Grapevine: Paddock Life - Shanghai edition

Scuderia Toro Rosso have had some tough weekends this season, and were forced to watch what would have been the team's finest moment slip through their fingers when Sebastian Vettel crashed in Japan.

So to turn around just a week later and get both cars well into the points was quite an achievement, and one that the 'Baby Bulls' celebrated will all of the gusto that you'd expect of a garage filled predominantly of Italians.

Tonio Liuzzi was the first to return to the paddock, where we was greeted with cheers, hugs, a long round of back-slaps, and a bottle of water being poured over his head while he attempted to do a TV interview. The bottle soon ran out, prompting the appearance of another, which was also soon soaking into Tonio's race suit.

Sebastien Vettel got an even louder reception when he got back after scoring fourth, but by then the team had also increased their firepower - instead of a bottle, they'd filled a rubbish bin, with predictable results.

Champagne was popped, people hugged, group photos with pitboards were taken, more people hugged. Autosport.com watched one team member shake Vettel's hand for a good 15 seconds, all the while repeating the same thing over and over: "Thank you. Thank you."

It was a nice reminder that not all of F1's great achievements happen at the front of the field - although we dread to think what time some of the team members finally made it to bed later on...

No expense was spared in the construction of the Shanghai International Circuit a few years ago - except, perhaps, in the PA.

Something was seriously amiss with the audio system during Saturday's post-qualifying press conference, when a roomful of journalists' efforts to hear Lewis Hamilton describe his drive to pole position were frustrated by frequent drop-outs in the sound.

Annoying as it was, the constant lapses into silence were preferable to what came after the problem was 'fixed' - a full-volume electronic scream through the speakers. When everyone's ears recovered, it was Hamilton who broke the silence: "DJ in the house!" he quipped.

The concept of transparency in the F1 judicial system took on a whole new slant in China. Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were summoned to meet the stewards following Friday evening's drivers' briefing after the powers-that-be decided to take another look at the events of Fuji a week earlier.

The stewards' room at Shanghai is located on the ground floor of one of the towers, which are windowed from bottom to top. The glass is mirrored, so during the day it is opaque - but at night, when the lights are on inside, it is a very different matter.

Word that F1 justice was on display spread rapidly through the media centre, and before you could say '10-grid spot penalty', the window was surrounded by journalists, photographers and bemused over-uniformed local staff all clamouring to see Hamilton, Webber, Vettel, team representatives and officials led by permanent FIA steward Tony Scott-Andrews watching grainy footage on a giant TV.

As dull as it sounds, it was strangely compelling, if only because it offered a rare opportunity to spy on one of the facets of F1 that happens away from the cameras.

And it also made a life a lot easier for photographers - rather than standing around four hours starting at a doorway waiting for someone to come out of a hearing, they were able to see each driver leave the room, allowing them just enough time to run over and ambush them with flashbulbs 20 seconds later.

Ordinarily you'd think that anyone who could spell 'Deutsche Vermögensberatung' correctly would be someone you could trust. Not so the manufacturer of a Michael Schumacher cap spotted in Shanghai, one of many pieces of F1 merchandise of local origin that were on offer outside the circuit.

In sidestepping all that pesky business of official licensing, they factory in question also gave a wide berth to historical accuracy - with the result that the banner around the cap's peak read 'Weltmeister 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Michaer Schumacher'. We'll let you spot the various problems there...

Roads in Shanghai are chaotic at any time of the day, but on a Friday night it can descend into mayhem. For Steve Cooper from Autosport, James Roberts from F1 Racing, noted gun for hire Tom Clarkson and this autosport.com correspondent, what had been a good run in a taxi from the track had come to a grinding halt in a traffic jam not far from the city. Cars were banking up on the approach to a set of toll booths near the end of the motorway, and nobody was going anywhere fast.

Or so it seemed. Just as the journos were resigning themselves to a long wait, a set of flashing lights appeared behind them. A police car barrelled past, followed by a late-model Honda van that it was attempting to escort through the random jumble of cars driven by folk with scant regard for such formalities as lane markers.

A peer through the windows of the Honda revealed the occupant of the back seat to be one Rubens Barrichello. And with the barest minimum of encouragement from his passengers, the cab was soon giving chase.

The taxi driver's performance was, frankly, one of the best drives of the entire weekend. Showing a spacial awareness that would put some on the F1 grid to shame, he stayed glued to the back of the escorted Honda, dove through shrinking gaps, shut the door on other would-be opportunists and, memorably, even managed to overtake both the Honda and the police car and leave them boxed in behind a bus.

It was a magical performance; one given with what appeared to be complete disregard for the possible legal ramifications of having just tucked himself in behind a police escort for a mile - and then overtaken it. Still, one flash of inspired recklessness had wiped out what would have been at least a 15-minute wait in the gridlock.

There were the obvious one-liners in the back of the cab ("Good start to the weekend for Rubens - his Honda has just been blown off by a taxi"), but soon enough the escorting party caught up and the journos were able to attract Barrichello's attention.

A call of "Thanks for the tow, Rubens!" was met by some loud heckling in Portuguese from the Honda, followed by an attempt to empty a bottle of water over Clarkson from a distance of several feet. Unsurprisingly, Barrichello missed and got the taxi driver instead.

Barrichello and his escort entered the tollbooth moments later (where, it was noted, both he and the police car were forced to stop and pay!) leaving the bewildered taxi driver wondering why a shrieking man in a van had thrown water all over him "That man was Rubens Barrichello. F1 driver. Grand Prix," offered Roberts helpfully.

The cab driver stared uncomprehendingly for a moment before the realisation dawned. "He? Rubens Barrichello? Ah!" He looked at where the van had been, but by now it was long gone. Shortly afterwards, the cab reached its destination, leaving its driver pondering his wet clothes and unexpected brush with fame, and four journos marvelling at his superb performance behind the wheel.

And the cabbie wouldn't even accept a tip.