Grapevine: Stoddart makes emotional F1 visit

It took Stoddart several hours to walk the length of the Albert Park paddock down to see his former team in their new Toro Rosso guise, as he was met and greeted by team personnel and journalists at every step.

"I have been here for nearly four hours now, and I have only got halfway down the paddock," he said. "The reception has been fantastic, and it is bloody touching actually.

"I have missed this so badly. You don't realise that until you stop. It is not just the racing, it is not just the business side of things - you make friends over a decade.

"Bernie (Ecclestone) said it correctly once - it is like a drug. It is not so easy to walk away, and you really do genuinely miss it, and that's what came home to me in the first two races."

Stoddart is performing some duties for local radio and television at the Australian Grand Prix - but did confess to feeling a bit awkward at not having a specific job to do in the paddock.

That was why he baulked at plans to attend the Malaysian Grand Prix, despite having booked himself onto some overnight flights from Melbourne.

"I was going to fly all night to Malaysia, go to the track, and then fly back here for Monday morning. It didn't happen, but it is the kind of thing you think of because you miss it.

"I do understand where Eddie Jordan was coming from last year, because he didn't turn up until Monaco.

"He said, 'I just didn't feel comfortable'; and you do feel that if you haven't got a job to do it is a hard place to be."