21/07/2011
Good morning Germany. Yes, yes, Lotus Renault GP has arrived at the Nurburgring ahead of the 2011 F1 Grand Prix. This country just loves its motorsport, and there’s no doubting that this is one of the big ones on the calendar.
Vettel, Heidfeld, Schumacher, Rosberg, Sutil, Glock: no fewer than six Germans on the grid this weekend, that really says something about a country’s dominance in a sport. One of them (namely that chap Sebastian) seems to be winning everything at the moment, so if that’s not dominance then I don’t know what is. It’s hard to argue with the fact that Germany really is king pin in this sport at the moment.
’What about the place itself’ I hear you cry. Well, it’s my maiden visit on German turf and I have to say my first few hours on this country’s soil were full of, well, stereotypes.
An English band named Blur once used the lyrics ’there must be more to life than stereotypes’ in its song, suprisingly titled ’Stereotypes’. Well, to that theory I have to say what a load of twaddle! Stereotypes are usually (not always) there for a reason and on this occasion, and stereotypes were in abundance in the two hour journey between Frankfurt airport and our hotel yesterday evening. I’ll cite two examples…
My first impression (and I mean very first impression) was the impeccable efficiency. We walked off the plane onto the little shuttle bus that took us to the airport terminal. On our arrival, the terminal had a ghostly presence about it with not another soul in sight. When we got through to passport control there were absolutely no queues. I’d heard that the Germans weren’t as fond of queuing as the English but maybe part of the reason for that was the fact that queues are not so common here. Only moments later, there I was at baggage reclaim and there (right there) was my bag awaiting me. Magical. German efficiency at its very best.
The second stereotype that I’d like to mention took place in our hire car only moments after setting off. We thought that a bit of German music wouldn’t go astray and, alas, after turning the radio station on, what were we blessed with? Not German rock, oh no not that. We were blessed with none other than the finest power ballads from the last thirty years. You name it, they played it: Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Rolling Stones. The only thing missing was David Hasselhoff singing about freedom. Now that would have been a stereotype.
Credit: Lotus Renault GP (www.lotusrenaultgp.com)
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