#f3 euros 2005

[umseb]

📷 @.martin_maree_music / instagram

[umlewis]

via lewis' ig story - may 23, 2024

[sebtember5]

Sebastian Vettel- Formula 3 EuroSeries Nürbürgring 2005-

[superstar49]

Hot take: Lewis needs to retire while he’s ahead 😬 it hard enough to watch him get less favor than George and get dog walked by other drivers but then in to watch him in 2025 get mistreated by fuckarari will be impossible. Like pls leave before you end up in therapy with Charles 😭😭

i hate to say it but if the man wanted to quit while he was ahead, the time for that has passed. if he retires now, it’ll seem like a defeat, which i don’t think he wants based on what he’s said about his eventual retirement. it’s definitely been difficult to watch how mercedes has treated him, but i have faith in ferrari. the ferrari team have shown him companionship in the past, even showing up to congratulate him for podiums in the past few years when nobody from mercedes was there. not to mention lewis has an extremely longstanding relationship with fred vasseur. he won the f3 euro series for ASM in 2005 and won gp2 for ART grand prix in 2006, teams that were both founded and owned by fred vasseur. they’ve known each other for longer than either of them have been in f1, and they have a great relationship. i’m hoping this means lewis will be treated well by ferrari and find his footing again. the tifosi have already started showing support for lewis as well. we’ll see how it plays out and what the 2026 car looks like, but i don’t think it’s a good idea for next year to be his last season.

send your f1 hot takes!

[f1]

Ferrari: Technical directive on porpoising hasnt hit our performance | RaceFans Round-up

In the round-up: Ferrari believe the Belgian Grand Prix technical directive aimed at reducing porpoising is not the cause of their recent dip in performance. In brief Ferrari deny technical directive hit their form Ferrari’s race director Laurent Mekies dispelled the idea that his team’s failure to fight for race wins recently is related to the technical directive introduced at August’s Belgian Grand Prix. The directive was aimed at reducing the bottoming-out effect suffered by Formula 1 cars at high speeds. The FIA introduced the Aerodynamic Oscillation Metric in order to prevent excessive bouncing and made changes to how teams’ skid blocks are measured for compliance to the rules. Ferrari are yet to win a race since the directive was introduced. But Mekies does not believe the directive has had altered their performance. “Really we don’t think there is any specific impact on our team here,” he said. “The [directive] is a good thing. It’s putting effectively more pressure on plank wear measurements, which have been there forever. It’s doing it in a bit more sophisticated way. “We are fully in favour of it and we don’t think it has impacted any of our relative performance, there is certainly other factors for that.” Tokyo government signs Formula E deal with plan to host race Formula E and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government have signed an agreement with the intention of a prospective Tokyo E-Prix joining the series’ calendar in spring 2024. The bayside area next to the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition centre has been chosen as the location of the circuit that will be designed for the event. Tokyo’s governor Yuriko Koike plans to make the megacity carbon neutral, and signed the agreement with FE’s CEO Jamie Riegle. Japan has long been a target country for FE, which counts Nissan among its competitors. Juncos Hollinger IndyCar team to run in Argentina Canapino with team co-owner Ricardo Juncos IndyCar team Juncos Hollinger will hold a demonstration run in Argentina next month. Local driver Agustin Canapino will run at the Circuit of Buenos Aires, which held F1 races between 1953 and 1998, and the Circuit of Termas de Rio Hondo. Juncos Hollinger plans to expand its IndyCar team to two entries next year, but is yet to announce who will join Callum Ilott in their line-up. Canapino, 32, is a multiple champion in Argentina’s Turismo Carretera touring car series and drove for Juncos in the Daytona and Sebring sports car races in 2019. Formula 3 returning to Monaco There will be a Formula 3 race at the Monaco Grand Prix next year, marking the first time the category has appeared on the event support bill since 2005. The Automobile Club de Monaco, organiser of the grand prix, revealed F3’s return as it launched ticketing for the 2023 edition. Although the series is not specified, it is understood the FIA F3 Championship – which regularly supports F1 – where will feature. F3 was a permanent part of the Monaco GP weekend from 1964 to 1997, before International Formula 3000 took its place. The F3 Euro Series visited in 2005, with Lewis Hamilton winning both races held, but the tertiary tier of single-seaters has not been seen on the city streets since. GP3, fore-runner to the current FIA F3 series, last raced at the track in 2012. However its final event was marred by a huge crash for Conor Daly, who was launched into a shocking aerial crash at the harbour front chicane when he tangled with Dmitry Suranovich. Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free Happy birthday! Happy birthday to Cholle, Yorricksfriend, Jason Sultana and Ddoc! On this day in motorsport via RaceFans - Independent Motorsport Coverage https://www.racefans.net

