Day one was very good. Standing on a balcony over the cars watching them being prepared for scrutineering was nice. The pit lane walk was up close and personal. Adrian Newey was standing looking at Daniel's Renault so I called out he would look better in yellow overalls. He looked at me.... then laughed.
We lucked out with accomodation and have a 10 min walk then 20 mins by tram to the track.
Those renault Meganes are really fast. One kept in front of the Porsches for several laps. Until the light went from yellow to green.
Good on you mate, I used to get so pumped going to the Grand Prix and can certainly feel your vibes from that post. Good call on Newey!
Friday was always the best day for me, first day the big bangers would come out and light th eplace up. I'm not talking about the days where the first practice is 11am either, back in the day when it was a 9am session for 90 minutes then another near lunch. I would wake up in the city at 4am and was so buzzed, couldn't wait for that first car to roll into the lane and then the world was good again.
I remember when the BAR team first arrived with Villeneuve and had to change the livery overnight to the ugly split colour. They wanted to make an impression on their first lap so Villeneuve came out of the garage, pointed it nearly straight up the lane and lit it up. He fishtailed past about six pit bays and was booked for pitlane speeding by a loooooong way! It was awesome, really cool arrival.
My first Grand Prix pass at full speed was in the same seats on the pit straight in 1997. All the cars would come out, do a slow enough lap to make sure the wheels were bolted on and come back to the pits. It was cloudy and you cold hear the V10's all the way around the lake, what a feeling that was to experience. After maybe five minutes of cars going in and out of the pitlane, I saw a yellow flash appear into turn 16 and I knew this was it, the first flyby from a V10 F1 car for me. It was Ralf Schumacher in his first F1 race in the Jordan with the snake on the nose cone (looked AWESOME) and boy did it rock my world. I will never forget that moment and although there's been some seriously cool times watching Grand Prix cars, that is a lasting memory.
For me, the best looking car ever came from Jordan the following year. Not just the cool Hornet look but the design of the car looked so streamlined, loved it.
Have a blast
@Dales Cannon