You’re right, it was mega in Melbourne on Sunday.
The Demons taking on South Melbourne at the ’G and of course the Bollywood Tamasha Party at Revel Nightclub down on Albert Rd, which is at the centre of Bleak City’s international precinct. Just a few blocks up is Lemongrass Thai Massage, and closer to the Yarra River Delta is the HQ of the Australia Russia Dialogue. Of course, discounts are available at both for all 20 readers.
Talking of the Yarra River Delta, let me fill you in on all the goss for Sunday’s motor race before we go on to important matters. The Demons’ No.1 ticket holder is Stefano Domenicali, 57, of Imola, Italy.
Stef is the current CEO of F1. There are two things you need to know about him. One: he was the HR boss of Ferrari. Friends and 20 readers (more about this number later) I have warned you before about human resources/personnel managers. They exist solely to look after the CEO’s compensation, tax and personal matters. Face to the CEO, bum to the employees.
Second: Stef was the one who defended plonking the F1 circus and associated worldwide TV coverage of 100 million punters (stats from F1, so must be right) in Qatar and Saudi Arabia despite those countries’ super track (pun intended) record in the field of treatment of women, slave labour, draconian curbs on free speech, Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on human rights activists, criminalisation of same-sex relationships, torture, arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, serious and unreasonable restrictions on political participations, serious government restrictions or harassment of domestic and international human rights organisations, lack of investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence, crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex persons or the criminalisation of LGBT+ conduct, and the murder and chopping up of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Stef also said he had no regrets about picking Melbourne (the city) over Sydney to host F1 until 3035 or eternity, or whatever comes first. No conspiracy theories here but is it a coincidence that both the Melbourne track and the Demons’ global HQ are just a punt away? Is it a coincidence that Stef wants the Melbourne race under lights because the sun goes down so early in the Yarra Delta?
F1 is fixing the problem that saw our hero, the Michael McMichael of F1, Ferdy Alonso, 41 (or 75 in F1 years), run third then last then third again last time in Jeddah (commercial capital of Saudi Arabia where in November 2018, 12 women who campaigned for the right to drive were tortured, including being lashed, given electric shocks and in March 2019 described the physical and sexual abuse they had endured in captivity) by widening the grid boxes by 20cm. Reader No.7 David Grinston predicts Ferdy (you can get sevens for him for a win now) will leave the field for dead on Sunday and further boost the Aston Martin share price.
If you are not a Aston investor, you won’t know that the stock is only down 40 per cent for the year ($405), or about a million per cent from listing at ($6.6K). Ferdy’s excellent performance saw a boost in the shares but I think that has more to do with some sort of corporate action than a boost from the seniors card holder. The company has $500m of free cash but no hope of breaking even for two years.
The Hamster says he is not leaving Mercedes and indeed will move into the Mercedes Ruhestand Dorf, at Mercedesstraße 120, 70372 Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, in the next few years. Chuck LeClerc thinks the Fezzer cars are too heavy and peaky to win. Tough being the No.4 team.
Look, another ethical mess here for us to consider. This week I had coffee (I paid) with one of my new bosses. He admitted he had read part of the column once. My view is that does not constitute us being able to expand the number of readers to 21 but as always you are the judges.
Talking of heroes (all sexes included but not limited to Ferdy Alonso, Shane Robert van Gisbergen, Molly and Coral Taylor), Sotheby’s New York is selling two Rolex Daytona watches “from the storied collection of the legendary movie star, director, race car driver, philanthropist and family man, Paul Newman”. More importantly for Ferdy, the old bloke and me, Paul won his last race at 82.
Paul’s “Drive slowly, Joanne” big red Rolex sold for $8.8m in 2020 but in 2017 Paul’s own Daytona, a gift from actor wife Joanne Woodward and engraved with “Drive Carefully Me”, brought $26m. “Many people are saying this is the greatest watch on the planet,” vintage Rolex collector and CEO Geoff Hess told Forbes. “This watch transcends watch collecting, it transcends the watch community.” Look for $3m-$4m for each of these two.
If you are short this week, what about the 1932 Delage D8 S Torpedo Sport Chapron from French auction house Aguttes. The holy grail of Delages, one of 145 made, with 33 surviving, but this is the only Torpedo Sport. Somewhere under $800k would be excellent buying. In the same auction is the 1988 Mitsubishi Pajero Paris-Dakar Factory entry. Built to be the “official response of the Japanese manufacturer to Peugeot’s hegemony on the Dakars”, the car looks like a small panel van.
The Dakar rally is a brief 12,874km with lots of sand. Not a winner for the 100 vehicles that retired on the first day in Algeria, or the seven drivers killed, or for the four special stages cancelled due to sandstorms or for Peugeot driver Ari Vatanen, who was leading but then found his car was stolen at the bivouac in Bamako, Mali. I think $300k would be OK.
[email protected]
