Grapevine: Paddock Life - Indy edition

Ferrari and Honda had agreed to enter their own design in the 1:20th scale CO2 powered balsa wood competition, and go up against the best schools from Britain and the United States in a special event at the Brickyard.

After the heats section, Ferrari's sleek aerodynamic design was only good enough to leave them pinned to the bottom of the points standing, just behind American team East Cobb Flying Cougars.

Brawn said of the competition: "They are obviously just doing a better job than us. But we will be back next year, and we will be a little bit quicker."

It was left to British team the Bradfield Panthers to take the challenge to Honda Racing - but any hope of a romantic victory for the school kids over the F1 team were dashed when the Gil de Ferran-led outfit proved too quick and claimed victory.

There was the inevitable murmuring that Honda's pre-race promise of challenging for victories in 2006 had now been fulfilled...

The Americans do love their Sprints and midgets, as five former Grand Prix drivers saw first hand on Saturday night before the race.

Former world champion Keke Rosberg, plus Martin Brundle, Mark Blundell, Stefan Johansson and Christian Danner were part of a group of guests invited by Mercedes-Benz to the Indianapolis Raceway Park for an evening of pure racing action.

The drivers were enthralled by the wheel banging, incident-filled excitement as they stood like a bunch of schoolboys at the back of the main grandstand watching the action.

Rosberg got stopped at one point by a fan, who said to him: "Hey, aren't you the dad of that Grand Prix driver?" while the rest just could not stop grinning about everything that was happening in front of them.

Even the next morning, with all of them having left before the grand finale of the two leaders in the final crashing into each other while coming out of the final corner and crossing the finish line backwards en route to the pit wall, Brundle was still raving about it.

And Mercedes-Benz probably wish they had set up camp there all weekend, judging by how quick their race was over at Indianapolis.

If you were to hold a competition to decide who had the toughest time between the Canadian and the United States Grand Prix, then you would be hard pressed to beat what Mark Webber and Alexander Wurz got up to.

While most of the paddock enjoyed a few days' rest and relaxation in various United States cities, the Williams duo spent three days in Colorado Springs at a cycle training camp for the Discovery Channel Pro Am Cycling team.

The pair took part in a special 'cycling meets motorsport' athlete training session - alongside cyclists Tom Danielson and Jason McCartney, as well as NASCAR drivers Carl Edwards and Bobby Labonte. Their cycling included a ride part of the way up Pikes Peak.

Another driver who ended up having a hard time without expecting it was Giancarlo Fisichella, who had hoped for a nice chilled few days with his family at Disneyland.

It turned out to be anything but - as he revealed when he walked into the paddock on Thursday afternoon.

"That was like half training," he said about his Disney experience. "It was good to be with two kids and lots of people, but being in a queue from nine in the morning until seven in the evening was quite tough!"

David Coulthard is never one to let the opportunity for a bit of mischief to pass him by - especially since his Red Bull job description allows him to do anything he wants other than slag his team off.

So when he found out ahead of the United States Grand Prix that a reporter had been waiting a long time to speak to him about the problems at last year's race, he saw an opportunity to have a bit of fun.

After a very long-winded question that asked him whether he had any concerns about safety at Indianapolis following the tyre fiasco and the mass withdrawal of the Michelin teams from Indianapolis 12 months ago, Coulthard's response was: "No."

The reporter, slightly put off by the Scot's short response, said that she was hoping for a slightly longer answer if that was possible.

Coulthard's answer: "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo."

PS: There was another revelation from Coulthard last weekend. Speaking to the Red Bulletin about any nicknames he had, he said: "When I was a boy I was called Budgie, since the first bicycle I had was a Raleigh Budgie."