As I said in my last post, Seb is off to Ferrari. But before leaving completely, the team had
one last hurrah for him at the factory.
You can see the great guy that Vettel is when he lets his guard
down. as speeches were delivered from
Adrian and Christian, his emotions were clearly visible.
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| Christian joking with Seb at his final factory visit |
A couple of awesome videos celebrating his years with
Infiniti Red Bull Racing and as a part of the young driver program were played,
and it reminded us of his fantastic journey with the team and of the passion we
all have for motorsport. It’s hard to
not fall in love with moments captured in images like this one:
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| Seb bows to his car after winning the 2013 Indian Grand Prix and sealing his third championship |
Seb was also presented with a gift basket full of cheeky
Italian-esque gifts, including pasta, a red Speedo, an espresso cup, and a
typical Italian puff jacket. One last
gift was a statue of a bull commemorating his four world championships.
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| The team! |
After delivering one last message to the team in the race bays of Building 2, Seb stuck around for a while and signed some items for the team.
In addition to a picture of Will, Jason and I alongside Seb,
I managed to have my RCVD book signed on what I felt was an appropriate page.
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| The signed book |
The RCVD book is something that means a lot to me in terms
of where I am and want to be in my career.
I initially had American Le Mans Series and Indy Car drivers start
signing it in 2012 at the Baltimore Grand Prix.
One wrote an inscription that said “NEVER QUIT!” I don’t know who it was, because at the time
I didn’t know who half of the drivers were.
I like the anonymity of it. It is
a subtle thing that means so much to me.
And here I am, a little more than two years later, working in Formula
One.
When we were buying things to fully furnish our flat, Will
bought this hilariously quirky canvas print of a bunch of meerkats riding
scooters somewhere in London. Why? Because it’s awesome. So of course we got Seb to sign that,
too. Why? Because it’s AWESOME.
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| Autograph is behind the yellow scooter |
His reaction upon signing it was great, by the way.
We along with the placement students took one
last picture with Seb before personally wishing him good luck (but not too
much) in his new endeavors.
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| Placements with Seb |
That was a couple of weeks ago now. Later in the work week, we had a silly jumper
(ugly sweater type of thing in America) day at the office. Nothing needs to be said other than Sam
bought the exact same jumper. That was
unfortunate and hysterical.
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| "You've got to be kidding me." |
Despite the fun and games of the silly jumper day, we didn’t
lose focus…there was serious work to be done as we push forward preparing for
the next season. I will say that the
lightness added by things like the jumper day contributes to a really happy
workplace and substantive relationships with colleagues. You know, where we can talk about something
other than engineering and work. It’s
been great to get to know a lot of the fantastic people around the office.
Then, early Saturday morning, we received some depressing
news. Two cars were involved in a
ram-raid on the lobby of Building 1, where we have a significant portion of our
trophies on display for the public in a beautiful cabinet. The burglars were able to violently break in
and loot the factory of more than 60 trophies.
Some of them were replicas, thankfully.
To the burglars, they’re worth just about nothing melted down. There are other possibilities, I suppose, but
any way you slice it, it’s ridiculous and perplexing. They mean nothing to the burglars, but they
mean a great deal to the team. They
represent the huge amount of work and dedication and passion that has gone into
securing each and every win. I feel
awful for the men and women of Infiniti Red Bull Racing for the actions of
these lunatics. And I feel sorry for
those who will not be able to experience the awe and inspiration at the factory
in the future, as this likely means less access will be granted to the public.
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| Seb reminiscing over the trophies, pre-ram raid |
Later, Christian would sum it up in the best way. This may not be a perfect quote, but it was
along the lines of, “We’ll just work hard and fill the trophy cabinet back
up.” Hell yeah we will.
At the risk of being chronologically out of order, this past Tuesday, we found out that 20-something trophies had been found dumped in Horseshoe Lake near Sandhurst, over an hour south of the factory in Milton Keynes. The intent to melt the trophies down for the metal seems to be rather clear now. We’re glad to have the ones back that we’ve managed to get. The goal is still to retrieve the rest of the trophies and to make replicas of the ones we are not able to get back.
