Nelikus senelio reikalai idomiai juda:
The first thing in the Notebook in Melbourne was a note that said: “Paddock relaxed”. It was that noteworthy. Bernie Ecclestone has not been to Melbourne for a few years (if I recall correctly) but there was a very different atmosphere this year. Some said it was because Mr E’s sidekick Pasquale Lattuneddu was no longer about, but that seemed a little simplistic. Whatever the case, despite a few who preached doom and gloom about how nothing would ever be the same now that The Bernard had been moved on, the paddock was bubbling with enthusiasm and new ideas. People were discussing developments which would never have been talked about openly in the days of Ecclestone. It was all rather charming. Yes, this is still the honeymoon period for the F1 teams and the men from Liberty Media but, for the moment, they are living up to their name and are as welcome as a bunch of GIs riding on a Sherman. As a sign of the times, I bumped into my old mate Larry Perkins on the grid. Larry was a Grand Prix driver in the 1970s, in an Ensign and then with Brabham and the fast-fading BRM and Surtees. Larry was quick and proved it by winning the Bathurst 1000 no fewer than six times, which puts him third in the list of multiple winners behind the great Peter Brock (9), Jim “Jum” Richards (7), and equal with Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes. The thing is that one would never meet a V8 Supercar driver on the grid in the days of Ecclestone. As far as Mr E was concerned that was akin to promoting V8s. Larry, by the way, was one of the inductees of the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame in the course of the weekend, along with Richards, Skaife and Vern Schuppan, another Australian F1 driver from the 1970s, who went on to win the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The word in Melbourne was that the V8s, now known only as Supercars, will be hosting a championship round at the Grand Prix next year, something which Mr E always rejected. The new management of the Formula One group has a very different approach and there have even been suggestions that they might be willing to share the billing with IndyCars…