The Lighter Side Of Formula One: Weddings & Cans
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The Lighter Side Of Formula One: Weddings & Cans

Oliver White
24th April, 2008
8 comments
2 min read

Often, Formula One can seem very complex and very heavy, weighing down on one’s mind with stories of industrial espionage and, well, role-playing. But sometimes the sport can throw up some unusual news items that can bring a smile to your face. Last year Nick Heidfeld became a proud father again, and earlier this year Pedro De La Rosa took time off to spend with his recently augmented family. And now today we have two funny little gems. Firstly, 58-year-old Flavio Briatore has set a date for his wedding to WonderBra model Elisabetta Gregoraci. The location is being kept a secret for now, but Briatore will recite his vows on June 14th, between the Canadian and French grands prix.

Also making me smile today is Willi Weber, manager of former world champion Michael Schumacher. Weber has made an awful lot of money out of the drivers he’s managed over the years, but now the German is said to be excited about making more than he ever has with Formula One. Apparently, Weber has invented a resealable can. You know, the things you buy Coca Cola in. Aluminium cans, that can be resealed. Personally, if I knew I wouldn’t be able to drink all the contents in one go, I just buy a 330ml bottle and be done with it. But according to Weber, there is a market for this.

I am convinced that in ten years everybody will be using it. Willi Weber.

The market is worth 250 billion cans per year, so only selling them at a penny a piece, if Weber can attract all the major drinks manufacturers, he’s surely in to make some change.

With this I can make more money than I did with Schumacher in 15 years of formula one. Willi Weber.

[Cue maniacal chuckle!] Someone give Weber a white cat to stroke before he starts planning on taking over the world.

8 comments

  • 🙂 Well, resealable cans are a good idea, since it is often less complicated to recycle a can than a plastic bottle (though plastic is nowhere near as difficult as it was a few years back). Maybe we’ll start seeing double-portion cans now (like the 500ml bottles that are supposed to be two portions of drink but nobody ever consumes that way…)

  • Hey the comedy never stops in F1 you just have to look for it on occasion.

    I mean really, are the F1 websites ready for a drop in readership this weekend? Seems the Spanish military has seen fit to ban all of its members from surfing sports websites due to server overloading that has occurred in the past.

    Somehow I don’t think that’s going over to well with the Spanish GP this weekend.

  • Oh dear. Maybe the Spanish military leaders were worried about its soldiers being too preoccupied watching Alonso fight for points instead of doing manuevers.

    That said, I’ve had little traffic from non-English-speaking users of any kind so far, so I think I’ll cope.

  • Two weeks later and I realise the glaring error in my post: You can’t buy Coke in 330ml bottles. Not in the UK, anyway. I was meant to say “500ml” bottles. But reviving this post gives me a rare chance to say some things…

    Comment #2: Dank, I love the graphic in the first link you gave. Why didn’t I think of that!?

    Comment #3: A very rare sighting of Marc, a man who runs a motor sport site (Full Throttle) and hails from the grand ol’ US of A. Marc left the first officially-recognised-by-Ollie-as-not-spam comment on this site way back when I didn’t even realise Google had got around to listing it. Thanks for stopping by my good man. I should drop by yours for tea more often. I’ll make a point in the future. 🙂

    Comment #4: Ali, they will come. Just keep writing with passion and thought, and eventually, people will notice. Oddly enough, I get a fair few foreign-speakers [genuinely] linking to here (and thousands of foreign spammers as well as thousands of English-speaking content-thieving…@$%&@…), which always prompts a quick Google translation just to understand what they’re saying. But perseverance works, and if you have great content (like you have), people will eventually realise this. I wouldn’t link to you if I didn’t think your writing wasn’t good enough. I link because, in my humble opinion, you’re a valuable member of the online F1 community. 🙂

    And now I’ve re-read your final few words and realise the meaning behind you comment. Oh well, I still stand by all that I’ve said.

    Comment #5: Dank, I told my girlfriend the rumour you described, and after a short pause while she assured herself that I’d said what she thought she had just heard, well, her laptop needed a clean-up afterwards, put it that way! (Just in case, don’t tell other people that rumour just after they’ve taken a gulp of wine. Not only is it a waste of good alcohol, it leaves the monitor in a right mess.)

  • You can get Coca-Cola in 330ml cans, though. Maybe that was where the confusion came in…

    Thanks for the link to Full Throttle, Ollie. I’ve now deposited it in my list of blogs to visit.

    As for my own blog, I suspect having a low ranking on the search engines probably doesn’t help. Still, I can’t say the Spanish military missed much on Sunday with regard to their hero… I get some foreign spammers (particularly from Russia, but the reason behind that is pretty complicated), but generally my readers come from Britain, Australia (because the forum it lives in is Australian) or are people I’ve encountered and spoken to online already. Hence why I wasn’t really affected by the ban on the Spanish military using the Spanish Grand Prix as an excuse to be distracted from duty. Mind you, my blog is growing anyway. I bet yours is growing too 😉

    It’s not nice that people are stealing (as opposed to linking) to your content. For some reason nettiquette doesn’t seem to have fully caught on…

    Drinking wine near a computer isn’t a good plan in the first place, but Bruce Willis isn’t exactly anyone’s first thought when actors who could play Murray Walker comes to mind. He’s all action and no talk – the complete opposite of Murray…

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