Paddock Postcard from Silverstone 11 Jun 2006
Silverstone brought out the stars in no uncertain fashion this weekend.
For the first time in years 13 world champions - Fernando Alonso, Sir Jack Brabham, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mika Hakkinen, Damon Hill, Alan Jones, Niki Lauda, Keke Rosberg, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees and Jacques Villeneuve - gathered in the same place to have their images captured on large-scale prints with the world’s largest Polaroid camera, for a forthcoming book.
Other familiar racetrack faces included Derek Warwick, Brian Henton, Hans Stuck, Johnny Herbert, John Watson, Marc Surer, Jackie Oliver, Tim Schenken, Chris Craft, Ray Allen, Tony Trimmer and Christian Danner, together with Max Mosley’s former business partner Robin Herd (one of the co-founders of March Engineering in 1969), former Toyota technical director Mike Gascoyne, former McLaren, Onyx, Arrows and Stewart designer Alan Jenkins, and former engine builder Brian Hart. Bette Hill, mother of Damon and widow of Graham, celebrated her forthcoming 80th birthday with lunch with Bernie Ecclestone on Saturday and at Honda today.
The world of football was represented by two superstars: Diego Maradona and Liverpool/Juventus star Ian Rush; royalty by the Duke of Kent; and politics by Peter Hain and Alistair Campbell.
On track, polesitter Adam Carroll had to settle for third place in Saturday’s GP2 encounter, which was won by fellow front-row man Lewis Hamilton, who thus extended his championship lead. Timo Glock was second.
