We've had a lot of bad luck this year with travel, what with volcanic ash making life difficult getting out of Shanghai, Barcelona and Monaco for many. On Thursday the French public sector decided the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano had had far too much fun wrecking travelers lives, and got in on the act with a massive strike.
I usually travel to races on Wednesday afternoon, but decided to set off at the crack of dawn on Thursday because I had a meeting (well, if you can call watching football with a well-known fashion editor a legitimate 'meeting') on Wednesday night. Normally I would take the RER suburban train to Paris' Orly airport, but I thought wiser of it and got a cab at 7am because I'd heard the train drivers were on strike.
When I arrived at Orly I was told the air traffic controllers were on strike too. Brilliant. How long is our delay? Maybe an hour and half, maybe more, the check-in girl at Spanish no-frills carrier Vueling told me. Maybe more was right, because in total the delay was five hours long, two of which we spent sat on the plane waiting to move.
Listen up Sarkozy: When US air traffic controllers went on strike in 1981, President Reagan fired 11,000 of them.
This, of course, comes just a few days after the French football team decided to go on strike because they didn't like their management, causing outrage. It reinforces a French stereotype, politicians and commentators complained. Too right, and Thursday hammered it in further. Stereotype? It's more than that. It's their national sport!
We could have flown to Dubai in the time it took us to fly the 1000km to Valencia. I was on a plane with colleagues Brad Spurgeon of the International Herald Tribune and Joe Saward, both of whom were ready to punch a French air traffic controller by the time we rolled into Valencia at 4pm.
Flights all over Europe were affected, with important F1 parts and team bosses from England arriving as late as midnight on Thursday. Heikki Kovalainen's flight from Geneva was cancelled, and at 10pm that night made the decision to drive 1200km to the race. He arrived 5am Friday. "I felt a bit tired in all the meetings," he said, "but in the car the adrenaline kicks in and it's no problem". Good attitude!
Lotus are celebrating their 500th Grand Prix this weekend, and on Thursday evening the team posed for pictures alongside the 2010 T127 and Lotus' first ever racing car. With Heikki still tapping his toes at Geneva Airport, it was Jarno Trulli who took centre stage. When he arrived he looked at the old car and said to Mike Gascoyne "That's not my new chassis is it?!"
Lotus Racing commissioned me to create a special 500th magazine, in which I've interviewed team principal Tony Fernandes and son-of-Colin Clive Chapman, plus an editorial on Lotus' glorious past and promising future. You can download it here or go to www.lotusracing.my.
I had an accommodation scare on Wednesday when my regular roomie, Speed TV's Will Buxton, called to say that the room he had booked us was a single, and single really did mean single - no chance of topping and tailing. Valencia is a bastard for hotels - high prices and high demand - so finding one last minute was going to be tricky. I called a few hotels I knew of - no rooms. So I called a sponsor who had overbooked and agreed to take a room off them at half price. A good deal, but half price was still 200 Euros a night. And they didn't have a booking for Thursday.
About five minutes after I'd agreed on that room in writing I heard of another hotel a five minute walk from the track, on the beach, that had a room for the whole weekend for 60 Euros a night. Damn!! I'm a man of my word, and had already promised the sponsor rep.
I took the cheapo place for Thursday and very decent it was too, for the price. I'm not going to name it here as I have every intention of booking the place for next season as soon as the dates are announced. However, last night I moved into my smart new digs at the Valencia Palace. Five star gaff. Turns out I'd stayed there for a test once when I worked for Red Bull. Is it worth the 140 Euros over the other place? Well, yeah it probably is...
After interviewing Jenson Button at the McLaren Brand Centre in the late afternoon I stopped by Renault, who are doing regular Friday night wine and cheese and caught up with some of the media centre's veterans. Then I was invited aboard a stunning clipper - the Stad Amsterdam - that's owned by human resources company Ranstad. Imagine that - having your own company yacht! Being on the directors' board of that company is a sweet deal, I reckon.
After drinks and tapas there, I got a call from my mate Harry from TW Steel (everybody in the paddock sports a TW Steel watch these days!) who asked if I was hungry. I lied and said yes, and joined him and his gang at the Tridente restaurant at the Hotel Neptuno. We had this massive tasting menu that must have been nine courses long - delicious and very well lubricated. On top of all that wine, cheese and tapas I was stuffed.
When I got to the Valencia Palace I found Bruno Senna propping up the bar (drinking iced tea, mind) and he said "You look happy - I've never seen you so bouncy!"
