on air diary...
Kimi, Flavio and Budget Cuts Make The News In Spain
posted by Lee McKenzie on 08/05/2009
F1 has made it to Europe and Spain has been typically busy. Last night I presented the awards for GP2 Asia and launched the 5th year of GP2 Series, the feeder series to Formula One.
In amongst that there is the day job to do! Interviewing drivers and teams requires an awful lot of hanging around and waiting for people to turn up. Today I targeted the team bosses about the proposed £40 million pound budget cut. You can see the feature on BBC 1 tomorrow before qualifying starts.
Many teams are looking at this race as the start of their season, or at least a welcome re-start for those who have done badly, the BMW’s and Ferrari’s of the world. Most teams have upgraded packages on their cars and you can expect an all-round quicker grid here in Barcelona.
I spent Wednesday with Kimi Raikkonen and we filmed an exclusive interview whilst sitting in a gorgeous white Ferrari 430 convertible, red leather interior. I thought I suited it quite well to be honest. Kimi was on pretty good form, lots of conversation and laughs (don’t sound so surprised!) and spoke about eating ice-cream when he should have been driving the car and also his future in F1. You can see the feature on Sunday near the start of our show.
Also in tomorrow’s show is my trip to QPR v Bristol with Flavio! It is a pretty interesting insight into his “5 hour a week hobby”.
In the mean time enjoy the on track action this weekend. I think Jenson and Brawn GP will be stronger than ever, for what it is worth.
Thanks for passing by.
Lee x
