BGP: MF1O does 1st practice in the garage!

By Huw Alban
June 10 2006

Totally out of the blue, Midland F1 Online were invited into the Midland F1 garage today to see the team go about the business of racing during the first free practice session for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

For the last 3 years I've been writing articles from the British GP for Planet-F1.com. With my involvement with Midland F1 Online, Planet-F1 has fallen to one side but I always used to start my Silverstone summary with the same observation…

… and I'm going to do it again. I cannot believe the difference between Silverstone circuit during a public test and the circuit today on the first day of the British Grand Prix weekend. Those that have been to an F1 test at Silverstone will know how quiet and desolated the place can be, but today it's got its party frock on and it's ready to dance. Everywhere has had a fresh coat of paint and a polish, and even today on Friday the spectator numbers make the place feel alive.

When an F1 test session is red flagged because someone has gone off, the circuit goes deathly quiet with only the sounds of local workmen and birds breaking the silence. Today there is no time for silence. Fans are busy discussing all the latest F1 news between themselves, the loudspeaker system is broadcasting the audio feed from Silverstone TV, and all of that is competing with vendors pumping out loud dance tunes in an attempt to attract prospective purchasers. It's a smorgasbord of noise, movement, and colour, and that's before we even got to see any ontrack action.

At 09:30 whilst wondering up through the back of the start/finish straight my mobile phone buzzed in my pocket. It was our source in the team asking, "How would you like to see practice one from the back of the garage?" A quick conversation took place to arrange a meeting point and time and 15 minutes later I was swiping a VIP Paddock Pass at the barrier on the other side of the bridge half way down the start/finish straight and walking up the paddock towards the Midland hospitality suite.

It was quite strange actually. I'm so used to walking around this chunk of tarmac at the back of the garages during F1 tests, and if it wasn't for the pass hanging around my neck and the mass of team motorhomes you could have sworn that this was just another busy F1 test. There weren't many people around, in fact photographers and other media personnel probably outnumbered public punters 10-1.

I was shown around the Midland F1 garage about 40 minutes before the first session started. The three cars were in there, with the T-car parked at an angle in the middle of the garage space. Mechanics were busying themselves checking and polishing their charges. At the back of the garage were three areas. A workshop took up one area, and it already had and engine and gearbox assembly in it being worked on. The next was being used to house spare bodywork and a purpose built tower holding headsets ready for the team personnel to use. The last housed all the telemetry and computers, all showing a bewildering display of graphs and numbers which presumably meant something to the technicians gathered around the displays.

We retired to the airconditioned comfort of the team hospitality suite, and I had some time to wonder around the paddock area. As the pictures below show, I had an interesting time. I saw Ian Philips in deep conversation with Narain Karthikeyan, ITV's Martin Brundle talking to Ferrari's Ross Brawn, saw the Red Bull Energy Station close up and it really is as huge as it looks on the television, and got to see Bernie Ecclestone for real although I didn't have the guts to introduce myself.

 

Having been given complimentary Bridgestone ear plugs we took to the MF1 garage. At the back is a viewing area with a plastic see through panel, and that is where I stood and observed, and updated BigPip at the end of the first free practice session. In the garage where a number of screens showing the F1 picture feed but, of course, with no audio commentary. As a regular TV viewer I found this quite odd to watch and very difficult to concentrate on. In addition was a timing screen which is very similar to the live web timing screens that can be found on Formula1.com.

By now you all know what happened during the first free practice session, so I'll just try and give you a feel for the session from where I was standing.

To start with it was actually quite calm. Oliver Knighton was sat next door to Giorgio Mondini giving him instructions over the radio system, whilst both race drivers just suited up and hopped into their cars. All three M16s went out and all three returned. The team swarmed over all three cars doing checks, and once completed the individual drivers took again to the track. The two race drivers pronounced themselves happy and got out and took to the pit wall, leaving Mondini to continue the normal tyre evaluation runs.

Mondini then had his rear wing changed, and I did hear that the team were running a new rear wing for this weekend. The scene was suddenly one of frantic activity, as mechanics rushed to undo bolts and nuts holding the old wing in place their hands a blur of motion on various spanners and tools required to do the job. In stark contrast were the two race cars just sitting there, driverless, on jacks. With clockwork efficiency the wing was changed and Mondini was back out.

I overheard a comment from someone saying that something was strange. I'm not completely sure what it was, but I think it was related to the new rear wing. Why? Because suddenly the two race cars were having new rear wings fitted and the two race drivers were suiting up for another run despite being told earlier that they both weren't going to.

Towards the end of the session Mondini had his off somewhere in the stadium section of the circuit. Hands were thrown up to heads in the garage as the TV picture feed showed the whole incident in it's dusty detail.

One other thing worth mentioning was that apart form the initial installation laps, every time the car returned to the pits the team made a dummy pit box into which the returning stopped. A lollipop came down and was lifted, and the driver performed a practice take off as if doing a real pit stop. This procedure was practiced with all three drivers whenever they returned from a run.

Giorgio's M16 was returned to the Midland F1 garage very publically on the back of a low loader lorry and was absolutely filthy. As the wheels, and covers were removed from the car gravel spilled out everywhere all over the garage floor. Each part that was removed uncovered yet more of this stuff, it was quite incredible the anount that had bee collected in the various nooks and crannies of the M16. I was informed that despite the drama of the incident that it was just a simple mistake and the T-car was undamaged. By the time I had rung BigPip to update him for his first session report various mechanics were already polishing body parts ready to lower the car to the ground in preparation for the second free practice session.

A had the pleasure of a quick light lunch in the team hospitality suite and then it was back down to earth with a bump as I had to give back the Paddock Pass and return to the public viewing areas for the second free practice session. I took to the covered Grandstand just before Copse corner sitting almost opposite the Midland F1 garage, but I felt somewhat lost just watching the cars blast up the start/finish straight. I was wrong about my earlier comment stating that this could have been just another F1 test, and it took a seat in the public grandstand to show it to me. Even though I was stood in the back of the garage without a headset, I'd felt connected to what was going on in there and right now I missed it.

I moved down to the bottom of Maggotts and Chapel corner towards the end of the second session in order to try and get some pictures, the best of which are below.

I must thank our source in the team that made all this happen today. A huge THANK YOU (yet again) for today. I feel privileged to have shared time with the team at a competitive race event and to watch it all from a completely unique angle, and an angle that any fan would have donated a major limb to experience. Hopefully, through this article, I've been able to share some of that experience with you the visitors to this site.

I'm back at Silverstone tomorrow, but this time I will be there as a paying punter with no exclusive access but I'll attempt to bring the atmosphere of the Saturday sessions to you when I return home. Until then…

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