Blogs | 13/09/2011
Each race weekend, along with his colleague Lisa Medway, Matt takes charge of organising Lotus Renault GP’s operations in the Paddock Club - F1’s exclusive hospitality experience, which caters for the team’s VIP sponsors and guests each Grand Prix weekend. By the end of the 2011 season, Matt will have entertained more than 4000 LRGP Paddock Club guests who will have been treated to the finest champagne and cuisine, driver appearances, autograph sessions and visits to the team’s garage.
On his return to Enstone, Matt gave us his account of the Monza Paddock Club experience.
Thursday
Thursday is all about set-up, set-up, set-up. I went straight to the track in Monza on Thursday morning and liaised with all the agencies at the Paddock Club. We had to cater for approximately 400 guests this weekend; the Italian Grand Prix never fails to disappoint with its numbers due to the fact that it’s the last European race of the season, and our big sponsors such as Renault and Total have a very big presence in Italy.
Throughout the day, there’s a whole host of things to prepare for when the guests arrive in time for Free Practice 1 on Friday. A lot of my time is spent preparing the merchandise, which is all part of the guests’ experience. It’s no secret that we all love an F1 gift, and giving these away really does give our visitors something they can take away - a lasting memento of the day if you like!
Friday
Friday was the quietest of the three days over the course of the weekend, as a lot of the guests were still making their way to Monza. Having said that, we still had the usual driver appearances. Vitaly came up to the suite which went down well; he’s a real hit with the guests with his cheeky Russian humour, and he was in particularly good form following his successful Friday morning practice session, in which he came fifth-fastest.
It’s always quite noticeable how the guests differ from race to race. Here in Italy they are less reserved and more flamboyant than in some places, so they really did like meeting and interacting with the drivers. Vitaly did his duties well; we’ll have to wait until the Russian Grand Prix in three years before we see his fan base come out in large numbers!
Saturday
As they just love their motorsport, the Italians arrived in full force on Saturday; not just in the Paddock Club but there were also a huge number of fans in the stands and during the pit lane walk when we took Vitaly and Bruno down to give a tour of the area. If you ask me, that’s a priceless experience! The pit lane walk is always a good call, but it is sometimes difficult to get the drivers through on time because of their popularity – that’s especially the case here in Monza.
We had a real treat on Saturday, and that was the visit of Sir Jackie Stewart. He’s always great value, and he gave the guests something to get excited about; he’s an F1 legend and is always impressive on meeting our guests. Sir Jackie lured the guests in with some of his stories from the world of Formula 1; stories from a bygone era which many of the ‘Paddock Clubbers’ would no doubt remember.
By Qualifying, it really picked up; at this time the guests have had their lunch and will watch the nail-biting hour of action to see who secures which place on the grid. Saturday night then consists of getting the final preparations ready for race day itself, which is the big one not just for those driving at the race but for us behind the scenes too.
Sunday
On race day, it is always a very early start. For Monza, it started at 7.30am when we embarked on our pit lane walk. This gave us the chance to get a sneak peek of the cars before it got too busy. Throughout the morning guests started arriving, and then we had the eagerly-anticipated driver appearance from Vitaly. There were 130 people all lining up to get autographs from him before he went off to get ready for the race.
What is particularly noticeable about race day is the fact that we have to ‘up’ our level of internal communication on the walkie talkies! Some of us are based in the Paddock Club itself and some in the motorhome, so we have to be in constant liaison with each other to ensure there are no hiccups. On our channel we can hear some of the engineers’ briefings to the drivers (though luckily they can’t hear us!). This can cause quite a bit of amusement, especially when we hear race commands from those on the pit wall shortly followed by requests from the paddock club with regards to passes and logistics! There’s often quite different information passing along our channel on the airwaves, but it always causes some laughs and it is good evidence of the variety of work that takes place within an F1 team nowadays.
On race day, the pressure cranks up a notch, but I’ve managed to learn to adapt to different scenarios along the way through experiencing all the different challenges that can crop up.
There are always instances in my role where these new challenges arise; there are always things out there to test me. Fortunately, though, this weekend went without any major hitches. There have been races, however, where things haven’t always gone so smoothly. I remember the eventful Canadian Grand Prix earlier this season when there were a number of stops and starts. This didn’t just affect the drivers, teams and spectators; it affected us in Paddock Club too! In that case we had 150 guests on the Sunday, and it was very difficult to know what to do with the guests while they were hanging around. Monaco’s always an interesting race because logistically it throws up some difficulties; people are all over the place in different locations, so it’s never easy, but every challenge can be overcome that’s for sure. There’s nothing that’s out of reach!
Credit: Lotus Renault GP (www.lotusrenaultgp.com)
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