Hungarian GP Trip

By Alison G S
August 8 2005

Well we all know what happened and have theories as to who was to blame but for us the race at Hungary was anything but boring. It was hot and exciting from the beginning to the end.

Thankfully, we had seats in the only covered grandstand – on the pit straight directly opposite the Mclaren pit – Red Bull racing to our left and BAR to our right, with a row of Alonso supporters behind us and several rows of hardened Schumi fans in front of us. Dotted around were various nationalities with allegiances to Mercedes, DC, Button, BMW, Webber, Trulli and the “don’t knows”. These were the people who didn’t know why they were there, what was going on, who was driving, which team was which and sometimes which way the cars were going! We did our best to enlighten these poor souls but really they were a lost cause. All we could think about was what a waste it was to have these people taking up seats when there were plenty of real fans who would have happily taken the tickets off their hands.

Qualifying went more or less as expected as far as our drivers were concerned and the Schumi fans were beside themselves.

We watched the GP2 and Porsche races and thoroughly enjoyed them – shame about Scot Speed.

Sunday and the race. Even I needed to stand on the seat to see what was happening through the frantic Schumi arms and flags – the pack roared past us and then we turned to the big screen in front – disaster – a Red Bull flipping over, it took a while to decide who it was and then looking back saw more of the Red Bull going off – but of course it wasn’t the Red Bull it was the other Red Bull. Alex was very sympathetic – she hates to see me cry! At least both drivers were OK and DC was even able to do a bit of tidying up before the pack came round again. I texted my husband – Email Gordon and say sorry!

 

It could have been the end of the race for me as I watched the Red Bull guys begin to pack up the garage but then I came over all “British”. JPM and Kimi were in British cars and their pit was right opposite – we had the perfect seats for the pit stops and soon all the non red clad fans around were screaming for Kimi and the Schumi fans went very quiet!

After the race we went down to the track and peered through the perspex on the pit wall into the garages. I got my only decent pictures of the Red Bulls then – not quite the sort I wanted!

 

 

All in all though we had a great time. The tour was fantastic, lots of really nice people and we were well looked after. Eddie Armitt our tour guide did everything to make sure we enjoyed ourselves and didn’t miss anything.

I feel that in my defence I must just say that there was a German lady Schumi fan in front of us who literally put the evil eye on drivers she didn’t like as they went by – the 2DNFs are down to her – not us!!!! Please, please let me go to another Grand Prix one day!

PS Heard about Bernie Avenue – the road built from the Motorway to the Circuit? Sounds good doesn’t it? It’s not just the name it shares with Bernie – it too is small and somehow not terribly impressive!!!! (see picture)