iWitness in Budpest: Sunday

Posted on Sunday 03 Aug 2008 and tagged with iwitness, hungary, budapest.

The race team headed to Lancelot’s, one of Budapest’s most famous watering holes, last night. The waitresses were dressed in medieval costumes and the boys drank beer from tankards. Legend has it that Sir Lancelot was one of King Arthur’s most trusted knights until he had an affair with the king’s wife, Guinevere. Sounds very Formula One, doesn’t it?

At least the mechanics made it back to their hotel at a sensible time on Saturday evening. The same cannot be said for AT&T Account Manager, Nick Hayes, who returned to the Intercontinental Hotel at 0400. Apparently, he was entertaining guests of title sponsor AT&T. “Got to keep the client happy,” says Nick.

With the Olympic Games luring Fleetstreet’s finest to Beijing, a few papers sent stringers to report on the Hungarian GP. Prior knowledge wasn’t a pre-requisite for the job. At a Bridgestone dinner on Saturday evening, one such hack asked Hirohide Hamashima, director of Bridgestone’s Motorsport Tyre Development: “When do you think you’ll be able to draw level with the top teams in terms of performance?” Yup, said hack thought our Japanese colleagues ran a team!

Within a couple of hours of today’s race, all 20 drivers on the grid had left the paddock. There’s nothing like the lure of a few days holiday to get them to the airport early. In the case of AT&T Williams drivers Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima, they were heading to the Alps and Japan respectively.