With rain bucketing down during the United States Grand Prix weekend for most of Friday and Saturday, some teams decided to have some fun in the COTA pitlane to keep the few fans in the stands entertained as delays ensued, notably Ferrari did not partake in the frolics and team boss Maurizio Arrivabene explained why.
“First of all we are a Formula 1 team and not Cirque du Soleil,” said Arrivabene. There is something that people notice and something that is bigger but people don’t notice.”
“The fact that they’re there,” he said of the fun and games, “somebody was entertaining the public, it’s absolutely fine.”
“But nobody was out there when we stand and we sign all the autographs to the people that were waiting. Nobody was there when we took some of the children in wheelchairs to our box.”
“We prefer to do these things instead of simulate fishing or the other things. I mean they’re funny on television but they’re giving smiles without doing something really for the fans,” argued the Italian.
Pitlane merriment included simulated boat races, model making, football, break-dancing and even some cool moves by Red Bull teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat.
Sky Sport pundit Martin Brundle had a dig at Arrivabene’s reasoning, “Sorry Ferrari but I loved the ingenuity of teams and drivers in the car-less qualifying of Austin. Cirque du Soleil is brilliant, you were boring.”