More Than I Bargained For (In A Good Way)

This saga technically begins at 8:30pm the Tuesday night prior. As I was building my latest collection of Lego which included the Aston Martin F1 and Safety Car, my notifications started to go mental. The Silverstone GP group chat on Twitter was going off again. This time redirecting a post added by Capital FM to say that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were being featured on their radio show in the morning. Someone happily reminded me that their radio building is in Leicester Square which is around a 5 minute walk from the Fan Zone situated at Picadilly Circus. After some moments of deliberation, a few of us decided to meet their first thing.

After this prologue, the day began at 5:00am where I would get ready for a long day ahead, the packing list including my Ross Brawn 'Total Competition' book just in case of a long wait, my pink McLaren hat, lots of food and some sharpies (just in case y'know?) As I was getting ready in my Williams top and shorts, that's when I heard the rain pouring outside. Now having to rummage around for a pocket sized umbrella, I made sure to wear my McLaren Hollister hoodie too which would work out in the long run if we did see the papaya boys.

I don't live too far away from London so by the time I'd got my train, it had reached 7:00am where I would have plenty of time to complete the Where's Williams hunt around the area after a much needed coffee and treat from Gregg's. I must say it's a strange feeling being in front of the palace at this hour but within 30 minutes of exploration, I'd claimed the badge on their app. Let's hope something comes of it!

Next stop: Leicester Square. By the time I'd got there, Lando and Oscar were already in the building but for the people that watched the radio show and saw @js.tracksidemedia get given flowers by the two McLaren drivers, she came out and said hi to us too and even gifted us some Skittles which was lovely.

Only around 10 of us were waiting for what seemed like a much longer time than we thought; my dad was even calling me to ask where I was as we'd planned to go to the Fan Zone during his break at work (sorry dad but I AM taking you to the British GP!) By 10am the Fan Zone was already open and we were so worried about what the queue would be like once we'd got there. All of us who were going agreed that we'd give it 10 minutes until calling it a day, only for around 7 minutes later for them to come out.

You can't miss the papaya shirts at all when they came out through the entrance. Unfortunately for us, a wave of paparazzi swarmed them in front as we stood back politely so it was more waiting until they were done. By the time Oscar was coming over to say hi, lots of their PR were saying it was time to go; not many conversations were held, especially with Lando, but both of them were kind enough to sign our things even if they were ready to leave from their long, early morning. For this reason I won't post any photos of them on here but now my pink McLaren hat just needs a good place to be displayed!

Onto the main event of the day! As mentioned earlier, the walk wasn't that far from Leicester Square to the Fan Zone and surprisingly there must have been only around 15 people in front of us. When we had just made it to the front, F2 driver Zak O'Sullivan was doing his interview which we were just able to peer our heads through however the security guard saw our interest and kindly let us in anyways.

The whole area was a lot bigger than I had imagined after seeing photos online but my eyes were more drawn towards the cars featured along the edge. You had the recognisable FW46 Williams show car, Alan Jones Williams FW07B which won the first Driver's Championship for the team and my favourite Williams car of all time, the FW16B driven by Damon Hill (such an ICONIC car!) The whole transformation of the area was just beautiful. While we were admiring the view, Zak continued his talk and somehow we ended up being one of the first in the queue for his meet and greet.

I congratulated him for his win in Monaco and he brought up whether I'd be going to the British Grand Prix over the weekend to which I added that it will be the first grand prix for me and my dad. How can you root for anyone else that is so polite and awesome in a race car!

During our wait until the end of the day for Alex Albon and Jenson Button's interview, there was plenty to explore; they'd really pulled out all the stops! We started by signing up to our Kraken Grid Pass which allowed us to nab a whole bunch of awesome goodies and scanning as many QR codes as we could to complete the area. Three of these codes included a Logan, Alex and Jenson win for their separate meet and greets: the disappointment when nothing could be claimed for Logan and Jenson but at that lucky moment, I'd scanned the 'Alex Appearance' and lo and behold, I'd won. I did not know what to do with myself! I headed over to the main counter to collect my wristband after I was stopped for a very embarrassing interview as I misunderstood one of the main questions and just had to roll with it (NOT a proud moment and I hope it never reaches the internet!)

I didn't even realise that when we'd got into the building, there was a downstairs area including so many e-sports rigs and more activities to take part in like a rotating camera with props; all very amusing things. Then back upstairs to try out a reactions test which allowed you to win a Williams hat or bottle if you got over 45. I got 41, very annoying!

Logan's interview was next. Although just before this, the cutest girl in front of us who was wearing a LS2 top got given a free wristband to meet him afterwards which was adorable, imagine being in her position where she'd come all the way from Florida for a Taylor Swift concert, only to meet her favourite driver too!

