Grapevine: News from the Paddock - Monaco GP

Your Place or Mine?

The McLaren team are lapping up the luxury of Monaco this week after driver David Coulthard invited some 100 members of his Grand Prix team back to his place. The Formula One winner has a share in the Columbus Hotel in the principality, and the luxurious pad is now home to the men and women from Woking as they endure the long weekend in Monaco. The hotel's prices are 'low' by Monaco standards, but Scot Coulthard has not dropped them for his colleagues and is charging them full price for their luxury weekend ticket.

Happy Birthday Grampa

Before the Monaco Grand Prix, David Coulthard made a return to the place he grew up for a very special event - his Grandfather's 80th birthday. A visit to the quiet little south-western area of Scotland was just what Coulthard needed to recharge his batteries after his Austrian exertions which resulted in a race win, and for Coulthard a return home always provides a welcome break.

"When I go to work, it's in a different country each week," he said. "It is very intense and draining physically and mentally. Then you come back to somewhere as tranquil as the South West of Scotland, it's so far removed from Grand Prix racing that it's a completely different life. I do always enjoy coming back home - it has a calming feeling as you drive down the twisty roads to Twynholm."

But Coulthard added a comment to prove that he never forgets about his high-flying life when he returns home. "It may not be the glamorous setting people expect a Grand Prix driver to be in," he said on the birthday day. "But yesterday I was on my boat in the South of France."

Art in a Car

Gerhard Berger will welcome one of the biggest American contemporary artists to Monaco on Friday when he hosts the 65th birthday of Frank Stella at the glittering principality's car museum. Stella is a friend of BMW motorsport boss Berger, and is known for turning a 1976 race version of a BMW 3-litre CFL car into a work of art.

Mine's a Cuppa, David

David Coulthard can serve a mean cup of tea if he needs to, and he proved as much when he took the helm in the café at his own museum. Visitors were surprised to see their hero behind the counter when they went up to order tea and cakes, but he was happy to help out in the family-run business. "They had a bit of a rush on so I thought I would help," said the ever-thoughtful Scot.

"I am proud of my spot of table cleaning, and if I finish racing this is still a job I can do," he quipped. "My sister works here dealing with the merchanise and handling the people coming into the museum and it was my father who started the collection in the first place. It's amazing that so many members of the family are involved."

Cart Star Drop-In

ChampCar star Adrian Fernandez will be present in the Monaco paddock over the weekend as a guest of Honda, but he is certainly not sniffing around for a move to Formula One. The 36-year-old is just stopping by to sample a bit of the Monaco Grand Prix atmosphere after racing in the fifth round of the American ChampCar series in Japan last weekend. He decided that on the way back to America from Japan he would drop into Monaco for a bit of hospitality - the life of a race car driver.