It’s fair to say the Canadians are mad about Formula One and they seem to be even more enthusiastic this year, after their race was taken off the calendar in 2009...
For Scuderia Toro Rosso, our interaction with the locals began on Wednesday when our chief engineer, Laurent Mekies attended a Bridgestone event at the Pierre Dupuy school in Montreal, entitled 'Bridgestone F1 Career Day'.
F1’s tyre supplier had gathered a cross section of French speaking F1 people to talk to students about how to go about getting a job in the sport. While all the panellists, which also included Nico Rosberg, a press officer, a chef and a sponsorship manager, talked about their passion for the sport, the school children cut straight to the heart of the matter, when one of them asked how much the panellists were paid. Not one of them delivered a straight answer!
While this seminar was taking place, Sébastien Buemi was also on promo duty, attending the Red Bull Pit Stop Challenge, outside the St. Paul’s hotel in downtown Montreal.
Several local journalists were invited to try their hand at changing the front wheels on a Formula One car – it had to be the front wheels only, because if you look at the photo, you will see they only had the front half of the car to work on. Taking place in the street, the event drew a large crowd, most of them keen to get Seb’s autograph.
While Wednesday was warm and sunny, the predicted rain arrived today, Thursday and, as any angler can tell you, these are ideal conditions for fishing. So some of the teams have already been dangling rods over the side of the rowing basin and so far, the Renault crew have been spotted hauling a few fish out, presumably attracted by the bait of garlic bread or some other French delicacy from the team kitchen.
Busy Start To Canadian GP Weekend For Toro Rosso