[ Bodywork for Rubens' car ]

The bodywork for Rubens Barrichello's car was out in the rain, giving us a great chance to check out all the minute details. You can see here pretty clearly how the side vents are attached separately with bolts, so they can be switched out for different sizes at different tracks.


[ Holding Rubens' F1 steering wheel ]

We then went inside the garage, where sadly I couldn't take any pictures. But when I asked about the steering wheel sitting on a case near where Evan was showing us some equipment, he graciously offered to bring it a few feet outside the garage so Cat could take a picture of me holding it. This is undoubtedly the closest I will ever come to driving an F1 car, and I'm not even holding it the right way 'round! (Click the picture to see a closeup.)

From there it was back inside for an excellent tour of the entire garage, looking at the telemetry stations where Evan works when the car is on the track, to the engine and gearbox working areas and so on.


[ Hospitality area ]

It wasn't until we got back to the rear of the garage and the hospitality area that I could take another picture. It was here that I got my first of several free beverages care of the Ferrari fridges!


[ Equipment rack on the pit wall ]

On the way back out of the garage, Evan showed us the equipment rack for the pit wall station, where the bigwigs and chief engineers sit during the race. He's pointing to the intercom interface that they had to rig up in order to provide the required audio feed to the FIA. (The officials must have a way of monitoring what is being said to the drivers on Ferrari's encrypted radio system.) It activates when the car's umbilical is detached in advance of leaving the garage, and shuts down as soon as the car is plugged back in on its return.


[ Looking towards the starting line ]

Leaning out of the pitboard openings in the pit wall towards the starting lights.



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