Podium Bummer
April 7th, 2008 by Maria Evans
Kimi Raikkonen (left) and Felipe Massa (right) have a little laugh on the podium (about the beverage choice maybe?) after the Grand Prix of Bahrain.
Felipe Massa took the checkered flag in Bahrain this weekend ahead of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen to get his first points of the Formula One season. The podium excitement, however, seemed to piddle out when the racers tried to spray themselves and their teams with magnums filled with rose water and pomegranate. It was pretty lame.
Champagne has been traditionally sprayed on the podium for decades, with the exception of the Indy 500, where the celebratory beverage is milk. And the Grand Prix of Bahrain ain’t no Indy 500.Â
In 1967 race car driver Dan Gurney started the tradition after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans:
” I was so stoked that when they handed me the Magnum of MOËT ET CHANDON , I shook the bottle and began spraying at the photographers, drivers, Henry Ford II, Carroll Shelby and their wives. It was a very special moment at the time, I was not aware that I had started a tradition that continues in winner’s circles all over the world to this day” - Dan Gurney   Â
If you get that “stoked” in Bahrain, they throw you in jail. Â Hooray for tolerance.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Gurney was my first racing ‘hero.’ He was adept at driving many types of car; stocks, F1, Indy and sportscars. That was the case back in that earlier era; the great American drivers, Donahue, Andretti, Foyt and Gurney all drove at LeMans, Riverside, Daytona, Indy and Brands Hatch. Donahue even set the closed-course speed record at Talladega….in a Penske-owned Can-Am Porsche 917 painted in Cam 2 colors. Roger Penske is really the only connection to that bygone era….he is still runs open-wheel, sportscar and NASCAR teams.
NASCAR is good entertainment, but real driving requires turning right as well as left, uphill and downhill stretches, off-camber hairpins and heavy use of braking and the gearbox….occasionally in the rain.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Good thing Bahrain officials understood about Indy race customs; if they didn’t, then Indy won’t hold their racing in Bahrain anymore.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
I love Formula One in the rain.