He’s not wrong. One group of almost fainting women displays handmade signs they have fashioned, each one bearing a letter of Mark’s name; a small boy has made a large ‘Welcome to Suzuka’ laurel wreath for Sebastian, while another fan has brought an Australian flag, an assortment of programmes, a hat and some pictures for Mark to sign. She’d also clearly like Mark to sign her cheek with a kiss, but the grandstand wall prevents her getting close enough to claim that particular prize.

Seb’s signing session is no less frenzied. Before he even makes it out through the paddock and into pitlane he’s collared by a fan seeking his autograph on a race programme. The champion obliges. But then, seeing the autograph cards carried by a team member, he pleads for Seb to sign one of those as well. No problem. At which point the fan, almost in tears, actually genuflects. It’s more than a little surreal but provides a perfect cameo of why Japanese F1 fans are among the world’s finest. The passion for Formula One and the sport’s heroes is unbounded, their devotion is charmingly, disarmingly complete. In short, Suzuka’s fans are just plain awesome and you can’t help but be swept up by their enthusiasm.

And their enthusiasm for Sebastian grows exponentially as he makes his way up the pitlane and across the start/finish straight. By the time he follows Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso onto the red carpet in front of the grandstand for a quick interview, the waiting fans are in a state of barely contained hysteria. Amid deafening screams, the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix winner tells the crowd “he’s really happy to be back in Suzuka”, and with a nod in the direction of Alonso adds that he’s “looking forward to taking a few points off Ferrari”.

Seb then heads off to a table where a queue of lucky fans are waiting to meet him. There he rattles off a couple of hundred signatures, shakes innumerable hands, is presented with several small children whose shirts and hats he dutifully autographs. Indeed, he’s so quick at signing the cards that he almost fails to notice Timo Glock creeping up behind him and throwing one of his own signed cards onto Seb’s pile. The champion’s too quick though and with barely a break in his penmanship, swipes the Marussia driver’s card off the pile with a grin.

With the queue slowing to a trickle it’s almost job done, but not before a quick detour into the massed ranks of fans at the edge of the grandstand where chaos ensues. Just another ordinary day in Suzuka for a Formula One driver.

Racing driver cardboard cut outs and podiums punctuate the food and drink stalls providing perfect platforms for those additions to the ‘Singapore GP 2012′ photo albums.

The night-time magic is felt by the drivers too. There’s been a lot of talk track side about both our drivers’ helmets this weekend with both sporting new designs. Sebastian’s pays homage to the night race with 24 flickering LEDs arranged in 3 groups of 8 lights each. Each group makes up a sign of the zodiac that belongs to a member of the German Champion’s family. The lights are battery powered and sensory – triggered by motion so expect lots of flickering as Sebastian races around Marina Bay this weekend.

Mark’s lid on the other hand is the handiwork of Croatian competition winner Zlatka Suboticanec. Zlatka entered a competition to design Mark’s helmet for this race, receive accommodation and return flights out here for the weekend with a guest of her choice (Zlatka’s brought her Dad Zlatko), meet and greet Mark, watch him race around the track in her helmet design from the grandstands and take it home to Croatia with her after the race on Sunday night. Some prize eh!  We’ll hear from Zlatka about how all of that feels on the latest instalment of our Team Podcast to be released on Monday.

Mark doesn’t change his helmet all that frequently so the fact he chose to run this competition around Singapore tells us something – he’s succumbed to the Lion City’s charm too.

Sebastian’s helmet here in Monza was designed by Jens Munser and features 10 sets of 5 stitches in a “tally mark” style. The total number of stitches is therefore 50 – equivalent to the number of helmets Seb has worn throughout his Formula One career.

Unlike the usual glossy finish of most helmets on the grid, this one has a matte look veneer, giving the lid a rough and ready, rustic look.

Look out for it on track tomorrow and, if you’re that way inclined, why not wow your family and friends in true pub quiz fashion with what each stitch on the lid represents?!

Mark Webber: “I’m going to the Olympics for a few days, here and there. As well as that, I’ll do a bit of mountain
biking, hanging out with the dogs and going to friends’ barbecues.”

Christian Horner: “I’m hoping to see a little bit of the Olympics. I’ve very kindly been invited to go and see the closing ceremony, which will be exciting. I’m going to have a bit of time at home in the first week and then in the second week hopefully we’ll manage to go away somewhere. We haven’t decided yet but I’m  sure Beverley will make that decision for me.”

Adrian Newey: “I took a break earlier this year and took the kids to America. We flew into San Francisco, hired a Mustang convertible and drove out to Yosemite National Park and through Death Valley, to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. In August I’ll go to the Maldives.”

Sebastian Vettel: “Initially, I’ll try to find some peace and quiet, relax and get little bit in the sun by the sea and then I’ll get back to some training and preparation for Spa, I guess.”

Rob Marshall – Chief Designer : “I am going to go to Turkey with my family for a week, for some beach time, sailing and a bit of  tennis. We come back for the middle weekend and we’re going to the Olympics to see some athletics and we should see the 4x100m final. After that we’re going to the south coast of England for some more sailing and then I’m going to Lords in London to watch the cricket test match for two days.

For more, listen to the podcast, available from redbullracing.com and iTunes

Set deep in the West Sussex countryside, Goodwood Festival of Speed hosts a menagerie of spectacles including reworked car furniture stalls, off-road experiences, classic and royal car shows and of course, a healthy dose of Formula One.

