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Post by René on Aug 4, 2023 9:09:09 GMT
Carl, I have no idea where Ferrari stayed. I am sure the pasta was good!  The sport has changed so much over the years. Some things for the better but much has also been lost. Your memory about the Holiday Inn sounds wonderful and I feel very fortunate myself that I have experienced Formula 1 at a time when everything was still accessible for fans. Only just though because the professionalism and the apparently associated distance from the fans grew rapidly, already during the 1980s. For the 1980 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, my parents gave me a wonderful present when they bought Paddock tickets for the weekend. They gave access to the main grandstand and the paddock area. My parents stayed in the grandstand and I could walk back and forth between grandstand and paddock. And that was heaven for me, a 15 year old lad completely fascinated by this sport. My heros were all around me and I could collect autographs and touch the cars. I remember how Keke Rosberg suddenly stept out of a camper and looked at me and said 'hi'.  From my scrapbook, Zolder 1980. René, I didn't mean to imply that your enthusiasm for pasta or Ferrari was overdone. I know that seeing the cars and drivers at 9/10ths ( dalla vista e dal suono ) is 9/10ths of your focus.
The level of access you enjoyed at Zolder was, as you say, heaven for a young race fan and a wonderful gift from your parents! My love of racing was never understood at home. My father valued soft boulevard ride and big engines (the Pontiac Bonneville and 389 cubic inch V-8) so we spoke different languages.
There is a mysterious inclusion on the paddock pass, "Toto" repeated across the entire width. I wonder if there was a fortune teller on the staff at Zolder warning of arrogance to come... Cheers, Carl
Carl, my enthusiasm for Ferrari, or good pasta for that matter, can never be overdone. They are both bellissima! The Ferrari team (and all other Italian teams) are always received with great enthusiasm in Belgium because of the large Italian community. This dates back to the time of the coal mines that were mainly located in the east of the country. Many Italians came here to work in the mines in the middle of the last century and still form close-knit communities. Mainly around Genk, near the Zolder circuit, but everything is quite close together. It's only an hour on the motorway between Zolder and Francorchamps. So I am sure the Ferrari team stayed in a very nice hotel with excellent pasta and wine!  I never noticed ToToToTo.... on that card before!  |
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Post by mikael on Aug 4, 2023 15:05:40 GMT
Ref: "The sport has changed so much over the years. Some things for the better but much has also been lost.”
One limiting factor in the possibility of interacting with F1 drivers is that they all, with the possible exception of a few rookies, are super-rich, and thus all lead a "VIP life", staying only at the very best hotels, etc.
During the years I visited Suzuka, there was always a steady traffic of helicopters, bringing the drivers (and team principals, etc.) to and from the track. Staying in a modest budget hotel in nearby million city Nagoya, we found out that the end-point of the helicopter traffic was the rooftop of the Marriott Hotel, very likely the most expensive hotel in Nagoya. Most F1 fans would certainly settle for something more modest and reasonably-priced - like the "Toyoko Inn" we always used. This budget hotel was always filled with F1 fans, 80 - 90% of the guests, I would guess, easily recognized by the caps and t-shirts worn by almost everybody.
It was said, however, that F1 staff (mechanics, etc.) used the reasonably priced hotels in Suzuka town and nearby Yokkaichi city. Hence, it was well-nigh impossible to get a hotel room there - one had to go to Nagoya (some 40 km from Suzuka).
The preferred hotel of the F1 stars ...
... and our preferred hotel :-) |
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Post by René on Aug 4, 2023 16:36:22 GMT
Absolutely Mikael. Even if drivers in the old days also lived very privileged lives, the distance between the drivers and real race fans was not that great as I experienced myself. Both drivers and teams were much more approachable. You can still buy paddock tickets these days but they cost a small fortune, in no way comparable to how it used to be. Or you have to be invited because you are a very important person, like the people in the photo below. I made the photo with the idea I might recognize some people but the only known faces to me are Domenicali and Ben Sulayem. Who are all those other people? They have access to all the drivers and cars but the only thing they do is make selfies while looking important...   |
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Post by Carl on Aug 4, 2023 19:46:32 GMT
Also on their faces are impatience and boredom, both common moods of the self-important. Their assistants may have spent time and money to get them in the paddock, but they don't understand where they are or why. Reliant on fame, their attention is drawn to the nearest camera... I've always thought that a cheap army tent next to the railroad tracks would become glamorous priced at $2,600 a night. “What a pity that life robs the rich of its beauty, and what’s worse, entices them with its ugliness.”