[violetvettel]

thinking about them.❤️

[baku2017]

A selected sewis timeline part 2

2006 the who has the time year

Formula Renault 3.5 Series i don't even want to know F3 Euro Series GP2 (old F2) F1

Lewis : GP2 championship for ART Grand Prix team, races are on saturday, win championship by 12 points it looks like it was an interesting one, see end of season summary for details. Seb : F3 euro series with ASM Formule 3 team, 2nd behind teammate Paul Di Resta. Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Carlin Motorsport team, only did 2 races, almost got his finger sliced off on his third one wtf. BMW Sauber 3rd/test driver in F1, got to replace Kubica when he became second driver, only the bottom six team of the 2005 championship could have a third car in free practice on fridays. how did you managed seb that’s too many things

They don't have any race weekend in common during their f2 and f3 season.

Race weekends :

- 26-27 august - Turkish GP, Intercity Istanbul Park (also Istanbul Racing Circuit)

Seb : first time in f1 car for f1 weekend, fastest time in fp2, youngest f1 driver to participate in a gp weekend at 19yo, record of the fastest fined driver nine seconds into his career fucking legend Lewis : tenth GP2 race of the season, P2

- 9-10 september - Italian GP, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

Seb : fastest in both fp on friday Lewis : last race of the season, P2

Lewis was told of McLaren's decision to make him second driver for the team in september, but they announce it two month later due to Schumacher's retirement announcement. Seb is confirmed as BMW's test driver for 2007.

part 1

[f1notebook]

Lewis Hamilton's stats

Hey people ! Here is the new thing I was talking about yesterday, it's not really a presentation of the drivers because it's only focused on stats. The goal is to show the drivers from another angle, we all know their way of driving, their engagement but the number are quite difficult to have on mind every time, so I decided to make a little post about it, and because I absolutely love numbers, and it is a lot of fun, so here we go.

I decided to start with Lewis because he is the most successful driver in the history of F1. He has been in the sport for many years, there is why I decided to mix Lewis at McLaren and Lewis at Mercedes. It was important to me too to remind the new fans that Lewis wasn't born with Mercedes and he has a history with McLaren, reminding legacy.

We first start with a chronological frame of Lewis' career, he left karting and started a single seat in 2002, he was 17 years old, which is kind of unusual for a driver now. He started to really shine in 2005 when he won the F3 euro series and the GP2 (old F2) the year after. What assured him a seat at McLaren.

In 2007 he had an amazing season, the best F1 rookie season ever, almost winning the championship, which happened a year later.

Red Bull dominated the championship from 2010 to 2014, during this kind of time, Lewis decided to take his chances at Mercedes, after Michael Schumacher left the team after helping them built a great environment. At the time, almost everyone thought he was ending with his career as Mercedes wasn't fighting for championships.

Lewis proved them all wrong in 2014 when we won the championship and since then, expecting made to 2016 when Nico Rosberg took the championship, he has been winning.

We continue with some pure stats, and they are all incredible. I didn't include the 2021 season as it is still going.

I calculated Lewis has taken part in 14 F1 seasons, disputing 267 Grand Prix. He was the first to take the checkered flag 95 times, which means he has won more than 35% of the race he has taken part in.

The craziest stat for him is the podiums, Lewis has 164 podiums, more than half of the race he has disputed, 61,42% to be precise, it's absolutely insane.

Like the Grand Prix, I calculated the maximum points Lewis could have gained if he has won all the Grand Prix he raced in, 5958 points, he gained in real life 3778, again, more than the half, absolutely insane.

To finish with this post, I made graphic of Lewis finish standing in the championship for every year as the number of wins, podiums and pole position he got for every year.

