The final day of testing has come and nearly gone. I am pretty knackered now. After spending the day out on track, I got away from the circuit at just before 8pm and drove 2hrs to Alicante. Since my flight is in the morning, I would rather do the travelling now than do it early tomorrow. I get a lay in at least. So I am somewhere in Alicante and believe I might be right on the beach but as its pitch dark, I really have no idea.
Another hot day at the track again although not as hot as yesterday. I am not complaining by the way because I would rather have this weather than the rain that was mean’t to have come instead. With the final day, I thought I would just start to experiment abit and see if there was any place that I could take photos from that I haven’t before. Answer….well no not really. Only the podium position I was able to get some over heads but it wasn’t anything special. Believe me, I tried all different positions but nothing was coming out right.
Not much to report on the test other than the marbles on the track are getting worse and worse so there despite hearing some good things about the tyres, I would say that there are far to much for an F1 tyre. The outfit itself is quite strange in that it only has one marked up truck in the paddock, the rest are plain white trucks. Compared with Bridgestone, they look like an F3 outfit.
That is it for testing. Now, I could get Barcelona and Bahrain passes but its really not worth the money to spend on travel and accomodation. So I guess it will be another year before I am back in Valencia again.
It has been a very hot day today. Ok so the temperature only reached 18C but when you dress for weather at about 10C then you all of a sudden find yourself getting rather hot. Of course I am not looking forward to going back to the UK when it would seem we struggle to get above 1C.
Alot more busy on the track and the grandstands today. Alot more spectators turning up, maybe it was the Lewis Hamilton affect? Alot of VIPS from Red Bull and Ferrari making there way in. What you do realise is that gone are the days of hospitality for the guests. For example Toyota would rig a marquee for all their guests but now, your be lucky to get any food full stop, let alone a place to sit.
Whilst sitting in the media centre (above the Ferrari garage) I noticed an influx of photographers gathering around outside on the balcony and looking down at Ferrari. I decided to go and have a look and all I noted was a woman and man on the pit wall. This is nothing new as it happens alot but photographers were taking a great interest. I thought that it maybe a Spanish celebritity or say someone from Big Brother? I didn’t ask. I thought that maybe best I go down the pits and take a photo as you never know. Anyway lets say that she enjoyed the attention that she was getting but maybe thats because she was dressed with her breasts about to pop out. Having got back to the hotel tonight and do research on her, it turns out that she is your normal VIP guest at Ferrari that has no connection to the celeb. world but the fact that she had flesh on display was why she was being photographed.
Getting back to business; there was little to report today. A number of long red flag sessions but thats really it. Hardly any running by Lotus so I really need to work on that tomorrow and get the new guy at Williams. Massa, Sutil, Button take over tomorrow for the final day of testing.
I have included my favourite photo from todays takings. The Ferrari seems to photograph well at high speed whilst some cars like the Lotus just dont and the camera seems to get abit confused by the colours.
Its been abit of a long day today. With all the launches taking place first thing this morning, it meant having to be up and away from the hotel very early. Infact it was dark when I left.
Unfortunately, I missed the Red Bull launch. I guess I am to be blamed for that however yesterday they made no effort to publish a time for the launch. I am not going to blame others but the internet said 08:30GMT, so surely thats 09:30CET? Anyway, the launch was at 08:30CET. With the amount of press down there however after seeing the photos, I think it would have been difficult to get a space.
Today was the launch of another two cars, the Toro Rosso and Mercedes. All held very quickly in succession and involved photographers sprinting down the pitlane to cover two launches in 10minutes. Nothing really worth noting at each launch and a dull affair for everyone. Although out of all of them so far, Mercedes drivers have seemed the most interested out of the launch.
After leaving the pitlane lane and walking into Red Bull to get a drink, I walked into a press conference with Webber, Vettel, Newey and Horner. Not to much to say about the conference other than the face of Webber which looked like he had just been told off. He did not raise one smile throughout, almost seemed to be intentionally pulling a miserable face.
Numbers are down on attendance for testing this year. No where near the amount of people as there was last year. Can’t understand what the reason would be for the down turn? People are now used to seeing Alonso at Ferrari? Waiting for Lewis Hamilton to turn up tomorrow? We shall find out tomorrow.
So the action on the track was uneventful. Only one stop today and that was Rosberg who did it on the start/finish straight. Williams were suffering some glitches aswell as Renault who were not able to run that much. Now I mentioned yesterday that I was worried about photographing the car and I am starting to think I am right. Colours are off when I review the images. I need to take some more tomorrow in the morning (todays were taken in the afternoon when the sun was in a different area) and review it all again.
Williams colour scheme is boring at the moment aswell as Virgin and HRT. Nothing is going to be changed till Jerez at least. Trying to find the energy to photograph the Sauber aswell because with lack of sponsors, that is looking a dull car aswell.
Not much changing tomorrow, the odd change in drivers. Hamilton is in for Paffett and Lotus (the original team) begin to run. So another team to add to the books. All fun!