iWitness in Abu Dhabi: Sunday

Posted on Sunday 01 Nov 2009 and tagged with iwitness, abu-dhabi.

Timo Glock was unable to race in Abu Dhabi, due to the vertebrae damage he sustained in an accident at Suzuka last month. As a result, he turned his hand to TV interviews at Yas Marina and he caught Nico Rosberg by surprise on the grid. Their conversation was in German, but iWitness has been told that Nico’s opening line could be translated into English as: “What the hell are you doing here?!”

With the British Airways flight from Abu Dhabi to London Heathrow not departing until 0240 tonight, Patrick Head, AT&T Williams’ director of engineering, has been wondering how to fill his Sunday evening. He was last heard telling a group of friends that he might go and watch American rockers Aerosmith, who were performing at Ferrari World. Patrick and his bad boys from Boston: nice.

F1 paddock security was tighter than ever today due to the presence of luminaries such as US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Freddie Flintoff and DJ Timbaland at the race. No bottles of more than 100ml could be brought through the turnstiles, which proved to be a problem for AT&T Williams account manager Richard Lavers. He tried to take some large bottles of sun cream to guests, but couldn’t. Cue red faces all round.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was the last race that Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima will drive for AT&T Williams. The last two years have been fun, guys, and we wish you well in your future endeavours.