Grapevine: Paddock Life - Sakhir edition

Maybe it is the vast expanse of paddock, where it seemed that you needed to hire a taxi to get from Ferrari at one end of the pitlane to McLaren down at the other, that makes it a little soulless. Or maybe it is simply that the mid-season fatigue is setting in already.

But there is no firm explanation for why Bahrain struggles to make it to the top of people's lists of their favourite events. The facilities at the track are first class, the hotels in Manama get better each year and, as years go by, word gets around of where the best restaurants can be found.

And the organisers too make an extra effort to deliver a programme of entertainment for the spectators over in the trade mall. Although quite what the billed Sunday night 6pm slot for 'Fish Feeding' was I never did find out.

But Bahrain this year will only be remembered for one man: Max Mosley. Just days after the News of the World's revelation about his private life, every conversation in the Bahrain paddock was dominated by what had happened, what it meant for F1 and, (like the day JFK was shot) what people were doing when they found out the news.

It seemed too that even the FIA stewards could not get the matter out of their head. When they issued a statement on Friday afternoon explaining that Lewis Hamilton would not be punished over his failure to show up at the medical centre following his practice crash, they referred to the matter as an 'indecent'.

Who knows what visiting celebrities Eric Clapton, Macy Gray, and Rory Bremner thought of it all...

With the Asian Speedcar Series continuing to support Formula One, the Bahrain Grand Prix paddock was once again full of former Grand Prix drivers hanging around and saying hello to old friends.

Speedcar racers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jacques Villeneuve were two 'new' faces from the past who were making a return to the F1 paddock after an absence, but one man present at Sakhir who has been away for slightly longer was Riccardo Patrese.

The veteran Italian, who remains for now the most experienced Grand Prix driver of all time, has been doing some commentary work for Italian television channel Sky, and part of his duties involved a return to the track.

When asked by autosport.com when he had last been at a race, Patrese smiled: "For a complete weekend, it was my last Grand Prix!

"I came a couple of times on the Thursday at Monaco which is my home place, but only for one day to see the paddock and watch a little bit of practice. But always like a tourist.

"Now, I am working a little bit for Sky television and I need to know better what is going on. So I have to do a bit of research on what the teams do, what is the best and what is the worst."

Robert Kubica spared the totally predictable 'Pole on Pole' headlines with his brilliant performance in qualifying at Bahrain, but it was another aspect of the BMW Sauber driver that caught the media's attention over the weekend.

It emerged that shortly before the start of the season, Kubica had decided that one of the best ways for him to extract even more performance from himself and his F1.07 was to lose some weight.

Not being a man of large build in the first place (Kubica was never going to be a rugby player), it was pretty impressive that the Pole managed to lose around seven kilogrammes in just six weeks.

"I reduced the weight quite a lot due to some technical issues, and it is helping me to extract more performance from the car," said Kubica about the weight loss.

"This was clearly my idea because you can win a couple of tenths by reducing weight. But I was not expecting to lose so much.

"Of course there are some positive and negative sides, I lost not only fat but muscle so I am struggling a bit more to keep a high level of training, but still I think I am enough fit to drive hot races and it is better because it is quicker."

So what was Kubica's secret to losing the pounds? "It is very simple - don't eat! No seriously, I eat a bit less and I watch out a bit more.

"I just eat vegetables, fruit and some fish. It is not easy as I used to eat a lot of pasta as I was living in Italy, so it was quite difficult. But the result is very positive."

Although most of the Formula One fraternity managed to return home after the first two flyaways of the year, Lewis Hamilton took the opportunity between Malaysia and Bahrain to grab an early season holiday.

With close pal Adrian Sutil in tow, the pair flew themselves to Thailand for some rest, relaxation and training.

As well as getting quite competitive with their running, swimming and kayaking, Hamilton also made a bit of a breakthrough in overcoming a bit of a shark phobia.

"I'm not particularly one who likes being far out in the deep sea, but I got over it, I overcame one of my fears which was good," said Hamilton about the experience.

"I definitely don't like great white sharks, that's for sure. I guess it's the unknown, not really knowing what's below you. I do like scuba diving; so being under the water is a completely different thing from floating on the top.

"You see all those Discovery channels when the bloody shark jumps up, eats whatever's floating on the top. I just don't fancy being in that position!"