tickets, and McCall lined up a rental car (BMW, of course) and we booked rooms in some incredible hotels.
My wife Amy had been a contracted Bridgestone autocrosser (and won a National Championship on their tires) so she called her contact here in North America (thanks Rod!) and he got us in touch with with Bridgestone Motorsport UK's PR rep Rachel. She then totally hooked us up with GP2 Paddock Passes, F1 Paddock passes and said something about a guided pit tour for the four of us, all of whom were former Bridgestone autocrossers. We were psyched, but of course skeptical - it sounded too good to be true. They even added a 5th pass for a German friend of ours (Flomaster!) who was joining us at the race. Amy FTW!!!!
Left: F1 flag bearers. Right: The fans were nuts for Fernando!!!
We flew into Barcelona and did some city touring stuff to stay awake and fight jetlag, but starting Friday morning we were at the track for the weekend. We spent Friday scouting around the track for good places to watch the race, and sat in all of the grandstands, hillsides, and across from the pits on the main straight. WOW - these cars are loud. Even with hearing protection... loudest cars ever.
Left: Hamilton looked good in Friday practice! Right: Alonso's home track so the fans were all decked out in Ferrari red
We met up with the Bridgestone rep Rachel on Saturday morning and nearly got run over by a brigade of Spanish motorcycle police that were escorting a big 600 class Merc going into the track entrance tunnel at HIGH speed... what the?! We looked in there and it was Bernie Ecclestone! She then took us through the entire F1 paddock that morning, showing us all of the team trailers, buildings and pointing out all of the famous people. We got a tour of the F1 Bridgestone tire area seeing all of the tire mounting and given all sorts of interesting technical tidbits about F1 tires, talked about the future of Bridgestone in F1 for 2011 (doesn't look good), etc. Then she takes us over to the McLaren garage facility. What the... ???
Left: We got to meet the Bridgestone Motorsports director. Right: McCall and his wife meeting the McLaren rep
OK, so I'm like... a HUGE McLaren fan, starting back in the early 1990's. Ayrton Senna fan and I've been a Lewis Hamilton supporter since his first race. So as we were walking into McLaren F1 pits and Lewis' garage (!?) I was kind of freaking out. The McLaren rep Chris was giving us the "normal random person" PR drivel, but McCall and I started peppering him with real tech questions about things like the F-Duct, illegal ride height control at Red Bull, etc.
Chris started giving us pretty candid answers to our many questions, interesting stats about Lewis and Jensen, and we picked his brain in their pits for half an hour - while standing over their cars, pointing out each thing. He discussed the new updates for this race as well things going on at other teams and within the FIA. Meanwhile they wheeled in Jensen's car, which was coming in from F1 scrutineering, and we got to see both his and Lewis' cars have all of the fairings and such pulled off - a great look "under the hood" of an F1 car, as it were.
Left: Me and Amy at the entrance to Circuit de Catalunya. Right: I'm standing in Lewis Hamilton's pits... !!!
Left: "me and Rubens!". Center: McCall and me getting a guided tour of the frakking MCLAREN PITS!! Right: Slapping on a VoMo sticker...
Left: "Me and Bernie" (that's my back there at left). Right: "Me and Dr Mario Theissen" Director of BMW Motorsport.
Left: Jenson coming by to chat... hey wait! Center: They found the VoMo decals! Right: The McLaren building takes 15 transporters to build!?
This was such a cool experience I cannot describe... huge thanks to Bridgestone Motorsport & McLaren F1 for their hospitality!!! Cannot believe they did all this for a quartet of autocrossers from the USA. I'm now a Bridgestone customer for life.
I snuck into view of no less than SEVEN news broadcasts... just causally walked in front of the camera. Over and over.
This was an experience of a lifetime... but that was only Saturday morning! Amy's contact at Bridgestone hooked us up with GP2 Paddock passes on Sunday letting us loose in the GP2/GP3/Porsche Supercup paddock on our own. I won't bore you with the GP2 paddock pictures (they are here, in a forum discussion about pit carts and pit vehicles). The gallery below has hundreds more pics from the event, if you are bored:
- Tons of pics of the F1 race here: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...arcelona-2010/
L: Bridgestone had a huge presence at this event. R: Lewis was robbed a 2nd place finish when his LF wheel came off with 2 laps left!
That's all - thanks for reading!