I truly hope you enjoy this post, it is a little bit different from what I do usually. Please let me know your opinion and what I can improve on this. If you want more, please let me know which driver you want (on the 2021 grid please, I am going to do the 20 drivers first and if you enjoy it and want more, I will extend to all-time drivers)

[crystalracing]

Unfortunately not every driver who deserves a crack at F1 makes it to the pinnacle of motorsport, particularly in recent years when the need to bring financial backing to secure a seat has dramatically increased.

That leaves some potential stars on the sidelines and those who follow the junior formulae pondering what might have been.

Britain's Adam Carroll is one such driver. He shone in GP2 and A1GP, but never had the chance to show what he could do on the big stage.

"The guy was just ridiculously talented. You knew whatever car you put him he was going to be quick right from the word go," said NBC's F1 reporter Will Buxton.

Born on October 26, 1982 in Portadown, Northern Ireland, Carroll quickly made an impact in single-seaters after graduating from karting in 1999. As a rookie driving a year-old car in the lower class of the 2002 British F3 championship, Carroll was still a front runner, even finishing on the outright podium.

GP2 - arrive in style, and sideways...

In 2005 he joined Super Nova for the inaugural GP2 campaign and immediately made his mark on the big stage.

"For Adam to win on the Sunday morning…the story of that first weekend at Imola was all about the car packing up with the electronics in the practice session, the brakes exploding in the first race and they changed from Carbone Lorraine to Brembo overnight," recalls Buxton who was working as GP2 press officer at the time.

"All the cars were fitted with Brembo brakes for the Sunday morning and all the drivers had to get used to these brand new brakes that actually worked. Ernesto Viso threw it off on the lap from the pits to the grid because the brakes were so much better.

"Adam raced a beautiful race for Super Nova and I will never ever forget the move that ultimately got him the win. It was coming through the old chicane onto the start finish straight and he was coming up behind Alex Premat in the ART and he was putting Premat under pressure for so many laps.

"They got to the chicane and Premat out-braked himself and straight-lined the chicane and went over the grass and Adam just flipped the thing left, flicked it right, there was no way he braked enough, he was carrying so much speed through there. As he came out of the second part of the chicane the back end of the car was almost on the straight before the front end - he was sideways, with the rear wing almost brushing against the outside wall.

"But he held it on opposite lock, just floored it and emerged ahead of Premat who had straight-lined the chicane. It was the most ridiculous move and he went on to win the race.

"That was the moment for me GP2 arrived because it was just the most exciting thing I had ever seen and it was the moment for me that Adam arrived and I really knew what I could expect out of this guy which was total commitment, really exciting to watch and an unbelievable star."

And the move impressed Super Nova boss David Sears as well: "I have that picture up on my wall still! That was a really good year. I like Adam and he did deserve to have a go at Formula 1."

Monaco madness

Carroll will go down in history as the first GP2 victor in Monaco, although his win came courtesy of an unusual driving move.

"What made his win astonishing is he hit the wall very early on in the race and he set the steering off," recalls Buxton.

"So after a lap and a half he realised 'I can't do the rest of the race like this' and he deliberately knocked the car on the other side and hit the barrier on the other side and that straightened the steering up.

"And that summed Adam up. Brilliant - crazy - but brilliant."

F1 test seat

After impressing in his maiden GP2 campaign, Carroll was signed as a test driver by Honda, but never had the opportunity of a race seat.

"He got himself into an F1 car with Honda, but when you look at the background of the test, he never got a fair crack at it," said Mark Gallagher who ran Carroll in A1GP.

"It is a pity that Formula 1 didn't get to witness Adam's talents."

Title success in A1GP

The closest the world came to seeing Carroll race an F1 car was in A1GP, where the car for the 2008-2009 season was based on the Ferrari F2004.

"Winning the A1GP title the way he did in a car that was basically an F1 car, Adam was just inspired in that championship," says Buxton.

"People often pour scorn on A1, but in reality it was a good championship, with good drivers on real proper tough racing tracks. You don't win a championship unless you are good."

Gallagher, his boss at Team Ireland, was equally impressed.

"It is not often a race driver delivers exactly what you expect of him and that is exactly what Adam did for us in A1GP," he said.

"We did A1GP for four years, the first years we had Richard Lyons, Ralph Firman and Michael Devaney, I wanted Adam, but he was racing in GP2 at the time and his management didn't want the distraction. Finally he became available and he was immediately a lot stronger to work with in a number of different ways.

