Inside the Paddock Club with Ferrari

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At the British Grand Prix on Friday I had the chance to enjoy some hospitality courtesy of Shell and Ferrari. It was my first chance to see inside the Formula 1 Paddock Club, an exclusive venue where Formula 1 teams and major suppliers can entertain their clients.

Here’s a photo tour of the Paddock Club and Ferrari’s hospitality. It was an excellent experience which I’m very grateful to them for providing.

My Paddock Club pass.

On the way in. The sign reads: “Guests with a pacemaker should contact security officials for assistance before approaching any electronic turnstiles”.

Inside Ferrari’s marque in the Paddock Club. Several F1 portraits and models were on display including this cabient with what I assume were models of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen’s helmets.

Further inside pieces of Ferrari bodywork were hung like small sculptures. To the left of this were a few PlayStation 3s running Gran Turismo 5 with, of course, the F1 Ferrari set as the default car.

The wine and food was predictably exquisite.

The menu included:

  • Seared tuna with ginger, deep fried prawns in a basket with balsamic (pictured).
  • Selection of meats including stry fry beef, grilled lamb, grilled pork and vegetable options iincluding risotto and various other dishes
  • Dessert was a poached pear with lemon ice cream and a french pastry

The teams’ marques were arranged around a central Entertainment Tent.

Goodies on offer in the tent included ice cream, sweets, chocolate and candy floss. There was also a bar in the centre.

Also in the Paddock Club Entertainment Tent was an artist doing F1 paintings.

DJ Tone C from Paris played mellow house music from behind a giant live timing screen. You can achieve the same effect at home using F1.com and WinAmp.

A Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren convertible was on display outside the Paddock Club. But to give you an idea how well-heeled the visitors were, there was one in the car park as well. And a Ferrari F40.

Paddock Club members also had use of a grandstand overlooking Priory which was an excellent vantage point. You can see some of the pictures I took from it here: Pictures: Friday at Silverstone.

Renault had an F1 car parked in their section of the Paddock Club. I think it was a 2005 R25 with the 2008 season livery.

I signed the guest book on my way out and, as ever, couldn’t resist the opportunity for a bit of self-promotion.

Some information on the Paddock Club.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Inside the Paddock Club with Ferrari”

  1. Terry Fabulous
    8th July 2008, 13:07

    You lucky son of a gun!!

    Actually luck has nothing to do with it.
    You’re website is outstanding and if I were an F1 marketing manager I would be doing my best to woo you and try to get your editorial bias!

    Congrats Keith, Fruits of labour

  2. Thanks Terry – though I actually got in courtesy of my ‘day job’ writing an article for a car dealer magazine. I mentioned some of the information I got from them in this post:

    Secrets of Ferrari’s fuel wizards

  3. Must have been great feeling!

  4. Heh, you were there the same day as me – I was there with Williams courtesy of Lenovo. Stir Fry Beef was very tasty!

    Anyway, the grandstand was a good spot – though I’ve watched from the Brooklands hospitality before and that’s even better if you get higher up.

    Also, I found a handy spot to take photos just to the right of the Paddock Club stand where you could get a shot of the cars approaching Priory. You can take a look at my shots on Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/vandy404/SilverstoneFridayPractice) if you like.

    Shame the experience for paying fans isn’t this good. When you look around at Silverstone you can kind of see Bernie’s point about it, though that doesn’t excuse his and F1’s inability in invest in their own sport. That’s a whole different discussion…

  5. Keith, is it worth the money…..

    Obviously Paddock Club tickets can be purchased…but, in your humble opinion, for the race fan are they really worth the dosh?

    I was lucky enough to win Vodafone Tickets for the GP, they provided Copse B Grandstand Seating, a Vodafone Relaxing Area which had a Vodafone Racing Simulator, A Pitstop Challenge with a chance to win a Garage tour with Mclaren, and another wee air booth where you had to grab red tickets. We also won a meet & greet with LH, and a mobile phone. Vodafone provided LH Hats and earplugs to all winners, and of course I had the KTV I won right here.

  6. go on, admit it: it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as it would have been if you were sitting under a leaky umbrella in the simple folk’s stands.

    maybe renault should put the r25 on the track instead of this year’s model.

  7. Better yet, put the 2005 livery on this years car. They made a beautiful car ugly.

  8. It would’ve been the best day of my life if only I had the paddock pass, u r lucky keith

  9. Keith,

    Absolutely off topic (sorry!), but it could be worth for you. All season´s tests with time tables live:

    http://www.f1today.nl/live-update/2008/07/08/hockenheimring/

  10. ya, man fantastic blog you have. keep the good work. :up:

  11. Keith,

    outstanding stuff from the paddock, thanks for sharing. Can you tell us anything about the women there ?

  12. Um, what did you want to know? (I’m very worried about where this might be heading…)

  13. Hey F1 Is Big money. It takes money to make money. They want to bring in the people with money and make then feel comfortable so that they will get involved in the F1 World. Have you seen the “At Home With Danica Patrick” Spoof on the motorola.com site. It’s pretty funny.

  14. Keith,

    I imagine that in a Ferrari paddock full of high-profile guests/sponsors, the women there might be of the same quality as the food/wine. Was that the case ?

  15. F1Fan,

    I was wondering the same thing myself!!

    Good day for you Keith,gald you enjoyed it! Did you wander across any VIPs in that area?

  16. I wouldn’t mind some of that ice cream and a french tart :)

  17. Well officially, of course, I was not looking. My girlfriend has her spies everywhere and were my eyes caught wandering I’d be on washing-up duty for a month. And I hate washing-up.

    Unofficially… nothing to write home about. Sorry guys :)

    I didn’t spot any VIPs although we did get a chat from Luca Colajanni over lunch and we got to ask questions. I did put my hand up and asked him if he thought Ferrari’s performance advantage over their rivals was shrinking. He referred to McLaren as ‘the grey cars’ or something like that which I thought was funny! I understand ‘team grey’ had Gordon Ramsey and family visiting but I didn’t see them.

  18. You lucky so and so. You really deserve this for all the great work you do. Frankly I’m envious and jealous (smile)

  19. Looks great shame i didnt see this earlier as I had a spare paddock access pass for the weekend.

    you bump into the drivers and vips all over the place in there

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