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

The reason for my visit to Belgium?

The chocolate and waffles (and indeed pizzas!) were lovely but there was another reason...

This...

is Formula 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I was there for the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Circuit Spa-Francochamps!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regular readers may have spotted that I am a big Formula 1 fan, along with my kids and more recently my husband.  I have loved the sport since I was a teenager, and used to go to Grand Prix with my brother.  Then came marriage, kids, mortgage etc, etc, and it is a long loooooong time since I could go to a race.  Each race weekend we would sit glued to the TV to watch the practice, qualifying and the big race itself.  And this year, we were finally able to go back to see the real thing.  And it was AMAZING!!!!!

Lots of beautiful cars to look at, here is our favourite, the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen (more of him in a moment):

 

A few hairy moments for some of the drivers, but thankfully everyone emerged safe and sound, but perhaps with slightly bruised egos:

The track itself is beautiful and very dramatic, very hilly in places:

We were able to walk the track after the race (7km!) and took a picture of the Ferrari teddy leaning in a casual manner against the barrier:

We were also allowed into the pit lane on the Thursday, and met some of the drivers - first off, from the Red Bull team, Sebastian Vettel, the current 4 times World Champion:

He was very modest, took a lot of time to talk to the fans, a very nice chap!

Then, Daniel Ricciardo, the eventual winner of the Grand Prix, who was very bubbly and entertaining (I might just have to adopt him as a nephew)

Then to the driver we have been supporting as a family for over 10 years, the 2007 World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen:

A much quieter chap than the Red Bull lads (he is often nicknamed the Iceman for his cool and calm manner) but he stayed out the longest of all the drivers, making sure that he could sign as many autographs as possible, a very patient guy as there were so many people there!

We had the most fantastic time imaginable, if you are not into cars or motorsport I can understand that you might find this all a bit strange!

Of course we are back to watching the races on TV again now (Singapore this weekend) but the memories we have of this fantastic sport in a fabulous country will always remain.  Would love to go again next year!

Have a lovely evening, Helenxx