Page 46 - Paddock Life Issue 13 ADRENALINE

The year we launched Paddock Life John and I were at almost every race until we got to the British GP. That was two years ago this Silverstone, when on Sunday morning my pass failed at the paddock turnstiles and I found myself in the office of a certain character from Formula One Management where I was asked why our magazine was in all the hotel rooms and some of the teams without FOM granting us their official blessing... that was my last F1 race for a while.
With the change in ownership the racing world has been eager to see if the relaxing of the iron grip of Mr E will be good for the sport. My question was is it too late?
John and I went to testing in Barcelona, the new cars looked good but the buzz was more on the business than the track times. So fast forward to
mid season and for the first time in two seasons the FIA has been able to accredit us. We loaded the Range Rover with the latest issue of Paddock Life, hot off the press for the hotels and boats; Monaco has always been a solid readership for us, and hit the road for the Eurotunnel on Friday morning.
After dropping off the new issue at the hotels on Friday night we were in Monaco early Saturday morning to collect our passes, park the car and go to work.
Now, the geography of the paddock in Monaco always makes it interesting, you have the closed paddock, then you cross through a busy bar to get to the press room and grid or pit lane access is via the marina and over a footbridge, so everyone has to keep having passes checked. It‘s also a lot of walking, for everyone...
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MONACO