"We set around building the team around Adam and in the second year we did something radical and appointed a new race engineer and I involved Adam in the interviews."

No room at the top table

Carroll's A1GP title success came just as the world was gripped by economic recession. Honda, BMW and Toyota all pulled out of F1 in quick succession and sponsorship money was becoming harder to find for the teams that remained.

The Ulsterman held talks over an F1 seat for 2010 with new squad Virgin Racing, but couldn't raise the 4m Euros to secure the seat, telling Sky Sports later that season "I tried my nuts off". Carroll was also reported to have had talks with fellow new entry HRT and Lola whose entry was rejected. He was close - but not close enough.

F1's loss?

So could Carroll had starred in F1?

"I look back now and think if he had been given a shot in F1 he would have been phenomenal because he was just magic," says Buxton.

"You saw that when he had the right people behind him there wasn't anything he couldn't achieve anything."

Gallagher added: "It is Formula 1's loss that a driver like Adam didn't get the opportunity to come there. I would almost say he was kind of old school in that he had a prodigious speed, but he also had this aggression that almost Mansell-esque.

"I would never say he was like Nigel out of the car, but it was that kind of aggression and that ability to channel his aggression into speed. He wouldn't overdrive the car, he would just go out and deliver absolutely the performance that you needed and that would have been great to see in Formula 1. He would have been an asset. I think a top LMP1 team would be doing a sensible thing to have him their car."

F1's loss is sportscars gain and Carroll continued to show his pace in the European Le Mans Series in 2015 with Gulf Racing and is set to contest the Le Mans 24 Hours this year with the GT squad.

But we could yet see the 33-year-old in single-seaters once more with the Northern Irishman repeatedly linked with Formula E. Carroll flew to the Buenos Aires ePrix to provide cover for Nick Heidfeld at Mahindra Racing, but ended up also having seat fittings with the Abt Audi Sport and DS Virgin teams after Daniel Abt and Jean-Eric Vergne fell ill.

All three were declared fit to race, but it again showed how highly Carroll is regarded among the teams. Not entirely lost yet then?

[umseb]

sebastian vettel takes in the sights ahead of the race weekend, monaco - may, 2005 📷 imago

[umlewis]

lewis hamilton and sebastian vettel celebrate on the podium / formula 3 euro series, zandvoort, netherlands - august 28, 2005 📷 sutton images

[sebtember5]

Baby beloved 😭😍 Sewis back in 2005🤏🏻🥺

[theworldsmosthatedakacr7]

Following the Public Prosecutor Complaint

The Public Prosecutor has filed today a complaint against Cristiano Ronaldo and not a claim, which implies a substantial change.

The Public Prosecutor understands that CR is participating in an off shore structure, similar to that of other players, when most of the revenues were obtained directly by the player, without the participation of any of his societies. The rest of his revenues were paid to the player and declared in Spain according to the terms that the player’s advisors considered applicable.

There is no off shore structure for evading taxes. Tollin is 100% owned by Cristiano Ronaldo since its foundation in 2004. It was founded when the player arrived at Manchester United, six years before his signing for Real Madrid, and the net profits were 12.753.685,28 euros, distributed according to the following years:

159.472,65 euros, in 2004

571,69 euros, in 2005

477.602,17 euros, in 2006

205.285,55 euros, in 2007

769.165,02 euros, in 2008

585.588,20 euros, in 2009

When Cristiano Ronaldo signs for Real Madrid, he maintains the same structure he had in UK. NO other structure was created at that moment. Throughout all of the above mentioned years, CR never had a tax problem, contrary to what the Spanish Prosecutors insinuates. All contractual modifications to such structure have been made to guarantee that the incomes fully observe the Spanish tax regulation.

Cristiano Ronaldo signs for Real Madrid in 2009 under the Law of Impatriots, legislation in force and prevailing then, and he was taxed only for the incomes that were attributable to Spain. Therefore, the universal taxation is not imputable in this case.

The Prosecutor’s Office says that the player declared the income derived from the transfer of image rights as income from movable capital to evade taxes. The laws applicable to Cristiano Ronaldo are the Personal Income Tax Law and the Impatriots Law. In Articles 25.4 and 13.1.F3, respectively, it is clear that the player’s income for image rights is considered to be as movable capital, and will only exceptionally be income from an economic activity, without being considered a performance of a sport activity in any case.

