Silverstone Virgins

I have to admit it crossed my mind that going to the F1 grand prix at Silverstone would be a bit crap, especially with Monaco fresh in the mind and a couple of nights in a tent to look forward to!

But off we went anyway, the Gridmodels GP crew, less one member (Nadine the Machine) who sadly had other commitments. With the Gridmodels car packed to the rafters with our girlie stuff and camping gear, we drove to central London in search of our first party.

One might wonder, as we did, why they bother having Grand Prix parties in London, a good few miles away from the track. Apparently it's because no F1 related people actually turn up! They are actually having nice cosy BBQs at their motor homes on site!

That said, we thought we'd go to the official Dolce Vita Ball after party since we were in London anyway. It was being held at Stringfellows new club on Wardour Street, Soho, called The Wardour (belive it or not). Despite meeting some teenage boys in the queue who didn't realise what the party was about, we didn't really cotton on to the nature of the beast until a couple of hours later.

Although we felt right at home in the club itself (the place bore a very close resemblance to Jimmy'z in Monaco) it took us some time - actually about 2 hours - to find a nice man to buy us a drink and about the same time for the music to get good. And it was around this point we realised that the real party was going on downstairs behind a velvet rope, to which we were definitely not invited. Hoping this wasn't an omen for the entire weekend, we stuck around until about 3am anyway and then headed for the Gridmobile.

Our luck started to change once we hit the road. No traffic and we all made it there in one piece despite the possibility of sleep-driving. Luckily Clara is highly experienced in the art of driving while knackered so we were in safe hands.

After catching a couple of zeds in the car we were more or less refreshed and decided to pitch our tent at the campsite. By the time we'd showered and left the tent was practically flat due to the wind and probably our dodgy tent erecting skills, and we weren't looking forward to sleeping in it that night. But we figured we'd probably be too drunk to notice, so hey ho.

Saturday at the Silverstone grand prix is a fairly quiet time. The grandstand filled up for the qualifying rounds but before and afterwards not so many people stuck around. Lewis Hamilton getting pole position on the grid lifted the atmosphere considerably though and there were a lot of banners showing support for him. It must be great for him to have the British public squarely in his corner.

For us in Tony's MonacoKool / Johnny Herbert hospitality suite the day passed in a leisurely manner. We met up with a few old friends - Keith Sutton of Sutton Images popped his head in to say hello. It was strange to see him without a tan and in England not Monaco! It was good to catch up with Tony as well. He's such a sweetie and always looks after us.

Anyway, it was still early so the four of us went off in search of the BRDC bbq. 5 minutes later we were back with our tails between our legs. We'd walked all the way into the circuit and it turned out that the bbq was in the BRDC farm right outside the motor home! And they wouldn't give us any food.

As it turned out we were invited to Jensen's bbq anyway, so after a bit of a chat we went round to their motor home. They had such a mountain of food but we couldn't eat any of it because we'd just had something to eat, which was disappointing.

Sunday morning we were woken by the sound of the racing at 7am! Confusingly, it turned out to be just the sound coming from the massive tv screen that had been erected outside on the BRDC farm. Looking out the window we could already feel the buzzing atmosphere as so many fans had already arrived to claim their spot by the track.

Since we already had the most comfy spots in Silverstone (ie. bed!) we opted to sleep for a little longer, only just making it over to the Farm to watch the race on the big screen after some horrible lunch at the Paddock Cafe. They really need to work on upgrading the facilities at Silverstone. A greasy spoon would have offered better quality and value than that place.

Watching the race on the screen instead of at the hospitality was perfect as we could just relax in the sunshine with a beer in relative peace. Nadia had bumped into Lewis Hamilton's chums earlier, so we agreed to meet them later on at the Grand Prix Party.

After the race finished we went over to make a celebrity appearance at Tony's suite. We were apparently very very welcome and had a fun half hour doing photos with everyone. It was good to see some familiar faces from the yacht in Monaco, as well as meeting some new friends.

After a while we all trouped over to the VIP area at the Grand Prix party. It was actually more like a concert, with tribute bands playing and appearances from the F1 drivers. It was disappointing that most of the vips who'd been in the Paddock earlier had gone home. I would have been interested to meet David Beckham and Danni Minogue, but instead we got Patrick Dempsey of Gray's Anatomy fame and Bryan McFadden. Oh well.

Leaving before the concert ended in order to miss the traffic, we decided to do one last party at Boujis. After racing down the M1 against LH's mates in their Mercedes (not exactly a fair fight - the Gridmobile is only little!) we ended up joining them all for a drink at The Hilton. A nice way to end a massively fun weekend.

Gridmodels' top tips for surving the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Silverstone:

1. If you haven't booked a campsite space in advance and plan on rocking up there on the day, make sure you've stayed up all night and are wearing a very short skirt.

2. Make friends with someone who knows where all the parties are happening!

3. Don't eat lasagne before attending a bbq (especially one which has steaks!)

4. Get tickets

5. Don't be fooled by bogus after party invites

6. You must always have more than one person present in a Hilton hotel room in order to open the balcony doors

7. Don't eat lunch in the Paddock Cafe, but if you do, make sure they give you two fishcakes not one and a lettuce leaf

8. Don't wear stilleto heels on the grass

9. Wear sun block even if it doesn't feel like summer or suffer the ski-goggles effect for weeks afterwards.