Grapevine: News from the Paddock - German GP

Misplaced Journalists

Mercedes-Benz did their best to lose as many journalists as possible around the Stuttgart area on Wednesday when they let about 40 of them loose - each with a smart car and a map - and told them to find their way to a restaurant. Two well-known journalists, both British, achieved Mercedes' aim perfectly by taking wrong turnings on their drive around the mountains and arrived late for the dinner. One had to stop at a garage to find his way and was given an escort by a man in a van. The grumpy late arrival joked: "I didn't think much of the car anyway."

Yet Another Football Match

While the journalists were getting lost, the football-playing racing drivers were taking part in yet another charity match, this time at the Karl Benz Stadium in Mannheim. Michael Schumacher once again led the team, which included Italian regulars Giancarlo Fisichella, of Jordan, and Jarno Trulli, of Renault, and also French Toyota driver Olivier Panis. The high-scoring match finished 9-6 in the drivers team's favour with Schumacher, Fisichella and Panis all getting on the scoresheet in the first half after German football star Karl Heinz Riedle had set the ball rolling for the opposition with a goal just two minutes into the game.

The match, which drew in an attendance of 20,000 people, raised around 150,000 Euros for UNESCO, the charity for which Schumacher is an ambassador, and the German driver did a lap of honour after the match to thank all the fans for turning up. "Every year it's a great event," he said later. "It's organised very well and it has established itself even better. We've had good players there, a full stadium and a good atmosphere, so I was really impressed with the way it was. It was great fun for me."

Smart Arrival

If cars are a status symbol then Bernie Ecclestone and his new media advisor Norman Howell are poles apart, considering their modes of transport at the Grands Prix on German soil this year. Howell, who was installed in his job just before the British Grand Prix, arrived at the Hockenheim circuit in an open top Smart car, little more than a couple of metres in length, while his boss, a much smaller man in stature, was swallowed up in a top-of-the-range 500,000 Euros Maybach from the Mercedes-Benz factory at both events.

Summer Holidays

The Hockenheim paddock is full of people looking forward to their holidays as Formula One prepares for almost complete shutdown in the first of two three-week breaks between races. The first, which begins next week, also sees no testing taking place so many of the teams are forcing their employees to take a holiday.

BAR-Honda team manager Ron Meadows revealed: "The race team will take a compulsory holiday from the Monday after Hockenheim until the Wednesday of the week after so the travelling staff can recharge their batteries. The summer break also provides the test team with a chance to have a holiday too and it also gives us the opportunity to service the trucks and equipment for the last four races of the year."