Ann Bradshaw, a journalist and press officer with three decades of experience in motor racing, and one of the most respected workers in the F1 paddock, follows the 2002 season in her post-race column, offering F1 fans an insight into the life of those who spend the GP weekend inside the paddock

When sitting down to write this column I was trying to imagine just what Monza would be like this year. The tifosi are always the most exuberant fans and to say they are biased towards their beloved Ferrari team is a gross understatement. The difference between Italian motorsport fans and those in any other country is that they follow a team and not a driver. At Silverstone, the fans over the years have always given the loudest support to the likes of Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill, in Nurburging and Hockenheim it is without doubt Michael Schumacher and in France it was Alain Prost. Sadly for Italian drivers, they have never really had much support from their home crowd, and if you ask an Italian who his favourite driver of all time has been then Gilles Villeneuve is most likely to be the name you will hear.

This devotion to the prancing horse has even been known to reach extremes, and I can remember in 1983, Alain Prost, at that time a Renault driver, having to have armed bodyguards following death threats to him for daring to challenge Rene Arnoux in the Ferrari for the world championship. As the teams headed for Monza with just a further two races left in the series Prost was leading the points standings with 51, while Arnoux was second with 43. The threat was taken so seriously that Prost was assigned the personal bodyguards belonging to the President of France.

I will never forget going to the very popular Fossati restaurant, at Canonica, and seeing the diminutive Prost - I reckon 5'6" in his stocking feet - accompanied by two burly gentlemen with his head being on a level with their armpits, which looked bulky enough to accommodate a holster with a gun in it. Luckily for the tifosi Prost did not win the race, but neither did Arnoux, and in the end the drivers' title went to Brabham driver Nelson Piquet.

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Monza is situated in a royal park in a suburb of Milan and so it is not a long drive for the fans to get there. It is always a nightmare for the teams to escape after the race. I remember one race in the eighties when members of most teams missed their planes due to the gridlock around the circuit as the fans tried to leave afterwards. I also remember a time when I had to be back in the UK the night of the race as the following day Williams was due to announce the formation of a touring car team along with engine supplier, Renault. I finished my work, and along with a couple of friends, Linda Patterson from CSS Promotions and Bob McKenzie from the Daily Express, leapt in the car to make sure I did not miss the plane.

The roads were solid and I was just starting to despair when I saw a van in front full of Benetton mechanics pulling out of the queue and start to drive down the wrong side of the road. I knew if I was to catch the plane I had to follow suit. I stuck to the rear of that van like glue, and had to laugh when I saw the front seat passenger get the Avis documents out and waive them frantically to the oncoming traffic. The message he was trying to get over was 'this is not my car so I am not that bothered if you run into me or not, as it would hurt your privately owned car more than my hired vehicle'.

Although it was a white knuckle ride all the way with two very quiet passengers, the most amazing part of it was when we came to a complete halt just before a small, open air roadside cafe. There was only one way to avoid the jam and we took it, driving through the cafe between the tables of early evening diners and the kitchen. I don't know who was more surprised - the man waiting for his pizza or the waiter coming out of the kitchen carrying it. I hasten to add I do not condone bad driving, but sometimes needs must!

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Sadly Monza also has a reputation for being the worst for crime. There are legendary stories about the pickpockets who will remove anything that isn't actually in your hands. The most amazing is the one about the enterprising fellow who realised fans arriving on their high-powered motorbikes might need some extra security. He brought along a large truck and for a few thousand lire offered to act as an unofficial security guard for these prized machines. He put them in the back of the truck and assured the owners they would be safe. However, as soon as the truck was full he got into the driving seat and went off with his haul.

The first time I went there in 1982 I was disappointed to find my hire car had no radio in it, but the reason soon became obvious, as this was the first object the thieves would take. The car itself is also never safe and while most Grand Prix car parks are full of exotic machinery, in Italy the sensible fans take the oldest and most beaten-up car they can find, otherwise they are likely to be walking home.

Eoin Young, a New Zealand motorsport journalist who has been covering the sport even longer than I have, once decided to log the stories down for his column to see exactly what had been stolen over one weekend. On the Sunday morning he was telling me some of the stories and then as he went to his shirt pocket to get his notebook to retell even more, realised even this had been stolen!

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Over the years the track and its facilities have been updated and the biggest shame about this is the loss of the little shopping village adjacent to the paddock. This was always the first stop for the enthusiastic journalists and team personnel who wanted to buy rare books or amazing hand-built model cars. Eoin was also a regular visitor to this area, and has often gone back to England with arms full of books that he knew he could sell for several times what he had paid for through his international motorsport memorabilia company.

I have a very good friend in America who gets very excited every time I go to Monza and sends me round to see the lovely Mari-Angela Chambers, who runs Competition Market, and sells models of Grand Prix cars that are perfect in every respect. Last year when I went to see Mari-Angela, who has a cupboard door in her shop signed by every F1 driver who has ever visited Monza, she was not her usual happy self as she reckoned that would be her last year before being turfed out to sell her priceless goods at some stall in the spectator area.

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Despite the fact the circuit is only about 20 minutes from Milan's Linate airport, it is one of the most difficult to find and I cannot remember how many times I have taken a wrong turn and ended up lost in Milan. The first time I went, I drove from the airport to the circuit with my friend Jane Constanduros - her husband Bob is the English language commentator at all the circuits - and we both mistakenly thought the other knew the way. I was on the maps and she was driving. I kept sending us the wrong direction and it was only after being in the car for an hour that I realised the word 'semaforo' written on the road was not directions to a town of this name but warning me of traffic lights!

