Grapevine: Paddock Life - Singapore edition

It was just like Monaco, but with twice the sleep. That is what Singapore's first grand prix felt like as the paddock regularly spent time staying up until the early hours - but then getting a luxurious lie-in the next day.

The night race schedule meant that the F1 community was spending its day operating on European time. So it meant bed at 5am, getting up at 2pm for breakfast, lunch at 8pm and dinner at 3am.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis definitely loved the schedule.

"I suppose the added bonus for Norbert (Haug) and I is we are night animals, and can legitimately go to bed at 2am now," he said.

Nico Rosberg said staff at his hotel thought he was from another planet when he regularly went to the gym in the early hours of the morning, while McLaren showed how much they pay attention to detail by totally blacking out the rooms of their drivers at the Conrad hotel - and installing natural light bulbs to simulate sunshine.

But all the efforts to keep the drivers' bodies in peak shape for the night race were thrown askew on Friday, when team principals and drivers were ordered to attend a plush lunch at the Istana Plaza with President Sellapan Rama Nathan.

One team, who shall remain unnamed, refused to send their drivers because the 12.30pm start effectively meant them getting up at 4am European time...

The timing of the night race meant that one of Red Bull's famous parties fitted perfectly into the schedule - as even when the sun came up at 6am it was still only 11pm in Europe.

The energy drinks giants had flown in Faithless star Maxi Jazz for the event, who ended up spending some time with F1's regular deck-guru Sakon Yamamoto. The pair posed for photographs as the tunes floated around the Cafe del Mar club on Sentosa Island.

The swimming pool had its fair share of visitors - and mobile phones - as the revelry continued into the night.

But it wasn't all good news as Sebastian Vettel's number one mechanic Gabriele Verganana cut his foot on some broken glass as he climbed out of the pool. He needed seven stitches and was ruled out of action for the weekend.

Lewis Hamilton is a man with good taste - and that's official after he made sure to let the world know where he goes to get his news on motor racing.

Hamilton had a breakfast (well, according to European time!) press conference with the world's media for McLaren's title sponsor Vodafone on the eve of the event.

As well as the usual pre-race build up questions and reaction to the Spa appeal verdict, the floor was opened to some Vodafone guests - and of course the less obvious queries.

One female attendee raised a few eyebrows by saying: "Lewis, what makes you so good? All the girls want to know!"

Hamilton joined in the laughter before responding: "Thanks for that... I've not been asked that question before!"

But the biggest laughter (and groans!) of the day was reserved for host Steve Rider, who, with a deadpan delivery in front of huge Vodafone logos, asked: "So Lewis, how do you make contact with friends and family at home?"

With full credit to Hamilton, he actually gave a full answer rather than some droning sponsor plugging noise.

"I am very lucky, where fortunately I get to work with Vodafone," he said. "They are great, give us great events and give me a phone! They really look after me and the family, when I am travelling.

"Out of a month I probably spend two or three nights in my own bed at home. The rest of it I spend in hotels. So I always have my laptop on me, but it is sometimes too big to carry around.

"I've just got a new phone, which is pretty cool, and it is great - you have full keyboard. I can email, take pictures - of you guys, send it my brother and say look at these crazy people - it is great to be able to share things.

"I can go on the internet, check whatever I am supposed to be doing, check whatever is going on on Autosport to find out what is going on in the news as I did yesterday, and it is great!"

Good on ya Lewis!

The Singapore Grand Prix marked Frank Williams' final race of the season, as he will be skipping the final three races. "I'm leaving it all to the youngsters," he said about his absence.

So over the weekend, Jackie Stewart made sure that Williams honoured a pre-season bet they had made.

Williams had promised to wear a pair of Stewart's trademark tartan trousers if his team scored a podium during the 2008 campaign. Of course, Nico Rosberg fulfilled that criteria with a third place finish in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix - and fittingly went one-better in Singapore.

So Stewart got Williams into the trousers on Saturday - and it was no wonder that Sir Frank spent most of the day shying away from public attention and hidden away in his office.

It was not all smiles in the Singapore paddock for Stewart, however, as news of the death of Paul Newman brought some sadness - especially as he had recently been in contact with him.

"I thought Paul Newman was one of the great people of the world," said Stewart. "He was a real superstar, a lovely man, very shy, very modest, I knew him quite well. I drove with him several times, I drove him, and he drove me.

"I wrote to him just two or three weeks ago thinking I would not get a reply, and a few days later I got a letter from him saying, thank you for writing, thank you for your feelings, because he knew he was going home to die. We are going to be missing from motorsport a great man.

"He loved motorsport, he loved driving more than anything else and he just adored getting into a car. I think he certainly was the best driver who ever came out of the world of entertainment, better even than Steve McQueen, I did drive with him many times and I can tell you he was a top line racing driver."

If the Singapore Grand Prix was a disaster for Felipe Massa and Ferrari, that was nothing compared to the embarrassment suffered by Times F1 correspondent Ed Gorman.

The good friend of Autosport had been selected to take part in a special media celebrity race that took place on the new Singapore street circuit ahead of qualifying.

Organised by Bernie Ecclestone, he had handpicked a select number of media to fight it out for glory. Plans for a practice session on Saturday afternoon had to be scrapped after Ecclestone found out the Fiat 500 cars were trapped at the Raffles Hotel rather than being at the track.

So instead, the cars would be delivered directly to the grid where the competitors would head straight off for a two-lap race.

Ed duly took his slot on the grid but was immediately concerned by the semi-automatic gearbox - and there was no one around to offer him any tips of exactly how it all worked.

After onlookers cleared the grid, the cars were sent off one by one around the track - all except for Ed, who was left stranded there in the middle of the track in front of the packed grandstands. Try as he might he failed to find a gear, and suffered the ridicule of onlooking colleagues who were, of course, loving seeing him hit trouble.

The car was pushed off the grid by marshals and Gorman climbed out when it got to the pits - to see how much laughter there was from those around him and those watching from the media centre above the pits. And matters got even worse when an official who looked twice Ed's age climbed into the car, popped it into gear and drove straight off.

You can read Ed's own version of events, and his description of the amusing pre-race drivers' briefing, on his blog.