iWitness in Montreal - Thursday

Posted on Friday 11 Jun 2010 and tagged with iwitness, canada.

A boat race with no beer? Yep, and AT&T Williams were going to win it because Mark Pattinson, one of our mechanics, made a superb boat from the flight case of a front wing. He was ready for the annual inter-team dash along the rowing lake at the back of the paddock, only for no other teams to turn up! Back to the beers, Mark...

With this being Formula One’s only stop of the year in North America, our American title sponsor AT&T has a busy weekend planned. The schedule kicked off yesterday when Rubens Barrichello attended an AT&T Innovation Day in Montreal. He met clients, had photos taken and spoke about his career in F1.

Jetlag or physical exhaustion? In the case of AT&T Williams account manager Nick Hayes, it’s both. He completed the Blenheim triathlon last weekend in 1hr 43mins and looks to be suffering the after effects here in Montreal. “Everything went well until the run,” he says. “My swim went as expected and I smashed my cycling record, but I suffered on the run…”

Unsurprisingly, Nick wasn’t tempted to join Jenson Button in the rowing lake behind the paddock at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve yesterday. The reigning world champion completed a 1500m swim in preparation for the London Triathlon later in the summer, and even he found it tough. “My wetsuit was too tight,” says Jenson, “which really sapped the energy from my shoulders.”

Below: Spy shot of the Williams boat destined for the team's race in the Olympic rowing lake next to the race track. If anyone else is brave enough to turn up...