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| Event: | Amber Lounge at The Monaco Grand Prix |
| Venue: |
Amber Lounge, Monaco |
| Date: | Friday 26th May 2006 - 28th May 2006 |
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There’s no other Grand Prix quite like Monaco...
The cote d’Azure sunshine and beautiful harbourside location provide the backdrop to the most glamorous and prestigious event in Formula 1.
It’s no surprise that this is the race that the rich and famous all want to see, and be seen at.
Watching the main show out on the track this year was a supporting cast of royalty, Hollywood stars, supermodels and multi-millionaires.
Takin’ to the stage
The first big ‘date’ on the social calendar at this year’s race was a charity fashion show on Friday night, hosted by Amber Lounge.
The brainchild of Sonia Irvine, sister of ex-Ferrari star Eddie, Amber Lounge is the venue for the world’s most exclusive parties when the Grand Prix is in town.
With women like Eva Herzigova, Sports Illustrated supermodel Petra Nemcova and Jessica Sjoo (the face of Issey Miyake and Cacharel) out on the catwalk, it was always going to be standing room only for the event.
Heading the VIP guest list was His Supreme Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco.
He was joined by actor Kevin Spacey, tennis star Boris Becker, film director Steven Soderbergh and a long list of F1 drivers past and present including Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Giancarlo Fisichella, Mika Hakkinen, Ralf Schumacher, Pedro de la Rosa, Alex Wurz, Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi.
For once though, the driver’s took a back seat whilst Cora Schumacher, Erja Hakkinen, Julia Wurz, Kelly McNish, Luna Fisichella, Maria de la Rosa, Tanja Frentzen and Scott Speed’s girlfriend, Valentina Neuhauser, were centre stage modelling stunning Missoni dresses in the finale of the fashion extravaganza.
The event raised over E100,000 for the Tereza Maxova Foundation, a charity which supports abandoned children in the supermodel’s native Czech Republic thanks to the generosity of people like MF1 team owner Alex Shnaider who donated a weekend charter on his brand new 38m yacht!
Paul Stoddart also gave a ride in his F1x2 seater and Toyota Motorsport provided paddock access.
Girls' night out
The women of F1 were back at Amber Lounge on Saturday night for a party all of their own.
When I first ventured in the sport back in the very late 1980’s, Ferrari used to host a dinner for the girls in F1 – and we all fitted into the team’s motorhome.
Those days are long gone, but it seemed a shame to forget the tradition just because of a lack of space.
Amber Lounge provided the perfect solution.
Over 300 girls were on the guest list although sadly not everybody was able to attend – Saturday was a working night for many of the hospitality crews and marketing managers.
We decided to invite some of the F1 boys along to join the fun so ran a competition in conjunction with Red Bull’s team magazine.
The ‘Red Bulletin’ regularly publishes pictures of the Formula Una girls it brings to the races which are generally ‘scored’ by the mechanics in a kind of Neanderthal ‘Miss paddock’ competition.
So we decided to get our own back holding a similar competition to rate the blokes in F1 – our very own ‘Formula Unos’ - and the top ten scorers each received an invitation to the party.
Hottest ticket in town
Invitations to Sunday night’s party at Amber Lounge were like gold dust.
With the racing done and dusted, this was the night that the drivers could let their hair down and show how good they were at manoeuvring around the dance floor.
DC was there to celebrate Red Bull’s first ever podium and Kimi Raikkonen was trying hard to put his day’s disappointment behind him as he chatted with boss Ron Dennis.
Honda team-mates Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello came along, as did Rubens’s countrymen Felipe Massa, Antonio Pizzonia and Riccardo Zonta.
Party boy Tonio Liuzzi hung out with Christian Klien whilst Giancarlo Fisichella brought his beautiful lady Luna.
And Midland team-mates Tiago Monteiro and Christian Albers managed not to bump into each other on the dancefloor!
Partying alongside F1 royalty was the real thing – Princes Pierre and Andreas Casiraghi, the sons of Princess Caroline of Monaco.
ITV’s Amber Lounge competition winners, Gabriel Ruhan and his wife Grainne O’Donnell-Ruhan ended their weekend at the Grand Prix with a night they’ll remember for a long time. |
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