Grapevine: Paddock Life: Hungaroring edition

Whether it was because it was the second of a back-to-back weekend, or whether it was because summer holidays were looming, there was little doubting that the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend had a slightly de-mob happy feel to it.

Aside from the ongoing rumblings about team orders and flexi-wings, there was little else going on in the paddock.

The continued dispute about the tractor units for the team trucks was barely of interest to anyone anymore and, with the driver market pretty much sorted for 2011, talk was not of the latest big scoop but where people were going in the break.

All of this means, of course, that when the F1 circus resumes in Belgium later this month, the place is going to explode with gossip, news and intrigue...

This year's Hungarian Grand Prix marked the first anniversary of Felipe Massa's terrible crash, and it was fairly obvious all weekend that the Brazilian was feeling highly charged emotionally.

The events of Hockenheim probably helped raise his feelings a little more but, even so, Massa seemed to be really feeling the significance of the moment through the weekend.

He made sure to visit the hospital in Budapest where he had been looked after last year, saw the corner workers and medical staff at the track who had helped him after his crash - and even invited Robert Veres, the surgeon who operated on him - to watch qualifying.

And one of the more bizarre things from the weekend was the fact that the skid marks that Massa left when his car plunged off the track last year could still be seen in the run-off area at Turn 4.

Massa himself said all thoughts of the accident were banished from his head when he was in the car, but he admitted that it had been special seeing the people involved.

"When you see the guys who took me out of the car, this was a fantastic feeling," he said. "When I go to the corner where I had the accident, I don't care. But when I see these guys, I care about them."

Lewis Hamilton has done some pretty magical things in his career, but as he arrived at the Hungarian Grand Prix he could finally talk about something REALLY special he had done - driving Ayrton Senna's 1988 McLaren MP4/4.

As part of BBC Top Gear's recent special on Senna, the programme had given Hamilton the chance to drive the MP4/4 at Silverstone to give his feedback on it.

The segment with Hamilton had been one of the programme's highlights - with the former world champion giggling away as he first experienced what life was like for his hero.

And although Hamilton had yet to see the programme when he arrived at the Hungaroring, he could not hide his enthusiasm at what had happened.

"I have the picture of it on my screensaver, and it was one of the best days of my life," said Hamilton. "It is different to a nowadays F1 car because of the technology, but it was beautiful to drive a stunning car. I would have loved to have raced it - it felt like it was dangerous, a dangerous car.

"It had really good downforce, my shoulders were hanging out and my head was so exposed, so that is where I felt that danger aspect of it which gave me a good understanding and feeling of what the drivers went through in those days."

If you walked down the Hungaroring paddock on Thursday night, you could not have helped but notice a bit of a raucous noise emanating from the top floor of the Lotus motorhome.

As has now become tradition in Formula 1, the British members of the F1 press corps gathered for their annual 'Football Dinner' - to talk about the delights of the beautiful game and make their predictions for the forthcoming season.

This year the event was hosted by Lotus, and it was left to avid Norwich City supporter Mike Gascoyne to hold court as he joined the rest of the crowd in explaining just why his team was best, who was going to get relegated from the various divisions and which manager would be the first to get sacked.

One of the jokes doing the rounds that night was that F1 team principals would make perfect football managers - but the ideal scenario would be to have three of them looking after one team.

It was agreed that Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali could be in charge of the strikers, because he was good at deciding who went up front.

Gascoyne himself should look after the midfield, because he has always been good at moving things closer to the front.

And Colin Kolles should be in charge of defence and the goalkeepers, because he can scare the hell out of people - and absolutely nothing gets past him.

Maybe the trio could be the key to the next World Cup!

The Hungaroring paddock turned into scenes that Marie Antoinette would have been proud of on Saturday when, everywhere you looked, people were eating cake.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hungaroring hosting a world championship event, organisers baked an enormous cake to dish out to as many people in the paddock as possible.

The chocolate sponge - which weighed about 160kg - was wheeled out in the paddock on Friday afternoon and Bernie Ecclestone issued a three-line whip for all drivers and team personnel to head on down for the ceremony.

With many drivers not even born when the Hungaroring hosted its first event in 1986, it was left to F1's longest-serving driver Michael Schumacher to start cutting the cake and distribute it among the masses.

And it said much for just how much news was not happening in the paddock (or just how greedy most of the media are) that the cutting of the cake seemed to attract the biggest gathering of journalists and photographers for the whole weekend.