SPA FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Champagne corks popping loudly herald the arrival of morning race-goers at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix.
If you consider $3,500 to be chump change, or just like treating yourself to a sample of how the one per cent lives, then you can enjoy all of the Formula One Paddock Club champers you like on qualifying day Saturday and race day Sunday. (Fork out another $500 and you can tip that flute all day practice Friday too.)
After a long, draining drive from the south of England and as a guest of Infiniti-Red Bull Racing, it seemed appropriate to get value for the championship F1 team’s money, without disgracing oneself. Judging by the unsteady departure of some after the victory by Infiniti-Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo — not our crowd, it should be said — some exceeded their consumption targets.
The Paddock Club at Spa offers a magnificent view of the fast and the fashionable. You get a very low flying bird’s eye view of any team garage into which you care to peer. You can smell the fuel and hear the bad words sometimes uttered.
Walk around the outdoor back and sides of the first-storey club, which runs the length of the pit lane, and there are commanding views of the rest of the action as far as the eye can see, including that steep climb from the famous Eau Rouge corner.
Smart casual may be the dress code but many, especially the young women in attendance, clearly shop in the high fashion shopping districts of wherever they call home.
Perhaps the most cutting-edge and conspicuous was to be found in our crew of merry makers. New York writer and suit designer Duncan Quinn turned many heads with his striking reddish coloured suit. It even caught the eye of lead Infiniti-Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, who remarked on its sharpness at a pre-race meet with visiting journalists.
The club’s never-ending buffet is more interesting to the less fashion-forward. It features such culinary delights as veal shank and rack of spring lamb, served with sweet corn terrine, sauteed summer vegetables, oven roasted pumpkin and port wine jus. The Chateau Villa Bel Air 2011 from Bordeaux was fitting complement. The menu each day was worthy of a continental restaurant with Michelin stars after its name.
Icy treats, desserts, anyone? At least a thousand calories a look.
There are opportunities to burn some calories with a pit lane stroll, which takes you past the front of every garage. Snap happy guests fill their smartphones with multiple images of stripped down race cars.
"No pictures beyond the red line, please," one bruiser politely warns.
We make a second visit on race day, this time to the Infiniti-Red Bull Racing team garage. Access is via what could be dubbed the "millionaires’ trailer park," where owners wine and dine in even more style than those in the paddock club.
On Saturday, the team’s garage boomed with music but now the crew is in serious race mode. Outside, they practise pit stop changes, as they do daily at their Milton Keynes HQ. They hold the world record for a wheel change in 1.923 seconds, something any auto club would envy.
Every one-hundredth of a second can mean the difference between a win and loss on this road.
Knowing they were working so hard, I almost felt guilty tucking into the gratinated lobster, arugula and artichoke salad, while quaffing the Mumm’s champagne. To your cars, gentlemen, and let the race begin.
