Season 5 - Wow! How did that happen?! I can't believe I am starting my fifth year of covering Formula 1. Even better, I am genuinely excited about what this year will bring. When I started, people said, 'You will either do three years or 30 years in the sport, it gets you that way'. Well, I don't think any of you will still want me reporting on it in 30 years and I am not sure I could still be doing all the travelling. But I know three years wasn't enough.
I went out to Melbourne a couple of days earlier than the others. Last year I suffered badly with jet lag, particularly on the Thursday, so I decided to give myself 48 hours extra to acclimatise. Plus, let's face it, who wouldn't want a couple of extra days in the sunshine when it's so cold back home?
I had written some notes on the plane, as you can see from the photo below. The others joke about my notebook at races but I feel better with everything to hand. It has the past four seasons' qualifying and race results and notes for the race ahead. The other, bigger notebook has details of every team and will be filled with news and stories on them as the season goes along.
Monday night was the usual jet lag-infused sleep, ie: not a lot. I managed about four hours in total which is actually not too bad. I went for breakfast near the hotel then walked to an area called Chapel Street and saw various members of the paddock who had arrived that morning trying to shake off their flight and fight the jet lag.
In the afternoon. I went down to St Kilda beach and saw plenty of familiar faces - fresh, if you can say that after 24 hours, from their flights and in need of fresh air. I decided to hire the Melbourne equivalent of a Boris bike and ride the cycle path with a friend from our crew, Paul. It runs along the coast and if you go from the bike stand to Brighton beach and back it's about 12 km. Lovely and flat though.
On Wednesday morning the rest of the Sky F1 gang arrived and we had a catch-up in our hotel about plans for the weekend. I was doing a piece about what's new for 2016 so started writing that and planning who I was going to speak to the following day.
Thursday was very hot, around 30 degrees C. After we had a production meeting I went out to the paddock to start filming clips for my piece on what's new in 2016. While in the pitlane one of the Red Bull mechanics came over to chat and we enlisted his help for one of the shots. The teams were all setting up for the weekend and we noticed the boxes containing the numbers and letters for the pit boards. I asked if they had a "Q" in the box for our feature but they didn't and he very kindly went off and made us one. I also did a couple of interviews for it and asked Ted Kravitz to put a couple of questions to drivers for me to complete the piece.
At 5pm I headed back to the paddock to a briefing from Pirelli which gave the media an opportunity to ask questions about tyres and clear up any confusion over the new rules. It was very well attended but, that said, I was the only female there.
On Friday I had my first chance to speak to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Lewis came out first but, before answering any questions, he got his phone out to take a picture of us all for his Snapchat. So I began my interview by asking what is the attraction of it, and what does he get out of it. "Lots of girls sending me pics," he replied. He added that he was just joking, and that he did it because he wanted to give fans an insight into his life. For all the criticism he receives you can't deny that he gives fans great access to his world. He seemed in good spirits and ready for the new season.
Nico, in contrast, was more subdued, and although he said he was ready for the fight, I never got the impression from his body language that he actually felt that way. I want to hear him say how he is going to win, to show the grit and ruthlessness he will need.
On Saturday I presented the final practice session and luckily the better weather meant it was busy. It was the last chance for the teams to get the data they would need for qualifying, and importantly the new qualifying rules. As it turned out, for one mad afternoon in Melbourne, Formula 1 succumbed to that age old adage, "if it isn't broken, don't fix it".
Qualifying is one of the toughest parts of the weekend for me. In the old system, at the end of Q1 the drivers knocked out would arrive and I would interview them. These interviews would invariably run over into Q2 but you would usually finish just before the closing minutes of the session to give you time to write down the order and get an idea of what happened. Then those knocked out in Q2 would arrive and I would interview them, and would usually finish with about two minutes of Q3 left, just time to see the final laps.
With the new system, the first driver, Pascal Wehrlein, arrived having been knocked out after seven minutes. After that, drivers arrived at very quick intervals - and all while the sessions continued on track. I couldn't see the footage of what was going on as I had a continuous stream of drivers standing in front of me, and all I could do was take a quick glance to a screen behind me to get an idea of positions.
By the time I finished the Q2 interviews, Sebastian Vettel was climbing out of his Ferrari and it was all over. After the initial seven minutes I didn't see a single lap, but by the sound of it I wasn't alone. I thought Martin Brundle's comment where he said he hadn't watched cars, he had just been watching a clock tick down, summed it up very well. I will be very happy to see the old rules reinstated for Bahrain.
Sunday's race luckily provided more entertainment. The incredible start from the Ferraris was welcomed in the paddock as we all gathered around the various screens to watch. You will know by now how the race unfolded but there are promising signs from Ferrari that we will have a more competitive year.
As we all left the track on Sunday evening we met some fans at the gate. All weekend Australian fans had come up to us to talk to us as they get our coverage and they were incredible. It was so nice to meet so many of them as it is easy to forget how many countries take Sky's coverage. Not forgetting the British fans who made the journey too - there were some familiar faces amongst them!
On Sunday evening I went for dinner with Crofty and one of our colleagues from Germany. Also at dinner were the Forster family and their 15-year-old son Keenan. He was wearing his Jenson Button shirt but had also been treated to a tour of the Williams garage. He told me how he had been in the fan pitlane walk and said that only the two Williams drivers had come out to see the fans during their time in the pitlane. I was disappointed to hear that, as a moment of your favourite driver waving to you from the garage as you pass is priceless for these fans. Good on Williams for making that happen with their two. He said he thought one other driver came out too, but to me that's not enough.
Luckily for him, while we were having dinner one of the nicest drivers in the paddock, Nico Hulkenberg, walked into the restaurant. Keenan spotted him and I saw an opportunity to add to his weekend. It's fair to say I wouldn't ask many drivers on their evening off to have a photo with someone but I knew Nico wouldn't object and he didn't. In fact, on passing the table later, Nico stopped to have a few more words with us all before later leaving with his friends.
Keenan couldn't believe he had spoken to one of the drivers he had watched hours earlier and was beyond thrilled with his photo. He wants to work in TV one day as a commentator or reporter and quizzed me on my job and career and asked for advice. I tried to help as much as I could and hope he took something from it. It was one of the most enjoyable evenings I have had since working on F1.
We sometimes forget how lucky we are to work in this sport that others can only dream of access to. It was refreshing to get that reminder on Sunday night.