Ann Bradshaw, a journalist and press officer with three decades of experience in motor racing, returns for another season of View from the Paddock - offering us a glimpse into the the life of those who spend the GP weekend inside the paddock. This week, Ann remembers absent friends and the good times in Oz

I defy anyone who watched the Australian Grand Prix to declare the race anything other than exciting from start to finish. It had everything anyone could want in a race and to enjoy it you did not have to be a petrolhead who lived and breathed the sport. It was unpredictable right to the very end and it was pure joy to see the look on David Coulthard's face as he was presented with the trophy, which incidentally I believe is one of the most beautiful in the sport.

It was almost a shock to the system to look at a podium with no red at all and quite sobering to realise this was the first time since 1999 that a Ferrari driver had not been there. While it was nice to have something different, you cannot take away from Ferrari the fact that 53 consecutive podium finishes is an amazing record and one that I am sure Williams and McLaren would love to have. Michael Schumacher has been on every podium since Indianapolis in 2001 and while he usually seems to be the driver in front of the row when luck is being handed out, it surely has to reflect his driving ability as well.

Now comes the BUT.

We have to remember that the circumstances in which the race was run in were exceptional. The weather conditions were unpredictable and it was a total lottery as to which way the clouds would roll once the starting lights had gone off. This was a race that was to be won eventually by a team that had the best tactician and for once it was not Ross Brawn at Ferrari. The teams who started on dry weather tyres had made the right call and, but for a slip off the track in the closing stages, the winner would have been Juan Pablo Montoya whose team started him on the correct rubber. McLaren did not make the same decision but soon realised their mistake and so Kimi Raikkonen was sent in to change even before the start of the race.

While I am sure many people today will be claiming the new rules have welcomed a new era of competitive Formula One racing, I have my doubts. I think it was more the dice fell away from the Ferrari camp in Melbourne and but for this and the changing weather conditions we may have seen the status quo. Think back to the new single lap qualifying, which I am afraid to say I found boring. Who was at the head of the field? Ferrari, of course. Think back to the start of the race. Who was nearly seven and a half seconds ahead of the first non-Ferrari at the end of lap one? Michael Schumacher, of course. Michael did eventually bring his car home fourth, less than ten seconds behind David, and this was despite having lost crucial aerodynamic aids, which fell off along the way.

Anyway, enough from me about the past weekend - let's go back further in time!

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For me, the Australian Grand Prix was always a magnificent event, but I have to admit I still feel the spiritual home for the event is Adelaide, not Melbourne.

I remember, as though it was yesterday, arriving in the sleepy South Australian city of Adelaide for the first time in 1985. Before the Grand Prix hit town it was best known, only by those who had even heard of it, for its many churches. I had no idea what to expect and when I got off my plane, having come directly from the South African Grand Prix, it was a bit of a culture shock.

Adelaide was a very sleepy town, but it was quite obvious - having met Mal Hemmerling and the team he had around him to organise the event - that we were going to have fun. In fact, the Grand Prix literally took over the place and it was impossible to go anywhere and not know the event was on. Sadly, as Melbourne is a much larger city, the Grand Prix tends to get lost there. The city has a much higher profile, as it already had top sporting events such as the Melbourne Cup, and so it is easy to go into the heart of the city and not know the Grand Prix circus has hit town.

In Adelaide, whole streets were shut and the first question always asked after the mandatory greeting of "G'Day" was "Are you here for the race?" We certainly were, and we had lots of fun.

The organisers always went to great lengths to get top class participants in their celebrity races and I remember two particular ones very clearly. They were two of Australia's most famous 'females' - Dame Edna Everage and Elle 'The Body' MacPherson. The year Dame Edna - who I presume you all know is actually Barry Humphries in drag - drove, she wanted to meet Damon Hill. We decided to play a bit of a trick on Damon and so, with the support of his wife Georgie, we led him to believe that one of the wonderful busty models from the celebrity race wanted to come and meet him.

By the time Dame Edna appeared Damon was very excited. Imagine his shock when we brought her in the back of the garage and he was suddenly tapped on the shoulder by this being wearing pink racing overalls and a purple wig! His mouth literally dropped open and thankfully for him it was a pleasant surprise as he was a big fan of Barry Humphries in all his different disguises. The person who really got the most ragging from this was Damon's chief mechanic who firstly helped Dame Edna get into the racing car then had to help pull her out and ended up with her in his arms. That picture will live to haunt him!

