iWitness in Abu Dhabi: Friday

Posted on Saturday 31 Oct 2009 and tagged with iwitness, abu-dhabi.

The ‘no alcohol’ rule in the Formula One paddock this weekend presented AT&T Williams’ chefs with a problem. On today’s lunch menu, they wanted to offer Pimms-flavoured jelly, but security wouldn’t allow them to bring a bottle of Pimms past the turnstiles. The solution? Cranberry jelly instead – job-done!

Nico took the entire race team out to dinner last night – or so he thought. In reality, everyone was present except the marketing department’s Nick Hayes and Helen Marshall. They cried off, preferring to attend the Beyonce concert. How could they?

RBS global ambassador Sir Jackie Stewart was in the BBC Radio 5 Live commentary booth for today’s second practice session. When it comes to F1, there are few more knowledgeable people than Sir Jackie, but even he had to do some research beforehand. “How do you pronounce the name of Toyota’s Japanese driver? Kamui Kob… – what?”

The organisers of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix offered AT&T Williams one of Jamiroquai, Aerosmith, DJ Timbaland (whose surname is Mosley…) or Kings of Leon to entertain this weekend. All were good offers, natch, but for Matt Jones – our head of marketing services – there was only one choice. “It’s got to be K.O.L,” he said. “I’m going to ‘use somebody’ to look after them.” Ho-ho-ho.