In 1993 Alain Prost had problems finding the track, but not due to a bad map. He was staying at the wonderful Villa D'Este on Lake Como. This is one of the most exclusive hotels in Italy and although about an hour from the circuit by road, it is only a short hop by helicopter. Alain, Ayrton Senna and several team owners and sponsors always stayed there and came in by helicopter. However, on the Friday of the race this was not a good idea as the mist came down and there was no way the helicopters could take off.

It was then a mad dash through rush hour traffic to the circuit. He eventually arrived at the circuit 20 minutes after the pit lane had opened and it was a very embarrassed Alain who slunk into the WilliamsF1 garage with all the mechanics pointing to their watches. Ayrton Senna also had to make the dash and, in fact, got there just in time. His PR lady, Betise Assumpcao, now the wife of Patrick Head, still goes white when talking about this journey, so perhaps Alain was the more sensible person.

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I am a very healthy individual; not I hasten to add because of my lifestyle, and rarely seem to get colds and bugs the way lots of people do. However, I used to lose my voice every few months when I was working for WilliamsF1 and my work colleagues always greeted this with relief and humour. Although this was a fairly regular occurrence in the early nineties, one occasion will always stick in my memory when this happened, and that was at Monza in 1992.

Those of you who are F1 fans I am sure do not need reminding by me this was the year Nigel Mansell finally won his World Championship title. Sadly once he had 'done the business' in Hungary, things did not go that well for him as he ended up in conflict with Frank Williams over his 1993 contract. I shall not go into the whys and the wherefores of this, but suffice to say there were some sticking points in their negotiations. The press loved this and wrote stories about the reasons for this, including the one about Nigel demanding five hotel rooms for each race.

We got to Monza and the press interest had reached fever pitch. They laid siege to the motorhome on the Thursday afternoon and Nigel was revelling in it. He kept wanting to know why they were there! Eventually he agreed I should tell them he had nothing to report and so to go away for a day. Surprise, surprise, when they came back the next day we had the same scene with Nigel asking why they were there. As is usual in such cases, there were a lot of secret meetings in the motorhome with Frank, Nigel and Sheridan Thynne, who was not only Commercial Director for WilliamsF1 but also very close to Nigel.

These dragged on and seemed to be getting nowhere. I tried to get on with my business of reporting what happened on the track. Finally we got to Sunday morning and there was nothing new to report. I had developed a bad cough and so was worried my voice was about to go again. Not worrying too much about this I decided to pop over to the commentary booths to sit with my mates John Watson and Allard Kalff and hear what they were telling the Eurosport viewers about the warm-up. I was wondering back to the paddock after the session when a local journalist rushed up to me and said 'what is he saying?' I had no idea what he was on about but decided to get back to the garage quickly. There I was confronted with all the mechanics clustered round a small TV screen watching Nigel talking to the press in the media centre.

I rushed up there to hear him tell everyone that enough was enough and he was leaving WilliamsF1. I could not believe what I was hearing and then even more surprisingly a colleague of mine from the team, Gary Crumpler, rushed up to Nigel on the stage and whispered something in his ear. Nigel told the press that Gary, by this time very red faced, had been sent with another offer from Frank but he was not accepting it and was on his way out of F1. It is obvious that at the end of this, the press wanting to know what Frank thought would besiege the team again. Everything was manic and it was at this point my voice decided to die. Thinking back at that I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but in some ways having only a hoarse whisper was quite a relief as Frank had no idea Nigel was going to do this, and so we had not really got an answer ready for the hordes who descended on us.

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Monza proved again how dominant the Ferrari team is and, despite the hope Juan Pablo Montoya would turn an historical pole lap - the fastest ever at 161 mph - into a race win it was not to be. Happily for motorsport fans in the UK there was, however, reason to be very happy last weekend as Scot, Dario Franchitti, won his first CART race on an oval and managed to do this on home ground. On Friday I went along with my good friend Fiona Miller, who is one of the most respected PRs in sports cars, to have a look at Rockingham Motor Speedway and also meet some old friends. Both of us have known Dario for a long time so were delighted to run into him as soon as we got to the track. Every time I see him I realise F1's loss is CART's gain. Not only is he a good driver, but he is also a lovely person.

He welcomed us both literally with open arms and it was lovely to see you can be at the top of your sport and still have time for old mates. Another person whose career I have watched with interest, and also greeted me with a smile and hug, was Kenny Brack. I first came across Kenny at the end of 1993 when we were giving some journalists and young drivers a go in the all conquering WilliamsF1 car. The driver aids were being outlawed so Frank Williams and Patrick Head allowed us to take the obsolete car to Paul Ricard for a bit of a 'play'. Renault in Sweden was at that time supporting Kenny's career and so asked if he could have a run. He came and did a good job. Nine years later I was delighted he was doing so well in CART with his pole in Rockingham and also pleased to see he had not changed and was still a really nice, friendly guy.

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The teams are now packing up for the US Grand Prix and for me this will be a race I will be very sad not to be at. Before you get me wrong, it is not the sight of the red Ferraris dominating one of motor sports spiritual homes that I shall miss, but a plate of Three Mile Island chicken wings at Hooters, which is one of my favourite meals.

About the author:
Ann Bradshaw - Annie - began her motor racing career as a teenager, helping out her brother in local rally races in England, where she grew up. In the 1970s she organised motor racing events in England, and was later the press officer for the RAC MSA - the motorsport governing body in Britain. In mid 1980s, she became press officer to team Lotus, where she worked with Ayrton Senna. Shortly after, she moved to the Williams team and was working there for several years, when once again she found herself working with Senna. She worked with Damon Hill after the Brazilian's death, and moved with the British Champion to Arrows. She also worked with the Panoz team in the United States, before becoming a freelance press officer, now working with Compaq and BAR among others. Annie joined Atlas F1 as a regular columnist in April 2002.