The GoKimi team were once again lucky enough to be part of the annual Team McLaren Members Pre British GP Test at Silverstone. Here’s our report of the days events and some photographs too.

After weeks of build up, excitement and planning our day began with an early start –leaving the house at 6:30am. After picking up the rest of the family on the way, we arrived at the circuit at 8:30am, parked up and prepared ourselves to enter the paddock for breakfast. The IMC (International Media Centre) above the McLaren & Renault garages was definitely the best hospitality suite that Team McLaren have used for this event. This became clear at once as we passed the door to the podium on our way upstairs, never mind when we saw the view over the pit lane out of the huge glass windows (those Journalists are so lucky!!!) and the area where the drivers do the press conferences. Later on we realised we could also access the winners room too!

After a hearty breakfast and a catch up with Steph and some of the ‘early Bird’ arrivals from the TMM forum – we headed out for a quick walk around the paddock. Not much was happening and most drivers were in their trucks, the garage or on track after an early start too! so we decided to enjoy the views from the centre of the circuit at Bridge & the Luffield Complex, taking some photographs of the cars on track.

We all eagerly awaiting our first sight of the new McLaren’s in their chrome livery and it seemed forever before one was on track (although it was only about 20 minutes in reality!). The Mclarens looked awesome in the flesh! We were in awe as Kimi flew past us and we tried to capture as many photos and video footage possible. The only problem was Kimi was too quick for me most of the time that I couldn’t keep up with him on the video camera!!!

Due to there only being one week of testing at Silverstone for a lot of the British based teams this year – on returning to the paddock, it soon became apparent that today would also be one of the busiest test days we’d been to but not just in the paddock either. The grandstands that were open around the circuit were being to fill up already! It was way to busy to get close to any of the drivers without a fight – so as we’d already met a lot of them before and done the whole autograph hunting thing we decided to make the most of the day by soaking up the paddock atmosphere. After all its not everyday you find yourself so close to the heart of the action.

It was great just seeing the drivers and teams at work. My highlights of the day were watching both Juan & Kimi drive right past us (going out from the garage onto the circuit and coming in again) while we stood in the garage next to them. It was so incredible it brought tears to my eyes and gave me goose bumps! We got some great close up video footage, which we can now watch over and over to remind us of just how close we got!

Another was of course being part of the unveiling of the Team McLaren Supporters flag (organised by some of our loyal forum members), which will be officially launched at the British GP. It was great to get a sneak peek of the finished product and be there one the day Steph managed to get Kimi, Juan & Gary to christen it by being the first to sign it. We even got to have our photo taken with it in front of garage with Juan in the car watching us with his cheeky smiling eyes!!!

But my favourite and most amusing moment of the day, unsurprisingly involved the Kimster himself and luckily it was shared by a few of my fellow TM friends so I know I wasn’t dreaming. During the morning we found out that Kimi was in fact in the back of one of the team trucks – so a few of us waited patiently hoping he’d come out and we’d catch a glimpse. Sure enough out he came and he started to walk towards the door at the back of the garage. So I called out to him “Kimi! Hello!”, which made him jump, turn around to see us all and then walk into the door! OOOps how embarrassing! Realising what he’d done, Kimi looked back at us again with a cheeky grin and a very pink face – awwww bless! That moment really brought the famous F1 star back down to earth with a bang!

Thanks again to Steph, Mark and the team for being wonderful as always and my fellow Team McLaren Members who made the day very special and one to remember. Roll on the British GP so we can meet up again and see those beautiful silver arrows in action on track once more!!!

Jemela Durrant -GoKimi Team