on air diary...
2010 STARTS WITH A BANG - AND A CRASH!
posted by Lee McKenzie on 05/02/2010
I cannot believe I have not updated this for so long! Very sorry but trust me I have been busy – kart races against some of the best drivers in the world, the BBC and F1 launches and some amusing photo shoots and other random events that seem to become a “normal” part of my job. Thankfully now though F1 is back, well testing at least and I cannot remember such a buzz surrounding an F1 test!
I spent Thursday this week being interviewed by journalists about what I think will happen this season, will Lewis outshine Jenson, Alonso get the upper hand over Massa and will Schumacher be as good as he was. Testing gave us some clues but as most of the drivers said, it is so difficult to know who is running what fuel, Bahrain may be the first real indication of who has got it right.
I was up in Glasgow on Tuesday presenting Paul di Resta as the 3rd driver for Force India. It was a real pleasure to be involved as I have known Paul and his family for a while now and his chance is richly deserved. Paul will be taking part in a session every Friday on an F1 weekend, as well as continuing in DTM for Mercedes. In the year he won the Euro F3 Series he beat the likes of Sebastian Vettel and he sees no reason why he couldn’t be doing that again in the future – hopefully near future!
As well as reporting on motor sport for some reason I keep getting asked to take part in things – believe me just because I talk about it, really doesn’t mean I am any good at it! This was perfectly demonstrated in the David Brabham Kart Challenge at the Autosport International Show at the NEC. The moment I thought “what have I done” was when I was sitting beside Alex Wurz, Le Mans winner Alan McNish, World Touring Car Champ Andy Priaulx to name but a few in an “autograph session”. My team captain was Anthony Davidson who controlled things perfectly from the sidelines. It was an absolute crash-fest and in fact I was not too bad but I did have the bruises to show for it for about 2 weeks!
The rest of February sees me at F1 testing, filming the next series of Landward for BBC Scotland, taking part in some karting in Amsterdam and hopefully catching up behind the scenes with some of F1’s new stars. I have been lucky enough to work with all the new drivers heading in to F1 and have written an article on how I think they will fare throughout the season. Look out for that and all my other news coming soon.
Thanks for stopping by and here's to a great 2010!
Lee x
