Skip to content

Rachel's Diary: Austrian adventures

Rachel Brookes heads to Austria for rooftop interviews, challenging cobbles and sausages on air...

My week began earlier than usual as I was in Sky Studios presenting on Sky Sports News HQ the weekend before the race. The studio set has changed a lot since I was last on. We move about and stand up now as well as sitting behind the desk so no more flat shoes, it's heels and breathing in for five hours…

It's amazing how much technology is used now. The entire wall behind us moves and at the touch of an iPad I can bring up something on another channel to talk about. Social media has meant big changes too. We have someone whose job it is to keep track of social media - who is saying what, posting which photos - and manning our polls.

As well as the changes in technology, it just happened to be the day after a night of European football so just a few Hungarian, Armenian and Romanian names to get right. Hrayr Mkoyan was one of my particular favourites that day. He is an Armenian defender in case you were wondering...

Then it was back to the 'day job’. We flew to Austria on Tuesday afternoon and stayed in Vienna for the first night as we had interviews with the two Red Bull drivers on Wednesday morning. After an early dinner, I spent the evening looking up famous sites in Vienna and anything that might help with my piece on the two drivers.

I can't write anything until I have heard what they have said but I always try to have a few ideas of places to shoot that might tie in and then once I have interviewed them I work out which direction the piece will go in. 

We arrived at the venue and the photos of the interview location we were sent beforehand did not match up with where we ended up doing them. The hotel venue had a breakfast meeting on so we made do with a rooftop balcony instead.

More from Rachel's 2015 Diaries

The backdrop was still St Stephen's cathedral, though, with its stunning multi-coloured tile roof. Daniel Ricciardo arrives but hadn't had breakfast yet so had something to eat while we set up our camera, then attached his microphone and we were ready.

The last time I spoke to him in Canada, Daniel was pretty down and said the weekend was a 'new low' so a week on how was he feeling? He admitted Red Bull weren't expecting much from the weekend as the circuit was power-dominated again and that it looked like he would have to take an engine penalty as it made more sense than taking it at Silverstone or Budapest.

Rooftop interviews may provide a stunning backdrop but they can also be quite windy. I had learnt my lesson from the Fernando Alonso interview and was perched on a stool this time, but I couldn't keep my hair from blowing across my face and Daniel spent a lot of the interview trying not to laugh.

Luckily he is usually always smiling anyway, so hopefully no one noticed. He did admit that if someone said they could scrap development on this year’s car in order to provide a real challenger for next year, that he would be up for it. 

Once the interviews were done we headed to the city centre to film some more shots and my piece to camera. The warm, sunny day that had provided some nice sun shots on the roof had turned to a cold, cloudy one. Undeterred I took to a horse and carriage to film my piece to camera.

I sat in the back while the cameraman sat alongside the driver and filmed backwards. He liked the idea at the time I suggested it but by the time we got to our fourth cobbled street I got the distinct feeling he wasn't enjoying it!

JD

We filmed some more shots around the city and then it was back to the hotel to edit. I had discovered that the composer Vivaldi had chosen to have his funeral in the cathedral in the centre of Vienna, such was his love of the 'City of Music'. My classical music knowledge could probably been contained on the back of a stamp. However, I did know he wrote the 'Four Seasons' so I looked them up on the internet and decided 'Spring' was the best one for my piece.

Then I had to contact the office and the music licensing department to check we could use the music. Every piece of music you hear on Sky Sports has to be cleared for use. Once I received permission, I could write my piece referencing Red Bull’s successful 'four seasons' and you begin to see how it comes together. We sent the finished piece into the office and then packed up our kit and set off for Judenburg, the small town we were staying in near the Red Bull Ring. 

Thursday is driver media day and runs to a pretty standard format. However, if we can add any local colour we will always try to. On this occasion the people behind the Spielburg circuit sent a car down the paddock with people dressed in local costume and giving out cheese and wine. I was about to do my last live update of the day when ladies appeared with a tray of cheese and I asked them to stay while I did my report.

I took a piece of cheese to eat from them at the start of my update and talked through the rest of the report as usual. At the end another lady appeared, this time with a tray of sausages.