The player declares to the Tax Authorities Finances 100% of the part attributable to Spain of Tollin’s income and his image rights during the periods 2009-2014 and 2015-2020. All this according to the criteria set by the United Kingdom Treasury to determine that part of the image transfer revenue was originated in that country, which shows that there was no intention to defraud.

No additional tax declaration was done, as the press says. The player declared when Tollin paid him, on 12/31/2014. According to the Spanish law, taxes must be paid when the income is required, and so did the player.

The concealment he is accused of, not having communicated to the Spanish Treasury all the image rights incomes, is not attributable to the player since the declaration of impatriot does not allow declaring any income obtained outside Spain. The player hides nothing at all and in fact, he voluntarily declared his property abroad by presenting the official tax document model 720. He was not obliged to do, but as soon as he was requested for inspection, he presented all his tax information. There has never been concealment, or the slightest intention to conceal.

The paragraph regarding the sale of image rights, from 2015 to 2020, to ARNEL and ADIFORE (Peter Lim group companie’s with which the player has nothing to do) is tendentious. There is no interposed companies or deferral. The player personally received the whole amount, and he fully declared taxes for it. There can be no deferral since, in 2014; he paid taxes for all the incomes to be received in the oncoming years until 2020.

Cristiano’s lawyers consider that regarding what the solution to this case ends up being – as well as their consequences- they should be confined to the administrative field rather than the criminal one. The discrepancy comes from a very complex legal matter, and it is clear that, at any moment, there is no bad faith to be attributed to the player. In his opinion:

The main discrepancy between the revenues and what the Prosecution claims lays in qualifying in a different way the image transfer earnings “obtained in Spain” and, in this matter:

The player declared the income as income from movable capital, the classification that, in general, foresees the Spanish law and which the Administration and the Courts have ratified.

The player quantified the part attributable to Spain following the criteria established by the British Tax Authority, which was more favourable to Spain than the one which derived from expert reports.

In conclusion: the declared amount can be discussed, but it is clear that the football player did not try to evade taxes.

The second discrepancy refers to when the image transfer rights from years 2011 to 2013 had to be declared and paid (since in 2014 there was no deferral). Neither can be presumed intentionality here, since:

This alleged deferral comes from the player’s full confidence that his contract structure was perfectly legal, since it had been followed since 2004 (six years before the player came – or was thinking of coming – to Spain) and was recognized and validated by the English Treasury (an EU country).

It was the usual structure among players in England. Today, about 180 Premier players operate with this

In the case of Cristiano Ronaldo, no income was hidden at all, since the taxpayer settled and paid taxes at the time he collected the income (within the period legally established and previous to any tax inspection).

Having he declared in a yearly basis under the criteria his advisors considered legally in force, based on the English experience, he would have paid less taxes.

[princefrancois]

Seb, Lewis & Giedo podium 2005, F3 Euro Series

[grandpxnews-blog]

Hard to overtake at Zandvoort - Hamilton

New Post has been published on https://grandpx.news/hard-to-overtake-at-zandvoort-hamilton/

Hard to overtake at Zandvoort - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton has welcomed F1’s speculated return to Zandvoort for 2020, but notes that the former grand prix circuit is hard to overtake on.

With official confirmation still lacking, it is believed race organisers have inked a five-year contract with Liberty Media for a Dutch grand prix starting in 2020.

Speaking in Shanghai, Hamilton recalls racing at the circuit in his junior category days.

“It was a great circuit when I last drove there,” said the Mercedes driver, who beat Sebastian Vettel to victory at Zandvoort during the 2005 F3 Euro series.

“It was just hard to overtake on,” said Hamilton. “I don’t know if that’s changed now or whether something will change.

“Maybe it will be better with DRS, but I think it (returning to the Netherlands) is really cool.

“People always talk about Paris, but I love Amsterdam much more,” Hamilton is quoted by De Telegraaf. “It is a young, fresh city.”

