ATLAS F1, The Daily Grapevine: Final News from the Paddock

Final News from the Paddock - Spanish GP

Star Visitors
Renault once again opened their doors to a celebrity name when singer and film star Patricia Manterola paid their motorhome a visit. The stunning Mexican star, who is promoting a new album which she hopes will shoot her to international fame, wowed the paddock wearing a loosely-tied Renault F1 team shirt and paraded on the grid before the race. She was totally taken by the whole Formula One scene and said: "I have never been before but it is totally how I had expected it - very glamorous and exciting."

She was not the only famous face to show up as the Grand Prix got into swing. After Australian tennis number one Lleyton Hewitt's Thursday visit, Real Madrid and Brazil football star Roberto Carlos joined Ferrari as a guest of sponsors Vodafone for race day and his teammate Steve McManaman also paid a quiet visit while three-time Javelin Olympic champion and current world record holder Jan Zelezny guested at McLaren-Mercedes.

Fine Time
The stewards at the Barcelona track ensured the FIA coffers continue to be topped up by naughty drivers when they fined four drivers for pitlane speeding. The first man to be caught was Briton David Coulthard, who ended up $1,000 out of pocket after shooting through the pitlane at 63.1km/h in the second Friday session.

Next in the dock was former champion Jacques Villeneuve, who raced his BAR Honda through the slow lane four minutes later at an even faster 66.2km/h and was consequently presented with a hefty fine of $3,500 for his misdemeanour. It was Jordan's Takuma Sato who was in trouble the following day when he tried to make up time for missing one of the sessions on Friday. The Japanese driver had a tough time in Barcelona and went off track in every session - so even the modest fine of $750 just compounded his misery when he was clocked at 62.8km/h in the pitlane during the first Saturday morning practice.

Jaguar's Eddie Irvine was another caught by the stewards later on, during the qualifying session, but he was fined just $500 (US Dollars), the lowest sum of the weekend, for being just 1.9km/h faster than the 60km/h limit. A tougher penalty, however, would come later in the day, when his times were disallowed because he used irregular fuel.

Safety First
The Formula One governing body, the FIA, is always striving to make the sport safer and it has recently revealed figures to show that its speed reduction efforts are working. It was 1994 when the last on-track driver fatality was seen in Grand Prix racing, at the tragic Imola race where both Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna lost their lives. But things have been getting better and better year on year, and the FIA figures suggest that since 1998 there has been a drop of 37 percent in Formula One accidents and injuries.

No Hanging Around
Australian Minardi driver Mark Webber was in no mood to hang around the Circuit de Catalunya paddock on Sunday afternoon after his team withdrew their cars from the race for safety reasons. Webber was not too despondent after the decision but was still keen to get away and as Michael Schumacher cruised past the chequered flag to score a record 57th Grand Prix victory Webber was in mid air on the EasyJet flight from Barcelona to London Luton.

Meanwhile, his Aussie boss Paul Stoddart insisted on making the most of his bad situation and offered his services (for an undisclosed fee!) to the ITV television team in a bid to plug his sponsors as much as he could! "I will probably get more publicity for this than we would have done if we were in the race," he joked.

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(03-11-2005): Australian GP Paddock Gossip (03-09-2005): Greece Finds Site for Formula One Track (03-09-2005): Red Bull Set to Get Honda Engines in 2006 (03-08-2005): Schumacher in Line for Sporting Oscars (03-07-2005): Daily Grapevine Sunday Analysis - Australia