Malaysian GP Friday iWitness

Posted on Friday 21 Mar 2008 and tagged with malaysia, iwitness.

So extreme is the heat here in Sepang that the drivers expect to lose three kilos of fluid during Sunday’s Malaysian GP. Well, that’s nothing! AT&T Williams’ communications manager Liam Clogger continued his global marathon on Friday evening, competing a lap of the 5.543km (3.4-mile) track in 28 minutes. The sweat pouring off his body at the end couldn’t be measured in litres, only gallons...

Liam’s not alone in his training sessions for this race. When Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima met Malaysia’s king, His Majesty King Mizan Zainal Abadin, on Thursday night at the KL Hilton Hotel, they were left puffing. They had to follow the red carpet up six floors for their audience, while we’re told the king took the lift.

Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and AT&T Williams’ CEO Adam Parr also met King Mizan Zainal Abadin. They travelled together on the bullet train into KL, and McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen was invited to travel with them. But the Finn’s contract stipulates that he can’t take public transport, so he travelled by car… and his car broke down.

How well does Nico Rosberg know his FW30? That’s what an Italian TV station wanted to find out today, so they presented him with the carbon fibre exit pipe of a front brake duct. “We were sure we’d got him,” said co-presenter Ivan Capelli. But Nico was a step ahead: he’d already found out the answer from AT&T Williams’ technical director Sam Michael. What a clever boy.