Saturday May 22nd, 2004
Fosters Party
The days of the daily boat parties, put on for journalists by different sponsors around the Monaco harbour on every night of the weekend, may now be long gone but, thankfully, those good old Aussies at Fosters continue to put on a show and can now easily lay claim to the weekend's best event. The three-storey ship, which is moored on the jetty in front of the swimming pool complex, was clad in blue and gold for the event and welcomed hoards of paddock folk - including Toyota's young development driver Ryan Briscoe - onboard for the enjoyable event.
The party got going early and went on throughout the evening, despite the best efforts of the staff to coax the raucous crowd off before their curfew. Their problem was, the boat opposite, named Free Spirit, housed Williams-BMW driver Juan Pablo Montoya and the Colombian had asked his neighbours to shut things down by midnight so he could get some sleep. Sure enough, Montoya was seen relaxing on his boat until his self-imposed curfew, but while he went to bed it took Fosters a full hour to close down the party and say goodbye to their more than happy guests.
Amber Tribe
BAR-Honda's Lucky Tribe club promised a "banging affair" when they invited journalists to one "of the principality's hottest venues" - the Amber Lounge, which is promoted by Sonya Irvine, the sister of former racer Eddie, as a one-off nightclub for the Grand Prix weekend. The cool club, located in the heart of Monaco, has taken over from the legendary 'Tip Top Bar' as the place to see and be seen these days and BAR installed Scottish "Superstar DJ" Stuart Duncan to spin some tunes while Swiss fashion photographer Hannes Schmid revealed his latest collection of images - which promised to show Jenson Button and Takuma Sato "as you have never seen them before."
Three of the photographs were displayed alongside plasma screens showing the same picture but in video form. Sato was shown in kung-fu pose, Button's video showed his face behind flowing water and the third showed a BAR car submerged in a swimming pool with a man swimming over the top of it. In the still shots, displayed on large boards around the room, Sato was depicted as a 'Japanese super athlete' with photographs of him as a sprinter and a boxer while Button was shown as a 'superstar about town', pictured bare-chested in various leather jackets.
"They're different," said Button in response to the photos. "Some of them are quite good. Taku's look good too. They were taken in Malaysia this year, except the one of the water. I like that one, it was taken last year." Sato looked delighted when he saw his shots while team principal David Richards and technical director Geoff Willis all popped in to enjoy the party, no doubt delighted that the photographer had not been commissioned to do works on them as well.
Poll-Axed
While BAR-Honda team chief David Richards was enjoying himself in his newly created 'family' atmosphere, the team's former head Craig Pollock had to be content with the more simple pleasures of driving around the Monte Carlo streets. The Swiss resident, who still manages former driver Jacques Villeneuve, was spotted by an eagle-eye journalist parked outside the Amber Lounge while the guests filed in to enjoy the Lucky Tribe party. The fact that he set up the team that is now enjoying such success without him must still grate, but he seemed to care little as he revved up his Chevy Corvette, liveried in Indianapolis logos, and roared off into the harbourside night.
Hakk Not Yet Back
Finn Mika Hakkinen, a Monte Carlo resident, made an appearance in the Monaco paddock on Thursday when he was seen chatting to old rival Michael Schumacher - but the organisers' claims that he was to make a welcome return to racing on the Monaco circuit this weekend proved a little premature. The two-time World Champion was down in the programme to take part in the Porsche Supercup as a guest star in the number one car, but when the machines came out on track the former McLaren driver was nowhere to be seen. It is understood that he was driving a Porsche this weekend, but that he was doing it back in his Finnish homeland and he is rumoured to be preparing to compete in the Porsche Supercup at the Nurburgring next weekend.
Published at 16:14:04 GMT
(03-11-2005): 
