Google+ Jack Leslie F1: 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix: Thursday (24th July)

24 July 2014

2014 Hungarian Grand Prix: Thursday (24th July)

After a few days staying in Austria following the German Grand Prix, I travelled to Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday and was able to have a brief look around that evening. 
I must say that it really is a beautiful city. The architecture is absolutely stunning and it has so much history, so the first impressions have so far been good. 

Craig and Leanne Boon, Luke Smith (NBCSN and my boss at Richland F1) and I also found a really cool little Italian restaurant near our hotel with some fantastic food – the pizza was so good I had it again when we returned today. 

Thursday is media day in the F1 paddock, but the sessions don’t kick off until mid-afternoon, so we arrived at the accreditation centre at around 11:30am, before collecting our passes and heading to the circuit in the snazzy shuttle buses. 

The facilities at the Hungaroring are, like the Hockenheimring, very different to Austria. The media centre is on the second floor of a tower above the pit lane. 

It is actually spread over two floors, with one smaller room and then a large room above it. Luke, Abhishek Takle (who is also part of the Richland F1 team but is at the race for Midday) and I decided to sit in the lower room. 

There are lots of little rooms off a main hallway, housing the food and drink area, the room to sort out Internet (you have to pay, again) and offices. 

It is quite different to the huge, giant open space that was the Red Bull Ring press room, but it does the job. The desks are also unusual and resemble the old-style school ones. It has a certain shabby charm, I guess. 

It was also nice to see my good friend Katie Grimmett in the paddock for F1Plus. It is her F1 debut and I am sure she will do a great job!

It was baking hot today at the Hungaroring, with temperatures around 28 degrees (but it felt like more in the paddock). My first media session was hearing from Romain Grosjean, before then heading to Williams to see what Valtteri Bottas had to say. 

Next up was the press conference, which actually took place in a room next to where we are seated. At the back, there isn’t a wall between them but instead there are lockers, so you can see the photographers snapping pictures of the drivers. 

It was a relatively low-key line-up but it was a decent press conference. 

After getting a few pieces up, it was then time to head back into the paddock to hear from the two Red Bull drivers. It also gave me the opportunity to catch up with Daniel Ricciardo’s press officer Lyndsey, who I first met when she was my team leader at last year’s Open House event.

Ricciardo was late so I was unable to hear from Kevin Magnussen. After getting a few more pieces up and transcribing some quotes, we headed back to the car and travelled back to the hotel before heading back to the Italian restaurant for another fantastic pizza. 

It was a successful first day at the track and it will only get busier and better. Tomorrow will be the first day of on-track action, so be sure to follow all the latest on Richland F1. I will try and keep you updated on my F1 adventures on this blog when time allows, as well as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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