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Handing over this year's Climber of the Year in F1 2015 to Max Verstappen

The communication with the team, or two teams in fact, commenced about two months prior to the European races.

In 2015 Max Verstappen drove for Scuderia Toro Rosso and with this team he also won the Climber of the Year in F1. However, during the 2016 season he was drafted by Red Bull Racing. I was wondering how to approach the situation and where the trophy should be presented. Mind you, we have no accreditation and our success depends on the organization and the will of the team to invite us. Red Bull Racing was the first team, back in 2010, to invite us and I will always cherish it in my memory. Nevertheless, the second time, when S.Vettel was the Climber the invitation did not work and so I was literally praying for success this year.

I addressed Katie Twedle – Head of Communications of Red Bull Racing. She informed me that Ben Wyatt is the Head of Communications now and she passed all agenda on to him, which was a beginning. Several emails later we received the important one from Ann Pamin – please, pick up the Passes at the Marriott Heidelberg. 

There are all kinds of managers in any one Formula 1 team, all with their own assistants. It is a slight mystery from my managerial point of view (What do they, actually, do?), but I admit I never got the chance to take a closer look at their job descriptions. It would be quite intersting even for my work.

One way or another, a term was set to 28 July, 2017, at about 12:30 am at Hockenheimring at the Red Bull Energy Station.

I know the university town of Heidelberg quite well, from the time I studied meteorites. We set off from Unhost with our Honda Civic, prepared for the trip at Auto Jarov, a.s., at 5 am.

We arrrived at the hotel at 10 am, everything was ready with my name on it. My camera Canon EOS 350, which I borrowed in emergency (my eleven-year Canon G11 gave up several days before) broke down having taken just one photo. Later we found out the screen did not work well. I am grateful, at least, for the one photo, even if improved in Zoner. The last support we got from Canon CZ was in 2006, since then no one has been too keen on any kind of support, even though the poll has thirteen-year tradition now and is followed, literally, by the whole world.

Heidelberg, hotel Marriott

From Heidelberg we went to the circuit and having parked at P2 we went to the main gate, heading for paddock. We were pulling one large, heavy suitcase on wheels, full of gift glass from our partner  Rücl Crystal,a.s. of Nižbor, many English books about Prague, a large bag with the two trophy cups, certificates framed in the colours of the team. I do not know why, but I reached the paddock all sweat again. I seems to happen to me exclusively in Germany, even though I lost more than 10 kilograms since my last visit to Red Bull Racing. Maybe ten is not enough.

We got to the Red Bull Energy Station at about 11:15 am.

Things had been running smoothly there, Max Verstappen was expected around 1 pm. We were welcome by Ben Wyat, who left us to professional care of James Ranson. Further, also Fabiana Valenti, Head of Communications of Scuderia Toro Rosso took care of us. She is to get back to us with the photo of our trophy with the manger of Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Meeting Max Verstappen was cordial, because of our camera not working and my request the team managed a professional photographer Mark Thompson of Getty Images, who showed great interest in the event and took the photos in the end. Having arrived home, we found his photos already in my email, and the same from James. Excellent work, guys, thank you.

Photo:mark Thomson/Getty Images

Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

My wife also took photos with her Samsung smart phone, which is something hard to swallow for me as a photographer, but there was nothing I could do. I never take photos with my mobile and neither does she, so it was test and guess matter done in hurry and under stress.

Max Verstappen, Mark Thompson, Miroslav Sanytrák, James Ranson

However, at the end of the day, the images came out, actually, pretty good and what is more, waiting for Maxe we managed to take a shot of the World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

The way back turned out to be an adventure already on the circuit. Looking back it seems funny, but we were not laughing then. James walked us to the gate, where we returned the passes. However, it was a different gate than the one we came through at the beginning.

We did not realize it immediatelly, said thank you and good bye and that was it. We kept walking ahead, passed the boxes, if only I had had my camera, I would have taken some amazing photos. Suddenly we found ourselves at the circuit and it started to rain. Needless to say we did not have umbrellas. We walked under the track and reached a point – entrance to the circuit but from another direction.

Some student with perfect English explained to us that P2 parking is somewhere at the opposite side of the circuit and we would only be allowed in with a pass, which we did not have anymore. After some hesitation he said he would talk to the driver of some Mercedes with RED BULL RACING label on it to take us there. It a was pure coincidence that the two Mercedes cars were passing by and that we mentioned that we had visited the team Red Bull.

Based on the way he laughed I assume he took us for two crazy people who, simply, got lost, so he helped them out. A nice driver with his mouth from ear to ear told us to hop in, even though he already had two managers in his car. We drove for almost 15 minutes before he dropped us off 10 steps from our car. He got a book on Prague and my business card as a reward. We explained what had happened to us on the way, saying thank you with every sentence as it was raining heavily by then. Walking that far would take us at least one hour. Therefore we would like to thank to the anonymous Mercedes driver very much. 

We are setting off from the P2 parking lot around 1:30 pm for Unhost. Keeping the traffic rules, which means unrestricted speed here, I take the opportunity and rev Honda Civic (1400 ccm / 74 kW) up to 5200 rpm doing 180 kph. Our Continentals are glued to the wet road and my wife's casual look at the speed gauge followed by strict “slow down immediately” reaches me at 185 kph. 

Coming home we got stuck in traffic three times, which added three times one hour to it, so we got home at 9 pm, almost 8 hours instead of 5. I drove the last 200 km on three Red Bulls and my wife made me speak as I was pretty tired by then and negotiating our roads is a real treat. Everything went well, I would like to thank to Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso teams and their managers Ben, James, Ann, Fabiana and Katie for perfect organization, professional care and warm welcome. We are very grateful.