Sunday May 9th, 2004
200-Not-Out
Michael Schumacher celebrated his 200th Grand Prix this weekend - but journalists can still not agree on how many races he has actually done - 198 or 199. The German has now taken part in 200 Grand Prix weekends but he failed to make the start of the French Grand Prix in 1996 when his Ferrari broke down on the warm-up lap and he is not officially classified to have taken part in the British race in 1999 because it was stopped and completely re-started without him after he crashed his Ferrari into the tyre barriers and broke his leg.
Still, there is no arguing about the double century of Grand Prix attendances - and so Schumacher's busy marketing team created t-shirts especially for the occasion. Red, of course, and showing a heartbeat trail incorporating the World Champion's distinctive personal logo, it has a huge 200 on the front with the words pulse and passion, and was donned by most of the Ferrari team after he scored his 75th victory in the Barcelona sunshine.
Numbers Up
The Circuit de Catalunya celebrated a boom in attendance - much thanks to Fernando Alonso - this season and announced the race attendance as 108,300 for Sunday's Grand Prix. The figure breaks the record for spectators attending a Formula One race in Barcelona and marked the first time they have broken the 100,000 barrier. The total attendance for the weekend was logged at 277,300, with an astonishing 20,000 people cramming in for Thursday's pit lane walkabout - with no on track action at all.
Anderson Comeback
Long-time Formula One technical favourite Gary Anderson has made a welcome return to the paddock and is loving his new life - as a television analyst. Anderson, who designed his first Formula One car for Jordan in 1991, left his role as director of race and test engineering at Jordan at the end of last year and he is now putting his talents to new uses by working for Irish television channel RTE at each of the European races this season.
He does a brief technical analysis at each Grand Prix and occasionally chips in with comments during the race itself, and he admitted: "I am really enjoying it. As soon as I got out of the sport there was a huge weight lifted from my shoulders and now I am just doing it out of pure enjoyment." Anderson is mixing his new role with occasional jaunts to race circuits for Ray Mallock Limited, a British based race engineering company which operates teams in the British Touring Car championship, Le Mans sportscar racing and rallying.
Willis Wedding
As if the coming schedule of six races was not enough, BAR-Honda technical director Geoff Willis has made his diary even busier - by arranging to marry his Italian partner next week in Rome.
Published at 18:42:52 GMT
(03-11-2005): 