My cameraman zoomed in on them and that is when Jim White back in the studio said I had to eat one. In fact, they would stay with my live update on the programme until I had tried it. Thanks Jim! And thank you to all those that screen grabbed the moment and sent it to me! It was quite nice actually, tough skin but basically pepperoni.

On Friday evening Williams held a pub quiz and we reformed our victorious team from Australia. The first round was general knowledge and we faired OK. One question was a gift, though. Earlier in the day I had been talking to the reporter from a TV channel in South America about tracks at altitude. He told me the highest city was La Paz in Bolivia and that it is really hard work when you have to film there.

Question five in the quiz: which capital city is at the highest altitude? There was a look of disbelief on Crofty and Ted's faces as I said 'I know this one' and scribbled down 'La Paz'. In the end we came second, a pretty good result considering we were nowhere near the top three in the early rounds. 

On Saturday I was asked to be the MC for the post-qualifying press conference again so I watched those dramatic final moments in the press conference room. It was a very strange end to qualifying and, despite taking pole, I still didn't get the feeling that Lewis thought he had the measure of this track. At the same time, I didn't feel Nico thought he was beaten in the same way he had once or twice before when not getting pole.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Lewis Hamilton was on provisional pole before spinning out on his flying lap, closely followed by Nico Rosberg

Once the press conference was over I had to make a quick dash for the interview pen to try and get there before the drivers as I still had to interview them for Sky Sports News HQ. As I followed them down the stairs to the tunnel underneath the media centre there were squeals of delight. The grid girls had surrounded Lewis and Seb and asked for photos.

Nico had already headed towards the pen so I left Lewis and Seb behind and tried to catch up. In the pen I asked Nico what his strategy would be and he said he was going to go for it at the start. He also said pole was not that important here. "Only 25 per cent [of the winners] or something have come from pole" he told me.

"Since we returned here last year it's actually 100 per cent of winners haven't come from pole," I remind him. "That's right," he says. "I like that even more!" and he walks away. Despite messing up that final quick lap he has an air of confidence about him - in fact he'd had it all weekend. Lewis, on the other hand, seemed to be missing his usual swagger. He hadn't topped a session until that Q3 and even then didn't seem overly enthused by his lap. 

On Sunday morning, Red Bull released the latest issue of their 'Red Bulletin' publication and it was pretty harsh about the state of F1. The front cover featured a photo of Lewis Hamilton and the text said 'Hamilton wins in Spielberg' and various other tracks 'in 2015, 2016, 2017'... you get the idea. There were quotes from Bernie Ecclestone in the papers too. He said: "The winners never complain. The losers complain".

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Lewis Hamilton was pragmatic after being beaten by Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg at the Austrian GP

Once we had finished the majority of our live updates for Sky Sports News HQ and Sky News, I ducked into Mercedes hospitality to grab a quick plate of food. There were 15 minutes before my next update and no time to get back to our own catering. Luckily the teams are happy to feed us in these situations!

As I was eating I said to my producer: "I have a feeling Lewis is going to have a bad start, I don't know why but I just do." It's difficult to explain why I felt Lewis was uncomfortable, apart from lap times of course, but I know others noticed it too. You get used to seeing a driver’s body language and it is a really good gauge as to how they will fare over the weekend. 

After the race, I hosted the press conferences again and a very happy Nico who comes in. Lewis tells me he had a problem with his start and when he took his foot off the gas it was still on. It would later become evident that changes to the clutch may have caused his issues. I ask Nico why he thinks this track suits him so well as he has a 100 per cent record in the race here now. He says he's not sure why...

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

After they crashed on the opening lap of the Austrian GP, Fernando Alonso said he was very lucky not to hit Kimi Raikkonen on the head

I was very glad to be able to speak to Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen post-race too. Their crash was horrendous and having now seen more angles of the incident they were very lucky not to be seriously injured, particularly Kimi. The sight of Fernando's wheel right by Kimi's head and the chassis sliding across the nose of Kimi's Ferrari, so close to where his hands had been moments before, was frightening. 

We stayed one more night in Judenburg before driving back to Vienna for our flight home and there was time to catch sight of social media posts. Nico posted a picture of himself holding up the copy of the Red Bulletin that had predicted a Lewis win and then another one pops into my timeline which seems to explain Nico's success according to the team...

Mercedes tweet

RB

Around Sky