Monaco

No, this isn't actually Monaco, but it is the next best thing I could arrange.

 I spent the day at Williams F1 Racing HQ in Oxfordshire for a special event.  Williams Racing, founded in 1977, is an iconic team in the Formula 1 motor racing world, having won 16 drivers' and constructors' championships.  Sadly they are struggling at the moment, but they clearly have ambitions to return to some of their former glory.

My day started with a tour of their historic collection of F1 racing cars, covering virtually every year from 1977.  We were also given a pre-race briefing, including a live interview with one of their drivers, Nicholas Latifi, from trackside at Monaco.  There was a games area, which included the simulators shown in my blip (20 of them in all - unfortunately we didn't get to see or play on the real simulator used for their drivers - that was in a part of the site to which we didn't have access) and an excellent Scalextric layout.  I tried both.  I can say that the Monaco track is very difficult to negotiate, and I barely got a clean lap during my time on the simulator.

For the afternoon we watched the race on a giant 3 screen layout which included a full timing screen and a tracker screen (showing the live positions of all the cars around the circuit).

Together with a quiz and competitions, plus breakfast, hot lunch and afternoon tea and cakes, it was an excellent and very enjoyable day.  Not quite the same as being at the race itself, but a great alternative (and more exciting than sitting in front of my TV at home watching the race).

Given that Monaco can be a bit of a procession, because of the difficulty in overtaking, today's race was unexpectedly entertaining because of the rain.

Outside the Williams conference centre was a clever piece of topiary modelling a pit stop (see extra).