Ricciardo Runnings

Daniel Ricciardo took to the site on Friday, starting out by setting a high bench mark for fellow gamers in the Red Bull Gridsters area before embarking on the Goodwood hill climb in the RB7, signing autographs for his fans, attending media sessions, part-taking in Q and A sessions and even spent a bit of time selling some Red Bull Racing t-shirts from the merchandise stand – throwing in a free signature for every buyer. Daniel also met some of his own motorsports heroes.

He did the same on Saturday morning and this is what he had to say about it all when we caught up with him:

“It was a great event, my first time here, I did the famous hill climb in the RB7, it was good fun, unfortunately the first day was wet so I had to take it a bit easy but this morning was dry so I gave it a bit more up the hill and had some fun.”

When we probed who he had been most excited about meeting himself Daniel explained: ” I met Wayne Gardner who’s an ex-motrocycle world champion – he was a big, big hero of mine as a kid- I had one of his DVDs (well VCRs back then!) growing up and I think every week I would watch his movie – his documentary and it was cool to finally meet him. I had a photo with him when I was four years old but to actually talk to him and know who he was, was really cool.”

Daniel says he got another photo with Wayne at Goodwood, nineteen years on from the first meeting he had with him which he plans to post on his twitter profile so keep an eye out for that.

No festival would be complete without some mischief would it? Exactly. Daniel served that up too – leaving an affectionate note for Seb on his neck brace in the Red Bull Racing truck…

Daniel attended the event with his Dad who also got to meet some of his heroes including Alain Prost and Stirling Moss. As a small aside, we can also confirm that Daniel’s Dad is one of the nicest, most polite men in motorsport

Donuts Of Champions

Saturday arrived too soon and Sebastian and Christian joined Daniel to represent our team. They too answered questions over in the Red Bull UK gaming area, signed autographs and tackled hill climbs for the viewing pleasure of an amazing crowd through good and bad weather – and my goodness was it changeable at Goodwood. We went from sunburn-inducing sunshine one minute to wellie boot-commanding rain the next. But that’s all part of the fun of the fair at Goodwood.

Sebastian raced against World Champion gamer and Red Bull athlete Hakkie Jr on a Formula One game. He also met the five intern competition winners who will be joining us at Red Bull Racing in five different departments at the factory this summer. And that was all before he’d even put his helmet on!

He wowed spectators running the RB7 up the hill, goading them to clap and wave their hands if they wanted higher speeds and a more spectacular show. Adam from our Showcar team tells us too, that when Seb got to the top of Goodwood Hill and he and the boys tried to push the car backwards to turn it around to go back down, Seb questioned them, told them to stop and in true champion style, the rest became doughnut rings history before his descent back down to the bottom. Such is the magic of Goodwood.

Seb also ran an Infiniti SV FX up the hill, just behind Christian running an Infiniti Emerge-e. We met them both at the top and asked Sebastian what his top three favourite things about Britain are on the way down. His response:

‘The weather, the food and the women!’

With those three things in mind, we then asked our Team Principal, Christian Horner what a true British gentleman would wear in the summer time. To which he replied:

“Suede shoes, jeans, checked shirt, I don’t know, what am I wearing? There you go!”

Jam, Then Cream

Before we knew it Sunday had crept up on us and we could feel the festival fever of Goodwood slipping away. But not before Mark and Adrian represented us on and off track. Mark also visited the Red Bull Gridsters area, met charity workers, attended media and Q and A sessions and signed autographs for his fans – he continued to do this right down to the last second before his run with the showcar team running various pieces of motorsport memorabilia from the crowd over to him inside the car and back again!

We spoke to him on the back of a golf buggy on the way from the Red Bull UK area back up to our garage to see if he could settle a debate about the preparation of scones we were having amongst the team: Is it cream and then jam or jam and then cream?

The Aussie set the record straight: ‘It’s jam, then cream. As an Australian of course we have no experience whatsoever… but I would go jam and then cream but I love them just with jam on their own.’

Mark also brought along his friend and star of GP3, Mitch Evans. And that’s the thing about Goodwood, it’s relaxed, drivers bring friends along, it’s the place where the people meet their heroes and those heroes meet their own heroes. It’s a chance to get closer to motorsport and all its offerings and it brings out the best in people. And all this happens on a backdrop of traditional British lawns (adorned with huge race track sculptures), green hills, a race track, a stately home, display stalls, a car shaped bed, afternoon teas, mud, rain, sunshine, an abseiling wall, country pub dinners, flags and the constant echo of people talking about how good their day has been and what they have seen and done, occasionally drowned out by the thundering noise of jet planes and fireworks shooting through the sky above.

They don’t call it Goodwood for nothing and we’re all looking forward to the next installment in the shape of Goodwood Revival.

Adrian also had a blast at Goodwood, driving the Infiniti SV FX, meeting people that had dreamed of meeting him and getting to know some Wacky Racers…

And there you have it, some snippets from a fabulous festival weekend – the perfect aperitif before Silverstone.

Be sure to tune into the Team Podcast straight after the British Grand Prix for the full interviews with Daniel, Sebastian, Mark and Christian from Goodwood which will form a special introduction to the British edition of our audio offerings.