Montezemolo’s lightning trip to Monaco

Luca di Montezemolo was on a flying visit to the Monaco Grand Prix today, making the most of the traditional day off from racing here. The Ferrari President came to the Principality for a series of high level meetings and of course, to meet up with the team, as it tackles the sixth round of the World Championship. Montezemolo spent a lot of time with Team Principal Stefano Domenicali to go over the current state of play. He also met the two drivers, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso before leaving the paddock around four in the afternoon.

Friday is usually an extremely busy day at a Grand Prix. There are briefings all day long from nine in the morning to nine at night, fitted in around three hours of free practice, as well as interview sessions and everything else going on. However, just once a year on the Formula 1 calendar, here in Monaco, on the Friday at a Grand Prix, the Formula 1 engines are silent. It’s not completely quiet as there are some support races such as GP2 and GP3 out on track, but the Formula 1 cars never leave the garage. However, there is still plenty of work going on, for the mechanics and engineers, although the pace is somewhat slower than usual.

Fernando and Felipe also had some tasks to attend to, starting with the autograph session that takes place at every Grand Prix. After that, they had some interviews and a meeting with the engineers to study the analysis of all the data gathered yesterday and to plan the programme for tomorrow afternoon’s qualifying. It’s the same as every year, only what a shame that this morning’s sunshine made way for a light drizzle, which made the Monegasque paddock look more like an English seaside resort in autumn than the pearl of the Mediterranean in springtime.