Sunday September 12th, 2004
Mini Racer
BMW presented World Champions Ferrari with a bright yellow mini on Saturday in recognition of their dominant success this season. BMW board member Professor Burkhard Goschel and Dr Kay Segler, the vice president of Mini brand management, joined BMW motorsport chief Mario Theissen to hand the machine, which had a prancing horse on its roof, over to Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, but their kind gesture - a clever way of securing a bit of marketing out of someone else's success - was not taken in a particularly polite fashion.
At a later dinner event, di Montezemolo suggested to a packed room that he saw it as a cheeky marketing exercise and quipped that he was looking forward to handing BMW a Fiat Panda "in 100 years" once they have a similar success. Several journalists were hoping that the Ferrari president would hand the gift to Michael Schumacher and make him race in it in Sunday's race. He didn't.
For the Championship
Memories of Ferrari's controversially dominant season in 2002 die hard, it appears, after several quips were heard in the media centre during Sunday's Italian Grand Prix. The Italian giants became renowned for their position switching between Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello to ensure their German driver obtained the most points towards his eventual fifth world title. Even the Italian journalists were still sticking the boot in as Schumacher roared up behind Barrichello midway through Sunday's race and one hollered in English: "For the championship, Rubens, for the championship." This time, however, Barrichello had the last laugh.
Ferrari Celebration
Ferrari celebrated their sixth successive title success in traditional style again this year when they held a media garden party in the Monza circuit. All the top men in the company put in an appearance and president Luca di Montezemolo invited Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Luca Badoer on stage to join in the self-commendation society. The team showed an excellent video of Ferrari through the years and they also celebrated clocking up their 700th Grand Prix start with a slide show of pictures that flashed on the screen to the ticking of a counter that scrolled up to the magic number. The four course meal was as greatly received by the media as their praise of Ferrari's efforts this year were received by the team.
Flying Frenchman
Toyota driver Olivier Panis was told off again this weekend for speeding in the pitlane and the Frenchman has offended so many times this season that the FIA deemed it necessary to flag up the fact. "This is Olivier Panis' fourth speeding fine of the year," they stated in a note on the FIA release which informed the unfortunate speedy racer of his $1,500 fine. Now that is one record that Michael Schumacher does not have.
Published at 17:52:03 GMT
(03-11-2005): 