On a happier note, Hope came back on Saturday! Saturday night was the Infiniti Red Bull Racing
Christmas party, and Hope came as my guest.
Introducing her to a lot of my colleagues was fun, and Will, Jason and I
along with several other coworkers and significant others had a fantastic time
partying together. The party was my
first official work Christmas party, and what a way to do it!
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| Hope and I enjoying our night with the rest of the team |
First of all, it was held at Silverstone in the pit
building, and since it was a celebration of 10 years of racing, cars from every
year were on display throughout the entrance and two giant party rooms. The four championship winning cars were hung
from the ceiling, the most incredible party centerpieces pieces I’ve ever seen.
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| Presentation wasn't so bad |
And balloons on balloons.
Because balloons.
In addition to copious open bars and lounges placed around
the rooms, there were four national-themed food stations with accompanying festive
entertainment in celebration of important moments throughout the team’s
history. A Chinese noodle bar,
Texan-style American food, Japanese sushi, and Indian curry were the major
offerings. I frequented the sushi bar.
The live DJs and other entertainment offerings were
phenomenal. Made available for us was a
pair of sumo wrestling suits, Infiniti Red Bull Racing slot cars, a mechanical
rodeo bull, and a row of racing seats and steering wheels with PS4’s featuring
racing games. Among other buddies of
mine, Gareth and Will gave the sumo wrestling a shot. Too funny!
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| Hilarious. Will's suit may be backwards... |
Later in the night, much to the embarrassment of my
girlfriend, I let the American country boy out in me and got a 33-second ride
on the bull.
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| Yeehaw! 33 seconds! |
Adrian and Christian made a couple of congratulatory
speeches to the team, acknowledging the unfortunate events of the previous
night and giving us rousing motivation to fill the cabinet back up. We watched a couple more awesome
end-of-season videos to reflect on the team’s accomplishments, Ricciardo shared
some thoughts and smiles, and Kvyat, Autosport 2014 Rookie of the Year, got a
very warm reception. It really is a
great team to be a part of, and the dialogue from those guys along with the
superb video reflections made for an absolutely awe-inspiring atmosphere to
continue the party.
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| Christian asking Kvyat some questions about his upcoming first season with Infiniti Red Bull Racing |
Afterward, the stage featured a concert delivered by Soul II Soul and Jess Glynne. Don’t know them? A quick YouTube search should fix that for
most of you. Both have topped charts,
Jess this year. You don’t get that at
every work Christmas party.
We all had an epic time.
What a phenomenal party and an unforgettable night! It was great to be able to share it with our
friends and significant others.
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| End of the night and still looking good :) |
The following day was a bit of a recovery day, no
surprise. We all reflected on the crazy
night and shared a lot of laughs while relaxing and watching some movies. Hope and I enjoyed a couple more days
together before she had to leave. We
worked out together and watched Lone Survivor, a war movie based on the
incredible book by Marcus Luttrell which tells his first person account of one
of the most devastating losses in US Navy Seal history. I was somewhat disappointed in the theatric
as it lacked the completeness of the scope of the book, but I guess that’s hard
to do at any in-depth level comparable to the book. Anyway, it’s a good read, and both the film
and book highlight the dilemma of the sometimes unilateral aspects of the rules
of engagement as well as the admirable nature of the ancient ethical code,
Pashtunwali. I won’t spoil the book and
movie by explaining it.
Some would expect things at the factory to slow down during
the offseason; in reality, that’s when it gets even busier. Late nights and weekend work has been the
norm as we get ready for the next season of racing. It never stops, and that’s where the
excitement and vigor we have for our jobs becomes apparent.
In the simulator, I got a chance to work with Kvyat. From my limited experience last week, he’s a
great driver to work with. He’s only 20 years
old, seems like one of the guys, and his talent is incredible. I’m fortunate to get a chance to work with
the drivers directly, and I look forward to the opportunities I will have to
interface with them.