-Novelist B.S. Murthy |
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Post by René on Aug 4, 2023 20:45:23 GMT
Also on their faces are impatience and boredom, both common moods of the self-important. Their assistants may have spent time and money to get them in the paddock, but they don't understand where they are or why. Reliant on fame, their attention is drawn to the nearest camera... I've always thought that a cheap army tent next to the railroad tracks would become glamorous priced at $2,600 a night. “What a pity that life robs the rich of its beauty, and what’s worse, entices them with its ugliness.”
-Novelist B.S. Murthy Exactly Carl, they have no idea. Those people cannot yet distinguish the front from the back of a car, but they are allowed to walk around there. A true enthusiast would walk onto the grid with a completely different focus. |
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Post by Carl on Aug 4, 2023 21:43:30 GMT
At Riverside, I would call the ticket office, secure the seats I wanted, and send them a check. Honest and easy. After a few years at Long Beach, control transferred to the Long Beach Grand Prix Association (basically a Chamber of Commerce affiliate). More than once afterward, I would try without success to secure top row seats, where you can stand without blocking anyone's view and also see parts of the track behind. On raceday, a couple rows down, I sometimes overheard the conversations of those who got the choice seats because of sponsor connections.
This one I'll never forget: "What's that thing at the back of the car?" "That's a wing" "Why do they have a wing?" "We'll ask someone later." |
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Post by robmarsh on Aug 5, 2023 8:31:57 GMT
Exactly Carl, they have no idea. Those people cannot yet distinguish the front from the back of a car, but they are allowed to walk around there. A true enthusiast would walk onto the grid with a completely different focus."
Back in 1983 John Player were doing a promotion at the most upmarket shopping centre at that time. They had a Lotus F1 car there, one of those display models that have everything except the engine which was covered by the bodywork anyway. I was all over the thing explaining to my wife what the wings did, the diffuser etc etc. The promotion lady was so impressed she gave me two tickets to the SA GP a few weeks hence because she thought I looked like a true enthusiast and could do with them.
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Post by René on Aug 5, 2023 9:35:47 GMT
Exactly Carl, they have no idea. Those people cannot yet distinguish the front from the back of a car, but they are allowed to walk around there. A true enthusiast would walk onto the grid with a completely different focus." Back in 1983 John Player were doing a promotion at the most upmarket shopping centre at that time. They had a Lotus F1 car there, one of those display models that have everything except the engine which was covered by the bodywork anyway. I was all over the thing explaining to my wife what the wings did, the diffuser etc etc. The promotion lady was so impressed she gave me two tickets to the SA GP a few weeks hence because she thought I looked like a true enthusiast and could do with them. What better way to win those tickets than by impressing the ladies! |
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Post by Carl on Aug 5, 2023 15:36:38 GMT
Exactly Carl, they have no idea. Those people cannot yet distinguish the front from the back of a car, but they are allowed to walk around there. A true enthusiast would walk onto the grid with a completely different focus." Back in 1983 John Player were doing a promotion at the most upmarket shopping centre at that time. They had a Lotus F1 car there, one of those display models that have everything except the engine which was covered by the bodywork anyway. I was all over the thing explaining to my wife what the wings did, the diffuser etc etc. The promotion lady was so impressed she gave me two tickets to the SA GP a few weeks hence because she thought I looked like a true enthusiast and could do with them. I always liked John Player, the name, the old-fashioned cigarette package. Now I know that was justified.
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Post by robmarsh on Aug 5, 2023 17:36:06 GMT
Exactly Carl, they have no idea. Those people cannot yet distinguish the front from the back of a car, but they are allowed to walk around there. A true enthusiast would walk onto the grid with a completely different focus." Back in 1983 John Player were doing a promotion at the most upmarket shopping centre at that time. They had a Lotus F1 car there, one of those display models that have everything except the engine which was covered by the bodywork anyway. I was all over the thing explaining to my wife what the wings did, the diffuser etc etc. The promotion lady was so impressed she gave me two tickets to the SA GP a few weeks hence because she thought I looked like a true enthusiast and could do with them. I always liked John Player, the name, the old-fashioned cigarette package. Now I know that was justified.
Agreed Carl, two very classy and distinguishable liveries. Right up there amongst my favourites. Funny how the tobacco liveries were, to me, the most eye-catching. I was a smoker up until 17:30 on 31st May 1990. All the liveries did was get me to try different brands. Once I had given up the liveries never tempted me to start again. I have yet to meet a smoker who said they started smoking because of the F1 liveries but I have met many who said the same as me. |
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Post by René on Aug 6, 2023 10:23:30 GMT
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Post by René on Aug 12, 2023 10:41:05 GMT
Who would have thought just a few years ago that a Honda-powered car could become this dominant... Early Honda days...   |
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Post by robmarsh on Aug 12, 2023 15:27:42 GMT
1968
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