Ann Bradshaw, a journalist and press officer with three decades of experience in motor racing, and one of the most respected workers in the F1 paddock, follows the 2002 season in her post-race column, offering F1 fans an insight into the life of those who spend the GP weekend inside the paddock

The sight of Formula 1 cars going flat out through Eau Rouge is without doubt what most people say they look forward to each year when the Belgian Grand Prix is held at Spa-Francorchamps. Well, this is not the case for me. It is pommes frites and mayonnaise that I look forward to. There is nothing nicer than standing out in the public area with a cone-shaped packet of these scrumptious chips that are particular to this part of the world, covered in thick, custard consistency mayonnaise. This is one place where I am happy to shun the gourmet experience of the Paddock Club or Formula 1 motorhomes for what the 'poor people' eat.

Having said this, I have to admit it is the only track where I love to stand and watch the cars in action as, however many Grands Prix you go to, I defy anyone who loves the sport not to find Eau Rouge an amazing corner that sorts out the men from the boys.

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I remember the first time Jacques Villeneuve went there in '96. The WilliamsF1 team had tried its hardest to send him testing to all the tracks he was about to race on, but this proved impossible for Spa. He therefore had to rely on a computer game to gain knowledge of the track. This he did, and while I knew what a bright, fearless driver he was, I still doubted this track could be tamed in such a way. In fact, I was so certain I even had a fifty dollar bet with his manager and best friend, Craig Pollock, that he would not be on the front row. How wrong I was. He took pole by four tenths of a second from his teammate Damon Hill, and Craig took the fifty dollars!

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There have been some great races in Spa and also some amazing ones. In 1994 Michael Schumacher won on the track, but was thrown out for an illegal plank, while in 1995 he came from 16th on the grid to win, and showed his mastery of a wet track, and then of course there was the horrific first corner accident in 1998 that involved 12 cars. This particular race in '98 also saw the first win for the Jordan team, and a confrontation between leader Michael and David Coulthard after the German ran into the Scot in dreadful weather conditions on lap 25.

Michael blamed it all on David and even accused him of trying to kill him. He rushed down to the McLaren garage and had to be pulled away by his team, while the McLaren mechanics, who were trying to repair David's car, also had to help keep the two apart. Thinking about this race also brings to mind team orders. The Jordan team was over the moon that not only was Damon leading for them, but also that Ralf Schumacher was second. As the conditions at the end of the race were still atrocious the team, quite rightly in my mind, told the drivers to hold station. While Damon was delighted with the win, Ralf's face on the podium said it all. However, the team knew if it let its drivers race then the likelihood of no Jordans finishing the race would have been quite high.

Some of the accidents at Spa have been heart stopping, due to the high speeds, and it has usually been Eau Rouge that has caught out the brave, stupid or unwary. The most spectacular ones were those of Alex Zanardi, Mika Salo, Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta. For the BAR team, the ones for Jacques and Ricardo were particularly upsetting as they came in the same qualifying session in 1999. The cars literally flew off the track and were very badly damaged. The only bright outcome of the accidents were that neither driver suffered any injuries, and thanks to a lot of hard work by the mechanics and diverting of cars that had been on their way to a test, they both made the grid the next day.

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I have played my part in some of the dramas. I had the enjoyable task of telling a despondent Damon Hill that he had won the race in '94. Having come second to Michael and seen his chance of winning the drivers' title slip further away, Damon had left the track and gone to the airport. I stayed to do my press release, so I was a few hours behind him. I was tipped off by our team manager that moves were afoot to throw out the Benetton. I rushed to scrutineering to see what was happening, and sure enough the plank had been worn down and we were the winners.

It was a very astonished Damon, who was sitting in the BA lounge at Brussels airport, when I rushed up to with a big grin on my face and told he had won the race. While this is included in the tally of 22 wins for Damon, he only has 21 of the trophies as Michael never returned the trophy for this race!

The other controversial situation I was involved in was with Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna in 1987. In the race Nigel, who was on pole, got away and led the first lap, but the race was red flagged after a massive accident involving the Tyrrells of Jonathan Palmer and Philippe Streiff. At the restart things didn't go so well as Ayrton got through into the lead and then the 'fun' started. Both drivers were tough, giving no quarter as they battled down a straight and into a corner, so it came as no surprise when they both went off and out of the race.

Nigel attracted a lot of criticism as he was behind, but he felt Ayrton had played his part and so decided to have it out with the Brazilian. I was there in the WilliamsF1 garage waiting with trepidation to ask Nigel for his side of the story, but never got the chance as he rushed into the garage and then out again and up to the Lotus pit. He admitted he was 'raging with fury' and that 'a red mist' had come down in front of him. I was not in the Lotus garage when he got there but the story was he had Ayrton pinned up against the wall and, while he did not hit him, was holding him tightly by the collar of his overalls. Luckily there were a few well-built mechanics in the Lotus team and they were able to drag Nigel off Ayrton. Needless to say this made more of the headlines the next day than the fact that Alain Prost won.

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Talking about winning in Spa, last year was the weekend of the 'big' football match between England and Germany. Many Grand Prix team members and members of the press are also great football fans so watching the match on the Saturday night was a must. At WilliamsF1 we organised a typical 'Saturday night in front of the telly watching footy' meal - curry and beer - and invited a group of 'mates' to the Compaq motorhome. Jim Wright, the team's head of marketing is perhaps one of the biggest football fans I have ever come across and a close second is Jonathan Legard, Grand Prix reporter for BBC Radio 5 Live. Both of these well brought up and usually docile men become monsters while watching a game, and this evening was no exception.