He spoke about his time in England and how it could be compared to a home race as he's lived here for the last 8 years and how like many of the non-Brit drivers, he doesn't have a favourite British food (it's not that bad is it?) All in all, he's such a down to earth person and I really hope that we can see him stay in the spotlight for just a bit longer. Either way, I left today being more of a Logan fan than I started.

After spending a few more hours wandering around by trying out the Scalextrics track which I thought I would do a better job at to my frustration and buying a Williams cap for my meet and greet to be signed, everything was pretty much completed with 3 hours to go. This isn't to say that there wasn't enough to do but lots of the girls I'd accompanied for the day hadn't brought food so we needed to leave for a bit.

A short trip to get lunch and someone mentioned that Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were in Carnaby Street at the Puma store for a ticketed event. We had wristbands to get back into the Fan Zone, there was nothing to lose, we thought why not? Another 2 minute walk it was.

You could not miss the crowd, probably 200 people in front of the huge store as the public battled to try and get through the traffic. A few of us managed to wiggle our way into a spot, held up our phones to record and there they were being interviewed.

While we waited for something, if anything, to happen. It was entertaining to meet other likeminded fans and tell them about our day. So many of them were shocked to hear that we'd met Lando and Oscar only a few hours prior. Around 45 minutes past and the Mercedes drivers greeted their fans outside of the door which seemed unreal that we were witnessing last weeks Austrian race winner and arguably the most successful Formula One driver of all time throughout its 74 year history.

You can probably guess where this is going: chaos slowly started to ensue. They began to pass around signed posters and clothing which people were going insane over for but at least the first wave was over when we were pretty far back. As people received what they desperately wanted, the front crowd slowly began to disperse and I'd somehow manage to get to the barrier. You can imagine that the security at this point had doubled.

Some of the girls were worried that we wouldn't have enough time to get back to the Fan Zone in time so messaged us to move along. But repeating our success of this morning, we'd managed to stay for just a little bit longer for me to receive a signed George Russell card and even meet Lizzie Mackintosh who came out to say hello with my frizzy hair from the rain! Her ethos is what I strive for this to turn into but I understand that the views amongst her are slightly tilted.

From just about surviving a hoard of people, we'd squeezed our way back to the Fan Zone with plenty of time for Alex and Jenson's interview. But my highlight of the day was yet to come; one of the staff members had informed us that Alex's meet and greet also included meeting Jenson. And for those that aren't aware, Jenson is my all-time favourite retired driver so you could think about what emotions were running through me at this moment.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, it was finally time for their interview where Alex spoke about how Silverstone was one of the first tracks he raced at (I knew this as I read this month's edition of GP Racing which had a special feature on Silverstone) and Jenson spoke about how if he could have two people running with him in WEC, then it would of course be Alex and more notably Rubens Barrichello which made my heart warm slightly. Even though there was a serious rivalry between them in 2009, it's respectfully one of the most difficult things to split that friendship on and off track which they managed to do perfectly.

The interview was wrapped up and I was ready with the girls that I can now call friends to line the stairs. You wouldn't believe the amount of people that were throwing things at us to get them signed including Jenson's book which was attempted to be passed to me (I already have that signed at home!) Only a few more minutes now, and at least enough time to compose myself.

Being 5 foot 3, I looked tiny in comparison to both of them! And out of the small amount of drivers I've met personally, they are definitely some of the most relaxing to be around. I commented to Alex first about how I hope he now knows when scrutineering is after reading that that was the one question he got wrong in his license test to race around Silverstone at around 7 to 8 years old; to which he laughed at very sweetly. I then turned to Jenson and explained to him that my earliest memories of him in Formula One was when our family would religiously watch 'McLaren Tooned' on DVD and I could probably quote the whole thing. He laughed and said he now shows it to his kids which is the cutest thing ever, also mentioning that they should bring it back (make it happen McLaren please!!) I was so dumbfounded by the entire experience that I actually forgot to pick up their driver cards but it didn't bother me as I already had the souvenir of my hat.

But just in case either of them see this (they won't), I wasn't ignoring you guys!

5:30pm, the day was nearly over as we waited for the rest of our friends to come out. We all decided that we pretty much completed everything we could and signed up for as many giveaways as possible so it would be time to head home for most of us, one even back to Dublin! Coming down from this day for just one day of work the next day before the grand prix weekend would be incredibly difficult.

But oh no, that wasn't just it for the day! As I got home I went to social media and saw I was featured on the official Mercedes AMG Twitter and Instagram account which was nuts. Added to a bit of the craziness of the best day ever!