Elle MacPherson was a different matter. She said the one driver she wanted to meet was Nigel Mansell, so she was brought down to the garage to do just this. The anticipation of her visit in the garage was felt mostly by Nigel's teammate, Riccardo Patrese, who admitted he was one of her biggest fans and even asked for a signed calendar. Elle appeared in her racing overalls and sadly for Riccardo spent very little time with him. I was standing watching this all happen with Nigel's very down to earth wife, Roseanne. What happened next was hilarious as when Nigel turned round to say hello to one of the most beautiful women in the world she literally caught her breath and her knees started to buckle - such was her excitement. I am sure if I had a hero who I suddenly met I may find myself acting in the same way, but to Roseanne and myself it was one of the funniest sights ever. Thankfully Nigel caught her, gave her a kiss, had a long chat and then off she went. While Nigel is a happily married man and so was not trying to chat her up, the same could not be said of his great rival on the track Ayrton Senna. It seems when she met him in the McLaren garage he worked his charm on her, and the story goes that when he jetted back to Brazil after the race she went with him.

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Having just heard the very sad news that Barry Sheene has died of cancer, this brings to mind many happy hours spent in Australia with him. He was one of Damon Hill's best friends and I shall always remember with great affection telling him off on more than one occasion for leading Damon astray. Damon would go and stay with him before the race and I think it is best not to know exactly what mischief they got up to in Surfers' Paradise before heading south to Adelaide.

The year that will always stick in my memory is 1994, when it was all down to the final race between Damon and Michael. Although the pressure was mounting, Damon did the sensible thing and had some fun time with Barry and their other great mate, George Harrison, who also sadly is no longer with us. They were like three naughty school boys when they got to Adelaide and I have to say that I believe they helped Damon cope with the stress of what had been a traumatic year for him since the death of Ayrton.

Barry, who always called me Fran for a reason neither of us could ever remember, arrived in Adelaide with Damon and George and promised me they had looked after Damon well. However, it was now time to get down to work and with the Championship on a knife's edge, the Williams garage in Adelaide was sure to be a fraught place to be.

George was very worried about the tension around the garage and so took me to one side and said he felt the karma was wrong. He said he had the solution and that was to shut the garage doors and get all the mechanics to sit on the floor and chant. As you can imagine, I didn't believe I could persuade Frank Williams and Patrick Head that this would be the right thing to do. Thankfully George understood where I was coming from. He was not, however, going to let this stop him changing the atmosphere. The next thing I saw him doing was getting all the fruit from the hospitality area, place it in other parts of the garage and stick lighted jos sticks in oranges, apples, grapefruit and pineapples to calm us all down. I think it worked!!

Sadly neither of these big hearted men is with us anymore, and I am sure George and Barry are now together somewhere. Wherever it is, the karma will be perfect. I count myself as very lucky to have known them both well and know I shall certainly miss both of them. Those of us who had the fortune to know them will find the world a sadder place for their loss, and what they gave people while they were here singles them out as having been special human beings.

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This year my motor racing duties will again include visiting all rounds of the European Touring Car Championship for BMW. I was delighted to find out after attending the recent press day for the series that this column is read far and wide. Although the Dutch Carly Motors team is no longer supported by a BMW subsidiary, it will be entering the championship with the irrepressible duo of Tom Coronel and Duncan Huisman. It was great to see both of them last week in their usual high spirits.

I have known Tom for about 20 years and when he greeted me he informed me that thanks to this column his mates who are still in Japan know that he is the same person who had fun with them out there in the nineties. He informed me he had got an e-mail from a race engineer in Japan saying he was delighted to hear that Tom had not changed his ways and was still getting up to his usual tricks. Tom was confused as to how he knew what he was up to, but it all became clear after being told it was thanks to my column telling tales out of school about the goings on at the end of season bash in Estoril.

I am therefore delighted to report that at the BMW Motorsport Party in Kitzbuhel, Austria, in December, Tom again lived up to his reputation by racing fellow BMW driver, Jorg Muller, up the steel girders that were holding up the marquee where the bar was housed. It is gratifying to know we still have drivers who can combine having fun with being quick on the race track.

I am writing this from Europe as most of the teams are finding somewhere to relax between Australia and Malaysia. Let's hope that in two weeks we will see another race as entertaining as the one in Melbourne, and that some of the new youngsters who are having their first year in Formula One can have a better race than in Oz.

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.