Life in the Pit Lane!

Hello everyone!

Well, Thursday arrived, and with it our chance to revisit the pitlane at Spa-Francorchamps.  We had such a great time there last year.

We queued for nearly three hours, then a mad rush to get a position outside favourite team garages.  The boys raced off to Ferrari, which is always a madly crowded affair, but DD, me and DH headed for the Williams garage as DD is a great fan of Felipe Massa, and I was also quite interested to meet the rising Finnish star, Valteri Bottas.  I love the driving style of the Finnish F1 drivers, Mika Hakkinen, and of course Kimi Raikkonen.  And on the way to the track we found out that Ferrari have signed him to drive for them again in 2016 - such jubilation!!

And the bonus, the Williams garage was next door to Ferrari, so we had a clear view there too.

Fascinating watching the mechanics prepare the cars...

Taking the cars for scrutineering...

Ferrari...

Williams...

Force India...

Torro Rosso...

More final preparations...

And then, DD let out a squeak - Mr Felipe Massa emerged from his garage...

He graciously signed autographs, DD still hasn't descended from cloud 9, thanks Mr Massa for making her day!

Valteri Bottas, a rising F1 star...I was able to use my entire Finnish vocabulary when thanking him (i.e. Thank you very much!) I think he was quite surprised, but understood me and thanked me in English!

Such excitement! 
Then a huge cheer went up from the Ferrai fans - Mr Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 F1 World Champion, and our family favourite, had arrived!

DH shouted "KIMI!!" rather loudly so I got a great shot of the Iceman (his nickname) looking straight into my camera lense...

One of his mechanics shared a joke and we were treated to a rare smile, Kimi is known for his cool, calm demeanour and it is said, by some, that he doesn't smile often, but he did on this day...

Sons managed to get autographs but we were not near enough.  But it made our day watching him chatting with the fans and his mechanics and team mates.

Then the Ferrari Team Principal came out of the garage too and spoke to some of the Ferrari fans in front of their garage.  I had my Ferrari cap and cheekily called to him to come over to where we were... and being a very nice chap he did just that!

He kindly signed my Ferrari hat - I was very pleased! And of course I thanked him for signing Kimi again, he was very gracious and friendly.

Then - another world champion was spotted - Jacques Villeneuve , soon to be a Formula E driver next season, being interviewed by a TV crew...

What an afternoon!

After all the excitement with the drivers we allowed to walk onto the track itself...

The pit straight....

Exit of La Source...

All of this set us up very nicely for the race weekend!

Back soon hopefully with Friday practice!!

Helenxx

Hello Sunshine!

Hello everyone, hope your week is going well. 

The weather, up until the Wednesday of our holiday, had been rather grey, with some rain here and there, which, fortunately did not spoil any of our plans.

But, Wednesday dawned and - hello sunshine!!  And the lovely weather was to stay until the day we sailed back to the UK.

DH and I had a lovely walk around the lake onto which our chalet opened, it was about a mile circuit with lovely views...

Our chalet in close up...

 Some intriguing graffiti, apparently there is a legend about witches in Vielsalm, and apparently they have something to do with blueberries...

After a quick lunch we set off again to see what was happening at the race track, as the following day the teams would arrive in earnest and, for those of us lucky enough to have weekend tickets, there would be a pitlane walk and a chance to meet the drivers!

Well, the circuit was a lot busier, with the podium being prepared - please note the Canadian flags, not sure what that was about...

The media circus had arrived...

More Ferrari lorries....

The safety car was being prepared...

We were, by this time, very excited indeed!  The next few days would be spent at the race circuit, so we nipped into Lidl in Malmedy (again, a town heavily affected in WW2 but now very pretty and peaceful) to stock up and then back to the chalet for an early night.

Back soon hopefully with news of our adventures in the pitlane!!

Helenxx

Deep in the forest a monster sleeps...

Hello again everyone - well, I left the last post with a bit of a cliffhanger: what were we seeking, deep in the forest of the Ardennes?

Can you make out what it is?

 



Yes, we had returned to this amazing place....

For the fabulous Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix!!!!!

We had been planning the trip since before last Christmas, with race tickets and accommodation booked the day before my birthday on 12th January.

The track was locked to the general public as this was the weekend before the race, but the real reason for our country walk was to follow a woodland trail that runs parallel to the track giving tempting, fleeting, evocative views of what many F1 fans count to be the best race track in the world...

Looking across to the legendary Eau Rouge section of the track...the
G force exerted onto the drivers at this point is greater than that experienced by astronauts at take-off - the cars are travelling at around 200 mph...

The pit straight...

Lorries with equipment and the cars themselves had already arrived...

FIA vital equipment, this lorry, we discovered later, was carrying the safety cars...

Team Lotus and Team Torro Rosso...

Love the Torro Rosso logo of the charging bull...

A HUGE cheer erupted from us all when we spotted the Ferrari lorries as the driver we support, Kimi Raikkonen, drives for this team...

We then walked into the village of Francorchamps which offers one of the entrances to the track...

Big hotel, this houses a lot of fans come race weekend...

Impressive new house...wonder who lives there...

Hotel de la Source, named after the first bend on the track...this is a place for VIP visitors...

Number 1 son had planned this walk for us, and all were in agreement that it was the ideal start to our European Motorsport Road Trip!

Walking back to the car, we excitedly discussed who we thought would be the winners and losers, who could cause an upset, the latest Formula 1 gossip - yes, our support of this sport is a real family affair. 

The hillside was just starting to show pink/purple hues from the emerging heather....

Beautiful view over to Stavelot and beyond...

Tired, but excited for what awaited us the following weekend we returned back to our chalet for a lovely dinner, cooked by DH.

Back soon hopefully with our visit to the castle of La Roche en Ardenne! Complete with condor!!

Helenxx