The force of F1 poker

As I write these words there is a game of poker going on in the Force India motor home a few short steps away from the media center in the paddock. Last year I wrote a story about chess and Formula One and I found that there was a small trend in the paddock of people playing backgammon - of all things. Now the paddock has found its real game of the moment. For several races now, a group of drivers has been meeting to play a private game of poker on the second floor of the Force India motor home in complete private, away from the media.

Today, however, as I was waiting to interview Vijay Mallya, the billionaire owner of the Kingfisher Beer and Airline companies and the Force India team, I noticed a number of drivers entering the motor home and going upstairs. Among them was Rubens Barrichello and Fernando Alonso. When I was invited up to the third floor to go and speak to Mallya, I passed through the second floor to find that in addition to those two there were others, including Adrian Sutil and … Michael Schumacher. (Schumacher sat at the head of the table, by the way, like the traditional family boss.)

I spoke some time with Mallya, then descended to find the poker players taking a momentary break to watch the final lap of the Formula BMW race, won again by the Mexican I mentioned earlier in the season who has the image of Christ and the virgin and child in his car - Esteban Gutierrez, and with Adrian Tambay finishing second - and they were cheering at the poker table about some crazy thing happening on the track. The poker players then returned to their cards.

I learned that this regular poker game that has become a tradition at Force India has also attracted the eye Bernie Ecclestone - who told me last year he preferred backgammon to chess - and it turns out Ecclestone decided this weekend that rather than simply having this occult game hidden away in the Force India motor home, they ought to have some PR fun with it, bring it out in the open and make something of it.

So I learned that the little game that is going on at the moment in the Force India motor home is in fact a practice game for some of the people who will be taking part in a much bigger game this evening in the Paddock Club, and that the media has been invited to watch that one. (At least some of the television companies have been invited, I don’t know if anyone else in the print media knows anything about it.) I was told that the game this evening in the paddock club will comprise at least the following players: the driver Robert Kubica and his manager Daniel Morelli, Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore, Vijay Mallya, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg - unless I’m wrong on that and it is Keke Rosberg, who is here this weekend.

They will put down $1000 on the table at the start, apparently. Any bets on who might win the most?

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