Girls Like F1 Too!: Belgian Special

By Liz.

Rookie

noun (informal)

• a new recruit.

• a member of an athletic team in his or her first full season in that sport.

Fair to say, we're all relieved the F1 summer break is over. The second part of the season has just kicked off in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

This week had the chance meet the F1 rookie driving his first home GP this weekend. I'm sure you all know who I'm talking about. More on that special moment later.

In several ways, the life of an F1 rookie is a little unenviable. They have to get it right, straight away, while being in the spotlights.

Whilst getting used to incessant travel and living in (sometimes crappy) hotel rooms, rookies have many things to learn. Get to know their car, the dynamics of their new team, understand the technology, avoid bloopers and much more. And with the testing ban, rookies can only learn what F1 racing is all about in full view.

It's an overwhelming experience to enter the F1 circus, that's why teams carefully guide their drivers. A whole bunch of people work behind the scenes to schedule promotional events, help them deal with the press, etc. Each driver also has a personal trainer, to keep body and mind fit.

What some casual F1 fans might not realize, is that when you're an F1 driver, it's not all about racing. Whether they like it or not, drivers are contractually obliged to participate in promotional events. F1 teams are commercially-run. The sponsors make everything happen, so the teams want to treat them well.

For drivers, the upside of promotional events can be that getting close to the fans might be motivating, give them a moral boost. But it can also be a difficult part of the job. Drivers are expected to have a perfect public image and sometimes they'll need to improvise. While everyone is watching. Some of you might remember this emotional reaction of a Nico Rosberg fan last year. I guess one of the most important lessons is: keep smiling!

Now the F1 circus has landed in Belgium, this is an excellent time to focus on the Belgian rookie, Jérôme D'Ambrosio.

Spa-Francorchamps being his home Grand Prix, he obviously had a lot of interviews to do. On Tuesday, he was one of the guests in a talkshow. And I was there too...

What's about to follow, is my personal account of attending the show.

I know, I know, this blog is supposed to be about serious stuff, but hey, give this enthusiastic Belgian F1 fan a little break.

You'll enjoy it, for sure.

It has a very happy ending too.

About the talkshow:

Villa Vanthilt is aired on Flemish public television. For 3 years now, the show has been travelling in Flanders. The show is recorded in a make-shift studio (a fancy decorated glass house) on the city's main square. Everyone is welcome to come and watch it live, now ain't that nice!

(Source: http://www.nieuwsblad.be)

The show features a broad mix of national and international guests. Airing every evening in the summertime, it's quite popular in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. The interviewer, Marcel Vanthilt, has an unique style and is very experienced, he's an eccentric and a very likable guy.

You can watch the interview he did with Jérôme here: www.sporza.be

It's in English for your convenience.

In case you're wondering if you can see me standing in the crowd somewhere, the answer is NO!

And I'm quite happy with that, because frantic waving was involved. A lot! I don't need to see what that looked like ;)

This was my point of view:

Yes, I am aware, I have a crappy camera, but I don't care :)

It's F1, so strategy is of vital importance. I started waving at 12.30 in the video, pay attention, you can see JDA's arm when he starts waving back :)

That was the beginning of a flood of waves and smiles (when this video ends, he was still in the studio for about 15 minutes or so because all the guests are supposed to stay there till the end.) I have no idea how many people were standing there behind and beside me. I was in the front, being exactly where I wanted to be, so I didn't pay much attention to anything happening around me. Frantic waving at strategic times was my way to go! But I did notice someone with a Belgian flag, that was nice to see! And Jérôme looked very happy with the support of his fans, awww :)

When the show was about to end we went up to the place where JDA would most likely pass when exiting the studio. (Of course I had spotted that before, all part of the strategy.)

And he did!

Picture time!

(I think JDA looks a bit scared. I blame the photographer.)

It's true what they say, he's really nice :)

Honestly, I can't remember what I said to him and vice versa. Doesn't matter anyway. There were smiles :)

And I got an autograph too!

Beforehand I didn't know if there would be a little moment to say hi. It was a possibility, not a certainty, but when I left home a few hours before, I decided I should take something with me that would look extra nice with his autograph on it.

I actually didn't need to think about what to take, as there's only one JDA related thing I cherish and that's a random magazine featuring JDA and Jacky Ickx.

(The magazine is a weekly supplement of the Flemish financial newspaper De Tijd. I found it lying around at work a few months ago, so I adopted it. It's F1, you need a bit of luck and you need to be nice. The feature is not an actual interview, it's a conversation between the two of them, with some basic info inbetween. Quality. Makes sense if your target audience is people who buy a financial newspaper. Good strategy.)

Anyway, for me, that's special thing, I thought his autograph would look good on it.

And it does, judge for yourself: