Grapevine: News from the Paddock - French GP

Space in The Paddock

French Grand Prix organisers seemingly overlooked the fact that the Arrows team are now defunct and that they were never permitted entry into the 2003 World Championship anyway after leaving a space for the outfit in the paddock. In their information documents produced for journalists, the diagram of the paddock, which is formed in a square format rather than simply along the pitlane, allowed space for two Arrows trucks and a truck for former engine suppliers Asiatech despite their disappearance from the sport. A bit of reshuffling of the motorhomes present was unable to cover the hidden gaps however.

Beckham Mania

The name of England footballer David Beckham was on everybody's lips after the national team captain officially arrived at his new club, Real Madrid, before the French Grand Prix. So, with the high-profile West press football tournament set to take place on the Thursday before the race weekend, the organisers made sure they included him in their event. "As this is a soccer press release, it is compulsory to mention the name David Beckham. So, we would like to point out that David Beckham will NOT be attending!" Unfortunately, his English journalist counterparts were unable to do without him as they went down with France the eventual winners.

Jaguar PR Reshuffle

The Jaguar team announced today in France a reshuffle to their PR structure, with the appointment of former press officer Jane Stewart as communications and public affairs manager, a position formerly held by Nav Sidhu, who is now head of Formula One communications, a position just created by the Milton Keynes team. Jaguar said Stewart successor as press officer would be announced in due course.