[juniorformulamotorsport]

5th September 2005 A Weekend At The Races

So we had quite a weekend in Germany. For those of you who want to know about it, here it is! It isn’t all cars…

Thursday didn’t start off too well, with the damn car having another nervous breakdown, and me ending up having to coax it to the local garage after I dropped Lynne off at work. At least I had already planned on working from home for the day, but it meant I lost a couple of hours from the day that I could have made good use of. Anyway, Robert arrived reasonably on time, we picked Lynne up from the office, and trekked cross country from there to Stansted airport. Apart from a desperate phone call from Megamarshal and the others, who were already in Germany, there were no alarms en route and We made decent time. The call was because the landlady of the wonderful Gasthaus Rodarius speaks no English, and the rest of my friends speak no German, and they were failing utterly to communicate. After I’d sorted out who was in what room, and that we would be arriving very late and she should give our keys to Megamarshal or Andrea, we made what now seems to be our habitual restaurant stop at the Seafood Bar for dinner (seafood platter this time, made more attractive because they were out of oysters and were replacing them with massive prawns).

Germanwings got us off the ground in pretty good order and we were nicely on schedule landing at Konrad Adenauer airport (Koln/Bonn). The trouble was that on time was 23.00 hours and according to the Michelin route planning software we still had an hour and twenty minutes driving to do – and that in a VW Golf Automatic. Now I don’t like automatics. I find the lack of a third pedal disturbing in the extreme, and this was a particularly temperamental version of the breed, which tended to hunt through the transmission of its own accord, often in the wrong direction! So that was fun as we tried to find our way across the Eifel mountains. We finally arrived at Oberbaar a little after midnight, which meant we had enough time to unpack and fall exhausted into bed, cursing my employers because the shortage of holidays is what meant we had to go out so late on the Thursday.

Anyway, we didn’t get as much sleep as we would have liked, but we did at least manage to postpone any real activity till after breakfast. I’d warned the others that the breakfasts were pretty enormous that last time we’d stayed there, and so they proved. Lots of rolls, hams,cold meats and cheeses, and various jams and spreads, a semi-compulsory boiled egg, fruit juice, cereals, yogurts, you name it pretty much. And this for an amazing 24 euros (around £16) a night! After escaping from Frau Rodarius, who is one of the World’s great talkers, we arrived at the circuit in good order, got set up in a corner of the press office, and settled in for the long haul. There was a bit of cursing involved, because to get to the press office at the Nurburgring, you have to park on the other side of the main road and walk in. There was a shuttle bus waiting, but he reckoned it was no distance at all to the press office, and declined to take us. So we flogged across the footbridge to the circuit side of the road, across a second, much higher footbridge and along miles of corridors, dragging laptops and cameras and all the other peripheral stuff you need, thinking deeply uncharitable thoughts about the shuttle bus driver!

I was also soon thinking uncharitable thoughts about Dell keyboards, because my space bar was beginning to stick and I wasn’t looking forward to a weekend of reporting in gibberish! Anyway, it’s a very smart press office and the wifi access was available pretty much all weekend, which is a first this season… We settled in, watched testing, and then took a wander to find a lot of people in the paddock in various states of excitement because they’d been round the Nordschleife, which is the long, twisting old circuit, that is mostly considered too dangerous to race on now. As it’s too dangerous to race round, it’s open to anyone who wants to to drive on, on payment of a handful of euros! The hire car companies would be getting some very worn tyres back on Saturday evening, and would probably be wondering why…

We had a fine afternoon, gossiping with the Kimballs, and with all sorts of other people, and eventually, after qualifying, left the circuit, planning on eating at the Restaurant Pistenklause, in the Hotel Am Tiergarten in Nurburg. The others had been the night before, and were quite reasonably raving about it. They specialise in Italian food, including pizza, pasta, and meat cooked on a hot stone. It was very good, though the stones did make it more than a little smoky as the evening wore on. We found ourselves in the middle of the restaurant, which was rapidly filling up with all sorts of racing people (Michael Bartels, Duncan Huisman and some of the other sports car drivers), including all of the Carlin team. We had a chat with Alvaro, with Christian and with Charlie, and spent some time abusing Stephen Jelley on his Dad’s instruction. Oh, and it’s possible Mike Conway smiled at us, though a driver of our acquaintance claims this is one of the signs of impending apocalypse (the other being Daniel Clarke making an intelligent remark). We also acquired a couple of photographers in need of a room for the night because they couldn’t find the place they’d booked into. We sorted that out though we don’t plan on making a habit of it… I’d though the days of the the “Stella, can you…” phone calls were over, but clearly they aren’t. And so, to bed earlyish.