"That's because I'm drunk, mate" I told him!
I usually travel to races on Wednesday afternoon, but decided to set off at the crack of dawn on Thursday because I had a meeting (well, if you can call watching football with a well-known fashion editor a legitimate 'meeting') on Wednesday night. Normally I would take the RER suburban train to Paris' Orly airport, but I thought wiser of it and got a cab at 7am because I'd heard the train drivers were on strike.
When I arrived at Orly I was told the air traffic controllers were on strike too. Brilliant. How long is our delay? Maybe an hour and half, maybe more, the check-in girl at Spanish no-frills carrier Vueling told me. Maybe more was right, because in total the delay was five hours long, two of which we spent sat on the plane waiting to move.
Listen up Sarkozy: When US air traffic controllers went on strike in 1981, President Reagan fired 11,000 of them.
This, of course, comes just a few days after the French football team decided to go on strike because they didn't like their management, causing outrage. It reinforces a French stereotype, politicians and commentators complained. Too right, and Thursday hammered it in further. Stereotype? It's more than that. It's their national sport!
We could have flown to Dubai in the time it took us to fly the 1000km to Valencia. I was on a plane with colleagues Brad Spurgeon of the International Herald Tribune and Joe Saward, both of whom were ready to punch a French air traffic controller by the time we rolled into Valencia at 4pm.
Flights all over Europe were affected, with important F1 parts and team bosses from England arriving as late as midnight on Thursday. Heikki Kovalainen's flight from Geneva was cancelled, and at 10pm that night made the decision to drive 1200km to the race. He arrived 5am Friday. "I felt a bit tired in all the meetings," he said, "but in the car the adrenaline kicks in and it's no problem". Good attitude!
Lotus are celebrating their 500th Grand Prix this weekend, and on Thursday evening the team posed for pictures alongside the 2010 T127 and Lotus' first ever racing car. With Heikki still tapping his toes at Geneva Airport, it was Jarno Trulli who took centre stage. When he arrived he looked at the old car and said to Mike Gascoyne "That's not my new chassis is it?!"
Lotus Racing commissioned me to create a special 500th magazine, in which I've interviewed team principal Tony Fernandes and son-of-Colin Clive Chapman, plus an editorial on Lotus' glorious past and promising future. You can download it here or go to www.lotusracing.my.
I had an accommodation scare on Wednesday when my regular roomie, Speed TV's Will Buxton, called to say that the room he had booked us was a single, and single really did mean single - no chance of topping and tailing. Valencia is a bastard for hotels - high prices and high demand - so finding one last minute was going to be tricky. I called a few hotels I knew of - no rooms. So I called a sponsor who had overbooked and agreed to take a room off them at half price. A good deal, but half price was still 200 Euros a night. And they didn't have a booking for Thursday.
About five minutes after I'd agreed on that room in writing I heard of another hotel a five minute walk from the track, on the beach, that had a room for the whole weekend for 60 Euros a night. Damn!! I'm a man of my word, and had already promised the sponsor rep.
I took the cheapo place for Thursday and very decent it was too, for the price. I'm not going to name it here as I have every intention of booking the place for next season as soon as the dates are announced. However, last night I moved into my smart new digs at the Valencia Palace. Five star gaff. Turns out I'd stayed there for a test once when I worked for Red Bull. Is it worth the 140 Euros over the other place? Well, yeah it probably is...
After interviewing Jenson Button at the McLaren Brand Centre in the late afternoon I stopped by Renault, who are doing regular Friday night wine and cheese and caught up with some of the media centre's veterans. Then I was invited aboard a stunning clipper - the Stad Amsterdam - that's owned by human resources company Ranstad. Imagine that - having your own company yacht! Being on the directors' board of that company is a sweet deal, I reckon.
After drinks and tapas there, I got a call from my mate Harry from TW Steel (everybody in the paddock sports a TW Steel watch these days!) who asked if I was hungry. I lied and said yes, and joined him and his gang at the Tridente restaurant at the Hotel Neptuno. We had this massive tasting menu that must have been nine courses long - delicious and very well lubricated. On top of all that wine, cheese and tapas I was stuffed.
When I got to the Valencia Palace I found Bruno Senna propping up the bar (drinking iced tea, mind) and he said "You look happy - I've never seen you so bouncy!"
"That's because I'm drunk, mate" I told him!
Kovalainen - 1200kms - 7 hours - hmmmmm.
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