Thankfully we did quite well as a country - we beat the Germans 5-1 - and this caused Jim and Jonathan to run round the paddock after each goal and yell abuse at no one in particular, but hopeful that there may be a German in earshot. The WilliamsF1 marketing bus was quite lively on the way home with the usually demure Events Manager, Katie Aspinall, yelling 'five one' at the thousands of Grand Prix fans we had to drive through to get back to our hotel. However, the 'piece de resistance' was the next morning when Jim got to the circuit. He found the team's sticker man and borrowed a couple of items. The next thing we were all taken to view was the front of the BMW and WilliamsF1 motor homes that were parked next to each other. On the front of the BMW and WilliamsF1 vehicles Jim had stuck respectively a large 1 and a large 5!

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The sad fact about Spa is it may have had its last Grand Prix there, as the race is under serious threat due to the Belgian government's insistence that cigarette advertising will be banned before the pan European ban comes in in 2006. One person who has already spoken out against this is Michael Schumacher. For him it is a special place as the following facts will testify to: it is the closest track to his home town of Kerpen in Germany; he competed in his first Grand Prix there in 1991; he won his first Grand Prix there in 1992; he set a new all time record for Grand Prix wins there in 2001 when he overtook Alain Prost's record of 51; he broke his and Nigel Mansell's record for the number of wins in a season this weekend by taking his tenth victory of 2002; his sixth win on Sunday is more than any other driver at the circuit. Surprisingly, until this year he has never been on pole.

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The one thing you can always rely on in Spa is the weather will be unreliable! Ever since my first visit there in 1985, I have always taken clothes for all four seasons and sometimes have had the chance to wear all of them. I am certain the only time I ever went there when there was not a drop of rain was at that first visit, and this lack of bad weather was to prove disastrous for the event. Over the '84/'85 winter the organisers had decided to resurface the track, knowing the usual cold and rainy conditions would help cure it in time for the race that at that time was held in June. Unfortunately for them the weather was unseasonably dry and mild and so when the cars went out for their first practice session of the weekend the 'soft' track did not like all this horsepower and it promptly started to break up, while the sun continued to beat down.

I remember speaking to WilliamsF1 driver Keke Rosberg after this session and he explained how the edges were breaking up and large pieces of tarmac were thrown at the following cars. It was not long before the drivers were in deep discussion with the organisers and things started to look uncertain for the race. More forays by the drivers and lengthy discussions went on for the next 36 hours until finally on the Saturday evening it was decided the race could not go ahead. At this point the teams packed up their cars and motorhomes and hightailed it out of the track. The more cynical observers suggested perhaps this rather late decision was taken so the weekend was not a total financial loss for the organisers, as perhaps at this point spectators and guests might already be either on their way or not likely to listen to news bulletins telling them the event was off.

At WilliamsF1 we were in this situation as sponsors ICI, Canon and Mobil all had their own hospitality buses and it was too late to contact the guests and tell them not to come. Luckily for my colleagues, Jane Constanduros and Fiona Miller, who looked after the guests for ICI and Mobil respectively, and myself, we had a Formula 3000 race to look forward to. These brave lads had opted to stay and race and so at least our guests had something to watch. Although I was sad the F1 race did not happen, it was rather relaxing sitting on a grassy bank in a heatwave in the middle of the Ardennes Forest for an afternoon. Luckily for the fans this was not a cancellation but a postponement and when the teams returned in September the race went without a hitch and was won by Ayrton Senna.

Since then I have never experienced such lovely weather. I have been ankle deep in water in the pit lane, remember one year as we all stood on the grid in our shirtsleeves a passing storm came from nowhere and literally drenched everyone, and no doubt Spa will always have a special place in the heart of Rubens Barrichello. It was here the likeable Brazilian had his first pole in weather conditions that were constantly changing. He took the gamble and won by being out on the track at exactly the right time, and afterwards the tears of joy shed by him and his emotional family were about as profuse as the raindrops that helped him to this success.

I also remember the changeable weather in 1997 when Jacques Villeneuve and his race engineer, Jock Clear, were discussing over the radio whether they would be able to improve on the time Jacques had just set. Jock reckoned that was it, while Jacques was certain he could go faster and the weather would not get worse. They decided to have a bet on this, with the loser having his head shaved in Japan. Jock lost and with the help of Fuji TV, who I 'sold' the filming rights to, I managed to get a professional barber into the WilliamsF1 garage in Suzuka to shave his head. Even though Jock didn't have that much hair anyway, he said that when he went home and showed his wife what had happened to his locks she burst into tears. This year weatherwise was no exception as the first session was an hour late starting thanks to low cloud making it impossible for the medical helicopter to operate.

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I suppose I cannot ignore the latest in the Arrows saga. The story seems to be about on a par with War and Peace. I know nothing is ever certain in this world, but Formula 1 is a particularly uncertain area to be involved in and the stories that have circulated about the team, its negotiations and its future are amazing. As I write this the future is uncertain, but one thing I know is certain is that the workforce deserve better than this. The stress this must be causing them can only be imagined, as not only were the wages for July paid a month late, but also none of them know if they will receive anything for August. I hope for them that by the time I write my post-Italy column they will have a secure future.

About the author:
Ann Bradshaw - Annie - began her motor racing career as a teenager, helping out her brother in local rally races in England, where she grew up. In the 1970s she organised motor racing events in England, and was later the press officer for the RAC MSA - the motorsport governing body in Britain. In mid 1980s, she became press officer to team Lotus, where she worked with Ayrton Senna. Shortly after, she moved to the Williams team and was working there for several years, when once again she found herself working with Senna. She worked with Damon Hill after the Brazilian's death, and moved with the British Champion to Arrows. She also worked with the Panoz team in the United States, before becoming a freelance press officer, now working with Compaq and BAR among others. Annie joined Atlas F1 as a regular columnist in April 2002.