iWitness at Suzuka: Thursday

Posted on Friday 02 Oct 2009 and tagged with iwitness, japan, suzuka.

Made in Japan. We’re not referring to the album by rock band Deep Purple; we’re talking about Nico Rosberg’s efforts to make sushi this afternoon. German TV broadcaster RTL whisked him to a local restaurant, where he made two kinds of the Japanese dish. “He’s very talented,” said the resident chef after tasting Nico’s dish. As a race driver, yes...

A group of AT&T Williams engineers managed to sneak in a two-day visit to Vietnam en route from Singapore to Japan. They visited the Cu Chi tunnels below Ho Chi Min city, where the Viet Cong hid from the Americans during the Vietnam war (1959 - 1975). One of our guys was overheard suggesting that we build a similar network of tunnels below the team’s factory in Grove. “We need somewhere to hide from Frank and Patrick!”

Kazuki Nakajima received a hero’s welcome at today’s autograph signing session. Fans of all ages queued to get Kazuki’s signature, including AT&T Williams mechanic Colin Hessey. We never realised you were such a fan, Colin!

While Kazuki was talking to his public, Nico was shaking hands with his. The German superstar made the mistake of shaking hands with the person at the head of the autograph queue and he ended up shaking hands with everyone for 20 minutes. “They are so respectful here,” he said, “that I felt I couldn’t refuse them!”