If we ever find out whose idea it was to run the second qualifying session at 8am, there’s a number of people in the F3 paddock who want a word or two, possibly with a baseball bat studded with nails… We had to have breakfast at the unspeakably early hour of 6.45 and were at the circuit by 7.30, the first people in press office before the lights had even been switched on… It was not my idea of a good thing and the right answer, I know that much. The pine trees were still mist-shrouded and the sun was just beginning to burn through it before the cars came out. It seemed like cruel and unusual punishment, we just couldn’t figure out what for. Anyway, once everyone had woken up, we were able to get on with a good day’s racing, which got ever more satisfying after a bizarre first win for James Walker. The points position at the end of the first race meant that only Alvaro or Charlie could actually win the championship any longer, and Alvaro only needed 12 more points to wrap up the title.

Much as I like Charlie, I’ve been telling Alvaro since April that he was going to be 2005 champion, and as I explained to Charlie I don’t like to be wrong! And by the end of the afternoon it was all over, and Alvaro Parente is the 2005 British F3 International Series Champion, to our great delight – even though I did shed a tear or two as he crossed the line at the end of the race. Everyone was kissing and hugging wach other, and lots and lots of photos were taken of the new Champ with all the people who had supported him, no matter how tenuously. Eventually we tore ourselves away, and went back to the hotel, where we celebrated in style with a couple of bottles of sekt (German sparkling wine), before we split to go our separate ways for dinner. Lynne, Robert, Megamarshal and I fetched up at the Dorint back at the circuit, where the Pfifferlinge (wild mushroom) menu proved wildly tempting (the soup was wonderful, as was the rump steak with lots and lots of mushrooms) and we had a relaxing evening, prior to more sekt back at the gasthaus, where we reflected on what a long strange day it had been – as if James Walker winning wasn’t strange enough, I’d actually managed a conversation with Mike Conway after months of trying to get him to communicate, and was still in shock!

I woke up still smiling on Sunday, and finished the last little bit of reportage before breakfast! We had a late sekt breakfast (Frau Rodarius knew things had gone well for us, and said she’d like to offer us a bottle to celebrate), before we packed and finally checked out. We meandered back to the circuit to try and send the last report off, only to find there was no connectivity and no one had any idea when there would be any. We stuck around long enough to enjoy the sight and sound (and the rumbling coming up through the floor) at the start of the LMES race, then took ourselves out of there and on a short drive to Maria Laach for a wonderful lunch at the Seehotel Maria Laach, which started with 3 of us and eventually became seven, when Andrea and Megamarshal joined us after a lap of the Nordschleife, and then Cassandra and Al arrived about half an hour later.

We couldn’t get a table on the terrace (it’s tremendously popular in fine weather), but we did manage to get one in the main restaurant just by the huge French windows that opened onto the terrace, so it was cool and pleasant and we could still see the garden and the pine forested hills beyond. The chef was celebrating the potato, and so I had crispy potato cakes with a pork and mushroom ragout – you can never have enough mushrooms, say I. The desserts were scarily proportioned, and very delicious (we watched a nun tackling an enormous iced coffee with ice cream and wondered what sort of penance she was going to have to do), and all in all it was great way to spend a Sunday.

Afterwards, we walked up to the Kloster, and nosed around the abbey, which was started in 1093, and rebuilt several times, but that still retains a number of splendidly Romanesque features including a fountain that looked very Carolingian to me, even though it would have been too early for the building and anyway it was in too good a state of preservation. Photos will follow, just not immediately. After we’d poked around the building we had just enough time for a short stroll by the lake, and then it was time to drive to the airport for our flight home. We got in just before midnight last night, in a storm that made us wonder if that might have been the start of the impending apocalypse we’d been talking about, but then we realised that no one had heard Dan Clarke say anything intelligent – or intelligible for that matter – so we stopped worrying about it and went off to bed!

Travel 2005 – Germany 5th September 2005 A Weekend At The Races So we had quite a weekend in Germany. For those of you who want to know about it, here it is!