Summertime, And The Circuit Is Rainy

From the title's mention of 'rain' you can safely assume that F1 has returned to its roots in Britain. It's now over 50 years since the F1 World Championship was formed, and in the UK we're still enthusiastic about our motorsport, even if it does rain all the time.

The two practice sessions today were very wet, with limited running in FP2 due to the weather. Formula 1 is no stranger to wet weather though, and eventually we did see some running. We saw numerous spins, with Kobayashi's off being the worst. Luckily, Kobayashi managed to avoid turning the car over by the skin of his teeth and walked away from the incident.

The British summertime weather is notorious for being hard to predict, although I believe that there have been mentions of showers for tomorrow. Whether this will affect qualifying remains to be seen. Sadly, I won't be watching the qualifying or FP3 due to actual paid work, however my success in repairing the Sky Plus box means that I will avoid all news outlets, Twitter and other fans so I will be able to pretend my recording is live. Believe me, I'd much rather be watching a qualifying session than spending eight hours working on a Saturday, but my finances need boosting up for my forthcoming trip to the Nurburgring.

Since my last post I've been getting incredibly overexcited about my first Grand Prix meeting. It's now less that two weeks before I leave for Germany and as of today everything is in place for the event. In order to give me more of an idea of what to do once I arrive (aside from watching beautiful cars zoom round my favourite circuit), I've sent out messages to teams, drivers and F1 media people asking what I absolutely must see and do. As of yet, only Red Bull have responded:

RedBullF1Spy:

Go to the driving signing sessions, take an umbrella, taste the local beer/barbecue. TAKE EAR DEFENDERS. 

 

Perhaps the best advice I will receive! While I'm still waiting on replies from other teams, one team who responded to an earlier message was Virgin Racing. This weekend, Virgin have been sponsored by the film 'Cars 2', due for release when I am at the Nurburgring. The film's logo has been placed on the car, however I suggested that the team should draw a face on their cars in order to be more in keeping with the film. Virgin Racing responded with:

MarussiaVirgin:
@MooEvilBoffin we do have the little marussia mouth! yfrog.com/kldwyhfj

I know the teams are always busy, and for them to respond to my messages is always a pleasing moment, so I dedicated my 'Follow Friday' to @RedBullF1Spy and @MarussiaVirgin.

One last Twitter user who received special mention from me was @SaveTheRing. This user is dedicated to a campaign to save the Nurburgring from a somewhat worrying state that it's found itself in. I can't begin to go into the details of the campaign here as I wouldn't be able to explain it in enough depth. However, you can read about the campaign here. Once you've read the article, you can sign the petition. I also suggest you follow SaveTheRing from the link posted earlier. I adore watching races at the Nurburgring, and this race will be my first ever grand prix meeting in person. It would be a dreadful shame if people like me couldn't go to the circuit, so I fully support this campaign.

So, hopefully Red Bull will continue their charge on qualifying tomorrow. Until I get back home, please don't give away the result! No doubt I'll give you an update after the race; it's good to have F1 back home!

The Week After Next (Like The Day After Tomorrow, But More Epic)

Ok, it's July. That means one thing only to me: NURBURGRING. Yes, the month has finally arrived when I shall cross the Channel from my home in Kent and drive across Europe until I get to the home of the 2011 German Grand Prix. As mentioned before, this will be the first F1 race I've ever seen in person. The decision to go wasn't much of a planned event, with savings and strategies, but rather a realisation that the event was affordable and a reward for me winning an award from the British Psychological Society for the highest A-level grade in the UK - see, studying does have its perks! I think we can do the whole trip for around £500, although I will, of course, be cluttering the Range Rover with momentos... Well, what else is a scholarship for?! As it's nearing the time of departure (the 20th of July at around 8 PM for those interested), I thought I'd best update on what's happened so far in terms of preparation.

The Rangey is very nearly ready for its epic journey. Dad's had some worries about the ABS working on the car, so in order to eliminate these worries the whole system's come off to give us normal brakes that shouldn't cause any problems (touch wood). The panels are all still lovely and straight owing to a lack of trialling lately. I also believe that Dad's going to put a winch on the car, as well as a snorkel, just so it looks more awesome and so it functions a little better off road. Although whether this gets done in the next 16 days is unclear. Just to be on the safe side, phone calls were made to our insurance company about European break down cover. This is one thing that we definitely needed more than anything else - driving a 21 year old car across Europe to a trip of a lifetime is a risky business, and we don't want anything going wrong. Luckily, our insurance company provided us with the necessary cover.

On that note, a word of caution to other classic car owners: many companies won't offer European break down cover to those of you who drive a car over 11 years old. Some companies, like the RAC, will charge an extra fee. We were offered a quote of £74 by the RAC, only to look in the terms and conditions to see that the total cost would be £174 because of the age of the car. Needless to say, we didn't take that deal.

In terms of other preparation for the trip, I got my damage deposit back from my university accommodation, as well as a scholarship payment. This is, of course, going to be spending money for the trip. I don't exactly know what I'm going to buy from the circuit, but without doubt most of the merchandise will be pricey so I'm preparing myself to spend a bit more than I'd perhaps like. However, seeing as this is something I've always wanted to do I'm not letting a mere matter of money get in the way. Expect to see photos of what I've bought when I return and blog about the trip.

A final note is that my Dad and I have filtered in a trip to Bruges on the way back from the Nurburgring. We saw the Belgian city on an episode of Coast, and it looked far too good to miss out on. As the ferry back isn't until 10 at night, we'd be mad not to go! I've been given instruction that whilst there I have to buy chocolates. How can I resist obeying those instructions?

So, in just over two weeks I'll be on my way to the Nurburgring. Until then, I'm going to be far too overexcited. Kids at Christmas won't have anything on my excitement levels for this trip. Here's hoping for a Red Bull win just to top the whole trip off!

Happy Birthday Sebastian!

My blog wouldn't be worthy of the tagline unless I mentioned that today was Sebastian Vettel's 24th birthday! Sadly, the tag #HappyBirthdaySeb hasn't started trending on Twitter yet, but I'm sure Seb's had lots of birthday wishes nonetheless. Anyway, Sebastian Vettel has had a fantastic year in F1 so far - all but one pole position, and never out of the top two. Surely, he is an absolute genius! I speak for all fans of Sebastian when I say that I hope he has a brilliant birthday, and another good result in next week's grand prix.

On the subject of races, I'd quite like it if Seb could win at the Nurburgring too. This is his home race, and his first race in Germany since winning the championship. It also happens to be my first ever race in person! I must admit, I'm more excited than I have ever been before. Three weeks today I will be at the circuit watching 24 of the finest drivers race around my favourite circuit - heaven or what? I will of course be blogging about my whole visit once I come back from 'The Green Hell', and I'm thinking of creating a whole album of photos to share with you all. On that note, I'm thinking of buying yet another memory card for my camera - I just don't think that 1,700 photos are going to be enough for an obsessive fan such as myself...

One final Sebastian related note for those of you who are interested: Seb will be on Top Gear next week as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car. As I said on Twitter earlier, my life is complete!

Happy Birthday Sebastian!