iWitness Spa Thursday

Posted on Friday 14 Sep 2007

The intensity of back-to-back races... While ATT Williams worked round-the-clock to transport its cars from Monza to Spa, the drivers enjoyed a less stressful existence in Monaco. Not that Alex Wurz would agree: ”It was my son Charlie’s first day at nursery on Wednesday,” he says. “I took him there with my wife Julia and it was really tough to see him fending for himself.”

By road the distance from Monza to Spa-Francorchamps is 797 kilometres (495 miles). To some that might seem a long distance, but not the ATT Williams motorhome team. They left the Monza paddock at 0100 on Monday and arrived at Spa later that day to begin setting up. Which was luckier than some: Bridgestone, Spyker and Super Aguri arrived at the same time, but couldn’t begin setting up until McLaren’s unwieldy Brand Centre arrived 24 hours later…

First Queens Park Rangers, now the world. According to The Times newspaper, Flavio Briatore plans to build a hotel and casino complex near the coastal resort of Malindi in Kenya. The proposed ‘Billionaires Resort’ (a six-star 40-apartment casino) would be just down the road from his White Elephant hotel. Pre-season training never sounded so appealing.

F1 drivers might behave like overpaid prima donnas (not at ATT Williams – ed), but once a year, at Spa, they earn their reputations as the hard men of sport. Eau Rouge, the uphill left-right-left  flick, is the scariest corner in F1. “The minimum speed through there is 300kph (180mph),” says Nico Rosberg. You hard man.