Grapevine: News from the Paddock - Malaysian GP

Radio Ga Ga

It seems the radio problems at BAR could be caused by Jacques Villeneuve's passion for listening to heavy rock music from his early days in his bedroom up until the present day. The Canadian blew up a storm in Australia after he misheard a call and came into the pits at the wrong time, and BAR Honda boss David Richards has now revealed the reason - battered ear drums.

"We're going to turn the volume up on the radio," he said. "And then we will shout down it." Richards, who ensured the cars' radio systems were modified before this weekend's Grand Prix admitted that the current improvements might not be enough and added that the team were considering using a bigger radio to provide enough volume for the Canadian rocker to hear his engineers calls. "Yeah," he joked. "Like the old one with valves in it! Like Grundig radio. Yeah. We're working on it, we're working on it."

Credit Card Scam

Formula One's rich and famous narrowly avoided the possibility of losing some of their millions at the start of the Grand Prix weekend when the federal police in Malaysia stopped a credit card scam that was set to wreak havoc in Kuala Lumpur. Knowing that the arrival of many affluent westerners both supporting and working in the Grand Prix circus could yield high profits, a credit card cloning syndicate planted electronic data capturing microchips in cash machines around the city.

The scam targeted selected hotels, bars, restaurants and boutiques as well as some karaoke outlets popular with many of the Grand Prix crew. A police officer involved in the case said: "The syndicate had planted the chips in these places as they knew visitors would be paying their bills using their credit cards." Each chip had the potential of capturing data from 1,000 cardholders and the police estimated the potential haul could have been as high as RM50 million.

Schumacher Fitness

For once Michael Schumacher could not prepare for the build-up to this weekend's race with his traditional game of football - because he couldn't find a field to play on at his paradise holiday destination. German Schumacher is known for his talents on the pitch as well as on the race track - he is even expecting to train with Spanish giants Barcelona before the Grand Prix there this year. But his break in the idyllic Maldives islands failed to give him the platform to play and he grumbled: "It was a small island and there was no big space - there was no football field." Still the German managed to keep fit in other ways and added: "I did running, squash and cycling...and they had a good gym."

Ralf Shocked at Malaysian Popularity

Ralf Schumacher admitted he has been shocked by the improved ticket sales for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix - after the disappearance of the country's first Formula One driver, Alex Yoong, from the Grand Prix grid. "It's funny," said a slightly tactless Schumacher. "You had Alex (Yoong) last year and for some time the year before and ticket sales were difficult - but now he is not here and I hear that ticket sales are very good this year."

German Schumacher, who races twice in his home country, at the Nurburgring and Hockenheim, each year, could not find a reason why popularity has shot up now that Malaysia do not have their own driver to cheer on. "I was always under the impression that one needed a local hero to boost ticket sales," he added. "Maybe that is not the case."