Grapevine: Paddock Life - Istanbul edition

No, what everyone seemed to talk about was the road traffic to the track.

Horror stories would be recounted about traffic jams as F1 personnel faced up to two hours stuck going nowhere on their departure from the circuit in the evening.

Matters for the media were not helped when the Turkish Grand Prix organisers stopped running their downtown media shuttle service this year.

Ferrari press officer Luca Colajanni proved to be a saviour as he offered lifts in his minibus to the track - and he seemed to revel in holding court to explain the latest goings on at Maranello. He cheekily referred to the ride in as his 'wash brain service'...

But the best story of the weekend about traffic comes from anonymous sources, who revealed that a very cheeky press officer (identity withheld to protect the guilty!), decided to do a big wind up on a journalist.

The writer was complaining about the traffic when the press officer remarked that it had been no problem for her as she just used the famous Bosphorus Tunnel, which of course does not exist.

To further drag in the unfortunate victim, the press officer called over her colleague to explain exactly where the tunnel was and how brilliant it was to the enthusiastic listener - with no traffic and coming up right in the centre of Istanbul.

After discussing directions of how to find the tunnel, the press officers headed into their motorhome full of giggles while the journalist headed to his lift full of hope about an easy journey home - which didn't quite turn out the way he had expected!

The Turkish Grand Prix weekend marked Fernando Alonso's 100th Grand Prix (although due to Indy 2005 his 100th start won't come until Monza).

As a present, Mercedes presented the two times champion with a solid silver model of their 1954 W196.

McLaren chief Ron Dennis, on seeing the size and weight of the car, quickly interrupted to say: "We thought we would give you something heavy to throw at us!"

Heikki Kovalainen has revealed plans to compete in the New York Marathon on November 4th.

The Finnish Renault driver has already begun preparations for the gruelling run with his trainer Gabriele Polcari, adapting his current physical training programme for the event.

Kovalainen will not be the first driver to have competed in the famous marathon, though, as Jarno Trulli did it in 2000 - setting a time of four hours, two minutes and 21 seconds.

Nico Rosberg hosted a thoroughly entertaining media breakfast at the Williams motorhome on Saturday morning and revealed that he had dreams of a proper head-to-head race with his father Keke, the 1982 Formula One champion.

But rather than the unfair platform of F1 machinery, or even go-karts, the plan is for them to battle it out in ice racing.

"I really would love to do it before he gets too old, which is pretty soon," smiled Rosberg Jr. "He's done it for 10 years on the Arctic Rally in Lapland, so I'd really like to give it a go on ice against him.

"That would be fun, because he thinks he can beat me easily. I tried ice driving a couple of years ago and I think I'm pretty good at it."

Rosberg is hopeful that his father will provide some stiffer competition for him than he experienced in a karting head-to-head when they were younger.

"He was my hero, and I did my lap times and he jumped in. I thought, you know, he was going to be a second quicker or something. I followed behind him, and I was so disappointed!

"I've never seen someone so hopeless on a go-kart! It was an absolute disaster.

"But saying that, I need to say that I myself now didn't drive a go-kart for four years and I recently jumped into one and it really is difficult, it's a different world. You jump in and you are lost. You need to take half a day back into the pace."