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Alan in Malaysian GP 2000

This is my first time going to a Grand Prix. I met a lot of great people, one of them very great. Despite the fact that Prost didn’t get the 7^th place finish they needed to avoid being the "worst" team of 2000, I really loved the race itself.

It was Thursday afternoon when I arrived in Kuala Lumpur. I had dinner rather late at night in a hotel and now guess what I saw – Sir Jackie Stewart, 3-time Formula One World Champion, hero of my hero Alain Prost, was having dinner there too!

I came up to him with my camera, asked if I might have a picture with him. Someone in a green Jaguar shirt took a picture of us. Sir Stewart actually shook hands with me and asked where I came from and whether I was going to see the Grand Prix on Sunday. He was such a nice gentleman. I’ll never forget this wonderful moment!

Friday practice was nothing exciting as expected. But when everyone was leaving the circuit I met a group of people all wearing blue Prost "Yahoo!" caps! I talked with them and found out that while they might not be big fans of Alain, they had some advertising business relationship with the Prost team! And that’s why they were there. Some of them were from Hong Kong, too. A Swiss gentleman gave me the cap you see I was wearing in the picture. He told me that I might have a chance to see Alain Prost on Saturday if I were with them, because they would go down to the pitlane!

After qualifying on Saturday I did find them in the Tower. The gentlemen tried to arrange in vain to let me visit the Prost garage. But there in the Tower I met two Prost team people. Regretfully I forgot to have pictures with them. Something funny was happening. I was not actually allowed in the Tower. The security people were asking me to leave but these nice Prost team people gave me a pit-pass insisting that my presence was okay. In the end I needed to leave, but I’m grateful with everyone I met there, including the security, who initially let me in!

Now, this is the first time I put my pictures in Alain Prost Grand Prix Homepage. I didn't do it in the past because, frankly, I was a bit concerned about personal safety, having pointed out so many facts that Senna fans don't want me to mention... But here it is, my appearance. Unlike the Professor I'm a typical Chinese without coiled hair nor a charmingly crooked nose.

I was rather discontented that there was no Prost or French flag for sale. Luckily, this Jean Alesi’s fan from France didn’t forget to bring his national flag! Not all Germans were there for Michael Schumacher. Ralf Schumacher, Heinz Harald Frentzen and of course our Nick Heidfeld got their supporters too! Here I was with one of Nick’s supporters.

Sitting next to me was this friendly local Ferrari fan. He was here too in 1999 when Eddie Irvine won for Ferrari. This year Ferrari repeated the victory with Michael Schumacher. I congratulated him and shook hands with him. Tell you what, his hand was all wet! Perhaps because I work for a Finnish company, I found myself in favour of Mika Hakkinen. Right after taking this picture, these Mika fans started to sing "Mika Hakkinen..."! They are great, aren't they?

Pedro Diniz put Prost's Nick Heidfeld out of the race in Lap 1. What's ironic is that, while Nick is set to replace Pedro in Sauber, Pedro also seems certain to join Prost to complete a swap. Johnny Herbert did not end his F1 career in the way he wanted it to be. He wrecked his Jaguar due to a suspension failure and needed to be carried out of the car suffering a bruised knee. Here the Jaguar was in its way back to the pit after the race.

Michael Schumacher crossing the chequer flag. Ferrari fans all went crazy. This shot was the best I could do with my simple automatic camera. Nick Heidfeld wasn't any luckier in his last race for Prost Grand Prix. The #15 car was waiting to be attended by the mechanics in blue shirts after the race. Jean Alesi finished the race, but it was not good enough to put Prost ahead of Minardi in the final standing. No one in the Prost garage seemed to be happy.

Heinz Harald Frentzen pushing his car after it broke down in the pitlane entrance in Sunday warmup. Where were the Jordan mechanics? You can't believe it. They were right there ready to help but for one whole minute they were not allowed to enter this "restricted zone". Didn't the race stewards understand how important one minute was to a driver and to a GP team on a race day??!!