Following yesterday's long road trip to Austria, today (Thursday) was my first day at the Red Bull Ring.
Walking through for the paddock was an incredible feeling. After all of my hard work and effort, it is a great feeling knowing that it has all paid off.
My day kicked off just before my 8:00am alarm. Luke Smith (F1 writer for NBC and Richland F1's founder/editor-in-chief) and I quickly got ready to head to the accreditation centre to collect our media passes.
After picking them up (a rather exciting moment for me), we then headed to the circuit and arrived just after 11:00am. We then found the media centre and picked a seat, which will be ours for the rest of the weekend.
It is a huge and very smart room, with rows of tables and chairs, big screens and - most importantly - fridges packed full of different types of Red Bull (I think we counted 9 varieties of the energy drink).
It is situated above the main grandstand, opposite the pit lane. The view is also incredible as you can see most of the circuit, with a great view of the start line and the first corner.
It was a rather quiet start, as we sorted out which media sessions to attend. We then took a walk around the paddock for the first time, had a look around and grabbed some lunch.
My first media session was with Nico Hulkenberg, who is looking forward to tackling the Red Bull Ring for the first time. When I asked the German driver if he thinks the circuit will suit the VJM07, he replied: "I think it will be okay. Similar to Montreal, I think.
"I have never driven here so we will have to wait until tomorrow but it looks like an engine track, lots of straight line and up and down hill. Doing the track walk, it looks pretty fun to drive, especially the middle sector with the two high speed left-handers."
Next up, I headed to the Sauber motorhome for a chat with Esteban Gutierrez (thanks to Marleen for arranging it). After a short wait, I headed upstairs for the interview. If you don't know me, I am a very clumsy person, and I showed this to the Mexican driver immediately.
As I sat down in the chair - which was rather comfy - my foot hit the coffee table, which knocked over a vase full of water. A great start. The piece will be up on Richland F1 later in the weekend, so watch out for that.
I then walked over to the Williams hospitality area to hear what Valtteri Bottas had to say about the up-coming race. He also shared his views on the last-lap Canadian Grand Prix crash between his team-mate Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez, saying the penalty given to the latter was fair.
Next up was the FIA driver press conference. Fernando Alonso, Max Chilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Marcus Ericsson, Gutierrez and Perez were all in attendance. It was a busy media session with plenty of questions from the floor, lasting around half an hour.
After quickly transferring the recordings over to my laptop, I then swiftly returned to the paddock and visited the Mercedes motorhome for Nico Rosberg's media session. He is excited to return to the circuit for the first time since 2004 and is confident that there will be no repeat of his Canada problems.
Next up on the plan was another interview, this time with Caterham rookie Marcus Ericsson. I didn't knock over anything in this chat, and he gave me some good answers (big thanks to Tom for organising it). That piece will also be on Richland F1 later in the weekend.
My final media session of the day was Kevin Magnussen's. He is hoping McLaren's Austrian Grand Prix upgrades will help them to make steps forward and shared his thoughts on having Jenson Button as a team-mate.
Following a busy few hours of collecting quotes, I finally got the chance to sit down and type them up. We then gathered our things and met up with Leanne Boon from Octane Photographic, before then getting the media shuttle bus to the car park.
We arrived back at the hotel at about 7:30pm, quickly posting a blog post on the Friday schedule shake-up being rejected by the F1 Commission and completing one final news piece from the press sessions.
Overall, I think it was a successful first day in the paddock. I feel extremely lucky to be here and will work as hard as I can over the next few days to get great content up on the website and do the best job possible.
Since I started writing, getting to a race as a journalist has always been the aim. After my first taste of working at the circuit today, I now know 100% that this is what I want to do. It was incredible.
Tomorrow, it will be an early start to get to the circuit well in time for the first practice session. GP2 and GP3 are also in action, so it will be interesting to watch the sessions for the feeder series when time allows. It will be a long and busy day but I will try and get a blog up on my adventures in the F1 paddock as soon as I can.
Also, I have combined this post with my usual Thursday Snap Shot - this time though, it features some of my own images!
