on air diary...
Speed boats with Rosberg, At home with Piquet and Taxis with Alonso
posted by Lee McKenzie on 21/05/2009
It’s Monaco time! It’s the Jewel in the Crown, the history, the winding streets and every other cliché. The long and short of it is that every time I come here, I feel extremely lucky to come to this fabulous event. This morning I shared the water taxi from my hotel to the paddock with Fernando Alonso. It was just under 2 hours before Fernando would be negotiating the rollercoaster of Monte Carlo.
I came out here on Tuesday so I could film with a coulple of drivers. I have known Nelson Piquet Jr for many years now and I was very grateful he let me film round his new pad in Monaco. He gave us a very honest and emotional interview and you will be able to see it in Turkey.
After spending a few hours there, I jumped on a speed boat and did a feature with Nico Rosberg about his life in Monaco. These features are great as we see the drivers in their natural surroundings and away from the corporate world of the race track.
Monaco is a massive challenge for drivers and really sorts the men from the boys. There are normally a lot of crashers and bashers this weekend - I am expecting to interview a lot of people during the race! I am lucky in that I have worked with many of the drivers on their way up to F1. I know many from GP2, F3000, Bourdais from Champ Car, Buemi from A1GP and also from being around the F1 paddock for the last few years so I hope I am a friendly face for them to see, whether they have won or crashed out. Although winners are always better to speak to than crashers. I feel sorry for someone who has just made a silly error, or shunted at 180k into an Armco, I imagine the last thing they would want to see is me running towards them with a microphone!
This is my 6th Monaco GP and it is always a joy to come here. This is a very special weekend for motorsport fans both in the paddock and at home. Anyway I better get on with writing my scripts and finding out what is going on out there. Back to the paddock for me and I really hope you enjoy what is always a fantastic weekend of racing.
Lee x
