Good to see that Bernie Ecclestone and this team think along the same lines, as F1’s Mr. Big came up with the exact same solution when talking to the BBC, that we suggested in our Shanghai Sunday press release (see below), namely that Spanish GP could also take place in China, if getting the cars back home during the Ash Cloud Crisis proved problematic.
Sadly, another element of our press release proved to be prophetic, suggesting that those stuck in Shanghai could watch films about journeys that went wrong.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso journey was a two stage affair, with some leaving China on Monday night, flying via Dubai to Nice, followed on by a scenic coach ride along the Riviera and up to Faenza. The rest of the team, left one day later. One team member travelling back to the UK from Nice Airport had less of a smooth ride, as he found himself in a coach limited to 100 km/h making it the slowest vehicle on the Autoroute, as it made its way to the Calais ferries. However, a very big thank you to the sport’s governing body, the FIA, who made room for our UK team person on their coach. Being the FIA, the coach boasted more electronic gadgets and mobile internet solutions than you would normally find at the race track and when viewed from outside, appeared to glow in the dark. However, that glow could be down to huge number of fizzy sweets consumed by its passengers, or the their rage as the driver twice headed out of a Service Area going the wrong way down the motorway.
One other amusing aspect of the flight from Shanghai to Nice was that even some of the F1 gods and drivers, for whom it’s been years since they had to turn right when boarding an aircraft, found themselves slumming it down the back of the plane with us F1 pawns. To be fair, Kubica, Massa, Trulli, Liuzzi and our own Buemi all seemed to enjoy the fun of it all, even if Sebastien is well used to the rigours of Economy. And no, there was no fighting, as Sebastien and Liuzzi decided that Sunday’s wipe out on our Swiss driver by the Italian Force India man on the opening lap of Sunday’s race, was just one of those racing incidents.
Prize for the most unusual route home goes to a couple of British journalists who were flying Shanghai-New York-Porto, then driving to Santander and taking a ferry to the south coast of England. We haven’t heard from them yet.
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