Grapevine: Paddock Life - Magny-Cours edition

"When I was much younger, I had a Fiat 500," Todt said. "Being much older, my dream will be to find a Fiat Abarth to keep at my home. But it is very difficult, so if you have any ideas please let me know."

Fiat bought Italian race car and aftermarket performance parts manufacturer Abarth in the early 1970s, and some high-end models produced by Fiat or subsidiaries Lancia and Autobianchi later carried the famous Abarth scorpion badge.

The Abarth brand was relaunched by Fiat this year with the Grande Punto Abarth and the Grande Punto Abarth S2000.

Rivalries are an intrinsic part of Formula One, but on Friday night at Magny-Cours the boundaries were finally crossed and things became physical.

The occasion was the F1 scrum challenge, an event organised by the French motorsport governing body, the FFSA, to highlight France's role as the host nation of the Rugby World Cup later this year.

Six F1 teams stepped into the fray; each with their line-up reinforced by the addition of one of the rugby internationals on hand.

BMW, McLaren and Bridgestone were taken out in the heats and the FFSA finished third. The final? A hometown derby featuring Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso.

And just to prove that the upstarts have no interest in deferring to the 'lead' team, it was Toro Rosso that took the honours - as well as tickets to the opening round of the World Cup in Paris and a rather nice piece of silverware.

French football legend Zinedine Zidane may have sampled a taste of Michael Schumacher's old profession when he was ferried around Magny Cours in a Ferrari FXX earlier in the weekend, but the boot will soon be on the other foot.

Former German international Hansi Muller, who retired after his nation's 3-1 loss to Italy in the 1982 World Cup final, is hosting a re-enactment of the match in his hometown of Stuttgart later this month.

Several players from the original squads will be on hand to see whether the outcome is any different, and there will be two celebrities on each side - of which the seven-time world champion will be one.

Schumacher has done many things in his career, but surely even he never thought that it would extend to representing his nation in football.

Formula One is going to Iraq. Almost. Nine of the JCB loaders that fished beached cars out of the Indianapolis gravel have a new job awaiting them in the Middle East.

The units, which have a maximum payload of 4,000kg and a 121 horsepower engine that lets them hammer along at 33 km/h, will be shipped to the Gulf, complete with their IMS signage, to be put to work in a US camp in Kuwait.