Walking through for the paddock was an incredible feeling. After all of my hard work and effort, it is a great feeling knowing that it has all paid off.
My day kicked off just before my 8:00am alarm. Luke Smith (F1 writer for NBC and Richland F1's founder/editor-in-chief) and I quickly got ready to head to the accreditation centre to collect our media passes.
After picking them up (a rather exciting moment for me), we then headed to the circuit and arrived just after 11:00am. We then found the media centre and picked a seat, which will be ours for the rest of the weekend.
It is a huge and very smart room, with rows of tables and chairs, big screens and - most importantly - fridges packed full of different types of Red Bull (I think we counted 9 varieties of the energy drink).
It is situated above the main grandstand, opposite the pit lane. The view is also incredible as you can see most of the circuit, with a great view of the start line and the first corner.
It was a rather quiet start, as we sorted out which media sessions to attend. We then took a walk around the paddock for the first time, had a look around and grabbed some lunch.
My first media session was with Nico Hulkenberg, who is looking forward to tackling the Red Bull Ring for the first time. When I asked the German driver if he thinks the circuit will suit the VJM07, he replied: "I think it will be okay. Similar to Montreal, I think.
"I have never driven here so we will have to wait until tomorrow but it looks like an engine track, lots of straight line and up and down hill. Doing the track walk, it looks pretty fun to drive, especially the middle sector with the two high speed left-handers."
Next up, I headed to the Sauber motorhome for a chat with Esteban Gutierrez (thanks to Marleen for arranging it). After a short wait, I headed upstairs for the interview. If you don't know me, I am a very clumsy person, and I showed this to the Mexican driver immediately.
As I sat down in the chair - which was rather comfy - my foot hit the coffee table, which knocked over a vase full of water. A great start. The piece will be up on Richland F1 later in the weekend, so watch out for that.
I then walked over to the Williams hospitality area to hear what Valtteri Bottas had to say about the up-coming race. He also shared his views on the last-lap Canadian Grand Prix crash between his team-mate Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez, saying the penalty given to the latter was fair.
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| © Octane Photographic |
Next up was the FIA driver press conference. Fernando Alonso, Max Chilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Marcus Ericsson, Gutierrez and Perez were all in attendance. It was a busy media session with plenty of questions from the floor, lasting around half an hour.
After quickly transferring the recordings over to my laptop, I then swiftly returned to the paddock and visited the Mercedes motorhome for Nico Rosberg's media session. He is excited to return to the circuit for the first time since 2004 and is confident that there will be no repeat of his Canada problems.
Next up on the plan was another interview, this time with Caterham rookie Marcus Ericsson. I didn't knock over anything in this chat, and he gave me some good answers (big thanks to Tom for organising it). That piece will also be on Richland F1 later in the weekend.
My final media session of the day was Kevin Magnussen's. He is hoping McLaren's Austrian Grand Prix upgrades will help them to make steps forward and shared his thoughts on having Jenson Button as a team-mate.
Following a busy few hours of collecting quotes, I finally got the chance to sit down and type them up. We then gathered our things and met up with Leanne Boon from Octane Photographic, before then getting the media shuttle bus to the car park.
We arrived back at the hotel at about 7:30pm, quickly posting a blog post on the Friday schedule shake-up being rejected by the F1 Commission and completing one final news piece from the press sessions.
Overall, I think it was a successful first day in the paddock. I feel extremely lucky to be here and will work as hard as I can over the next few days to get great content up on the website and do the best job possible.
Since I started writing, getting to a race as a journalist has always been the aim. After my first taste of working at the circuit today, I now know 100% that this is what I want to do. It was incredible.
Tomorrow, it will be an early start to get to the circuit well in time for the first practice session. GP2 and GP3 are also in action, so it will be interesting to watch the sessions for the feeder series when time allows. It will be a long and busy day but I will try and get a blog up on my adventures in the F1 paddock as soon as I can.
Also, I have combined this post with my usual Thursday Snap Shot - this time though, it features some of my own images!
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