News From The Paddock - Brazilian GP
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Friday April 9th, 1999

  • Local boy Pedro Diniz had a nasty scare on Wednesday. The Sauber driver was out on his mountain bike for a bit of last minute fitness training, when he took a bad fall which required stitching. Asked to show off his wound in the Thursday morning press conference, the Brazilian went Ferrari-red before admitting it was "underneath my pants!"

    Eddie with a fan

  • Scuderia Ferrari-Marlboro driver Eddie Irvine lost no time getting into Brazil party mode. The championship leader took to the dance floor of a Samba club on Tuesday night. On being asked how it felt to dance the Samba with the leggy Brazilian beauties, the Irishman came up with a typical Eddie reply. "I don't know how it felt, but I certainly felt a lot. A boy could get into a lot of trouble here."

  • The Japanese television company Fuji TV is not attending this race. It is a symptom of the financial crisis in the Pacific region and a reflection of a slight drop of interest from Japanese spectators. Fuji has had the Formula 1 broadcast rights contract since 1989 and this is the first time it has missed a race. The impending arrival of Honda next year and perhaps Toyota further in the future, is expected to turn around this decline in F1 interest.

  • On the other hand, good news for F1 fans in New Zealand: TV One has signed a deal with the FOA whereby they will show all races live, starting with Sunday's race. The coverage is a high quality one - that of the British ITV, with commentators Murry Walker and Martin Brundle.

  • After Eddie Irvine scored his maiden F1 win in Australia, he received a silver cheque and pen to commemorate the event. The generous donor was none other than F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

  • Ferrari's Michael Schumacher has tipped the Stewart team to go well here. "I think they could be the main threat to the top two teams both here and in Imola (the next round of the championship") said the German. "After that it will depend if they can keep up the development work. I think that later in the season, the main threat will come from Williams and Jordan." His Stewart prediction could come true with Rubens Barrichello keen to do well at home as well as being an acknowledged wet-weather expert - remember his great drive to second place in the rain at Monaco in ?97. A wet race could also help McLaren with their reliability problems as the reduced speeds, less G- force and generally slower pace in these conditions puts less strain on machinery.

  • Heinz-Harald Frentzen got it wrong again on Thursday. He and Jordan team-mate Damon Hill were asked to give a talk for a group of young Brazilian kart racers. As the kids did not speak English they were all kitted out with earpieces listening to a translation. Seeing this collection of young people all staring blankly with things in their ear, Frentzen admitted he assumed they were underprivileged deaf children on a special outing!

  • McLaren pulled off a great April Fool joke in its fan club magazine. It claimed they had managed to get an F1 car to drive along the inside of the roof of a wind-tunnel upside down. It allegedly took place at a 100 metre long tunnel near Stuttgart. Trick photography had been used to back up the story and a Mercedes engineer explained how he had to redesign the oil system so that the engine would not seize. Naturally an English newspaper had to take things further, claiming the team reckoned they would run the cars upside down through the tunnel on the Monaco GP course. This would give Hakkinen and Coulthard great overtaking opportunities!

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