Late Friday night, it was more movies! I went with a few of the guys to see the
third movie in the Hobbit trilogy. In an
effort to not make this post about movie reviews, I’ll just say it’s got some
stunning visuals. Go see it. After the movie, we all went to a
bar-restaurant in the shopping center and grabbed a couple of beers and hung
out for a bit. Gareth reminded Jason and
I of the meteor shower that night, and we were game for some star gazing. It wasn’t quite the dazzling show it was made
out to be in the predictions on the internet, but we still got a chance to see
nearly a dozen shooting stars. A little
after 2am, the predicted peak of the shower, we were quite nearly miserably
cold, we hopped back in the car and went home.
On Saturday, I headed to London to meet up with some friends
and finish up Christmas shopping. I
didn’t end up exploring too much more than I’ve already seen, but I first went
to Covent Garden and then to the market there.
It’s the first time I’d seen that area in the lead-up to Christmas. Spectacular would about sum it up.
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| Christmas definitely took over the Covent Garden Market, and it looked beautiful! |
So many street performers!
I didn’t hang around for an appreciable length of time to see them in
any detail, but it’s a significant aspect of London, especially now with the
increased tourist industry during the holidays.
There were also some temporary street food vendors set up under
tents. The elaborate spreads of various
ethic foods were mouth-watering.
 |
| I went in for the chicken and chorizo |
The food and variety of people at the market reminded me how
multicultural London is, being one of the main hubs of Europe. I absolutely relish that. There’s so much to be learned from other
cultures, and it’s a great opportunity to experience some new things here. Every day I’ve traveled through the city,
I’ve heard at least half a dozen different languages being spoken. I’m feeling the itch to learn a new language
myself.
I then went to meet Tommy, a buddy of mine who is on
assignment in London for the next few months.
He was one of our drivers at Terps Racing, and how Terps Racing got
acquainted with him is sort of funny, if not weird. We need four drivers for every competition in
Formula SAE, and one who was planning on coming to competition ended up not
being able to do so…something we found out with only a couple of months before
the competition if my memory serves me correctly.
On our way through the parking lot we use at the University
of Maryland, a bunch of us saw a nice Honda S2000, spec’d out for SCCA
autocross. We had no idea whose car it
was. FSAE and Formula Student are indeed
autocross style racing competitions, so another member of the team left a Terps
Racing business card on the windshield with a message that essentially said,
“If you’re interested in driving, call us.”
It turned out that Tommy was an eligible student since he was seeking a
Master’s Degree in fire protection engineering at UMD. We threw him in the car, he drove well, and
we took him halfway across the country to Lincoln, Nebraska to drive for us in
June. So yeah, we left our number on
Tommy’s windshield and managed to pick up a driver.
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| Tommy driving his S2K, the car whose windshield we stuck our phone number on... |
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| Tommy driving the TR14 in Nebraska |
We met up at the Seven Dials since that was close to a bunch
of pubs and to where he lives at the moment, and we walked around for a bit
before ending up at a pub in Covent Garden.
We sat outside at a table for a bit and caught up on what each other
have been up to since the summer and our respective UK experiences thus
far. To get some food, we headed to a Colombian
style bar restaurant nearer to Soho. The
place was called Salsa, and Tommy said that he was going to be taking up salsa
dancing lessons there, some of which we saw going on. We’re both what you would call physically
challenged on the dance floor haha, and to me, learning to salsa is badass in
the most gentleman sort of way. I’ve got
to give some props to Tommy for taking on that challenge. We shared a couple of Coronas and more catch
up talk before heading our separate ways.
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| Pretty nice carbon work |
And maybe I eyed the incredible sushi bar...
We met at Dirty Dick’s, a pub right near the tube station, just shy of 8pm. The two of them are a joy to hang out with. I intended to make it back for the last Virgin train at 9:43 (something I learned about when Hope visited), but we ended up having a lot of fun there and hung out ‘til nearly midnight. Luckily I caught the last London Midland train home, ending yet another great day trip to London.
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