Grapevine: More News from the Paddock

Broken Newey

McLaren's technical director Adrian Newey showed up in the Silverstone paddock this weekend, sporting a pair of crutches and a casting that looks like a bionic sandal. The designer guru, whose wife Marigold and children are also in the paddock this weekend, broke his foot while playing tennis at home, McLaren spokeswoman Ellen Kolby told Atlas F1. His foot has been encased in a special installation which, Kolby said, he will be wearing - along with the crutches - for the next six weeks.

Celebrities

The Silverstone circuit rapidly filled up with 'celebrities' earlier than normal this year as teams did their best to crank up the excitement of what is regarded as one of Britain's premier sporting events. Hot on the heels of Frankie Dettori's appearance in the paddock came the arrival of English cricketers Alec Stewart, Michael Vaughan and James Anderson, also guests of Ferrari sponsors Vodafone. The trio met Michael Schumacher in the pitlane for a photo during the private testing period - and the German driver showed them how to hit a six...by whacking a drive towards the timing screens on the pit wall.

Fortunately he missed them - and didn't have another hit. Following that, Sky Sports Football pundit Richard Keys, dressed ungainly in a Bridgestone motorsport cap, made a surprise appearance to learn about tyre fitting and pop band Liberty X, who made their Grand Prix debut in Monaco this year, made a return visit to Renault to learn more about smiling into a camera with the team's two drivers Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli.

Young Offenders

Toyota drivers Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis had a surprise destination during their two-day pre-British Grand Prix tour of the company's UK operations - when they were dropped off at a young offenders prison in Aylesbury. The pair, who also met 450 Toyota staff at the company's head office in Epsom and 4,000 others at Toyota Manufacturing UK in Burnaston, Derbyshire, were there because Toyota run a motor vehicle technician course in the prison, and not because the Formula One team need to recruit people to steal ideas from the rest of the paddock.

Bud Wiser

The new Williams-BMW sponsorship deal with Budweiser was celebrated on Thursday evening as the team offered paddock members a few free beers to sample their new backer's product. The deal means that now two of the top three teams are backed by beer companies, with McLaren supported by Warsteiner beers, and was a welcome boost to the supply of cool beverages in the ever thirsty Grand Prix paddock.

Pub Night

If the free Bud was not enough, the beer barrels came out and paddock came alive with the sound of a cover band on Friday night when BAR-Honda opened up their motorhome to the media for a 'Pub Night' to celebrate the great British traditions of real ale and fish and chips. The fun night, which amassed a large crowd of British and international journalists, is now an annual event and many partakers praised the team on 'the best fish and chips yet' as they munched to the sounds of 'Mustang Sally' and other classic hits.

One English newspaper journalist even got behind the microphone and joined the band to show off his skills on the guitar as the night went on but one baffled British journalist, who elected to skip the event and head off home early, hit out at the people who attended and said: "Why on earth do you want to go to a pub in the BAR motorhome when there are so many lovely country pubs around?" Bah, humbug. But he did have a point!