No, i am not referring to the tasty vodka-based cocktail or handy DIY tool. I am in fact referring to a label my friend and I were wrongly branded with upon our most recent trip to a motor-racing event. It seems people think that girls who profess an interest in motorsport are only interested in the drivers and not the cars. While I can’t deny that the eye candy isn’t a bonus, it is not the main reason for the somewhat recent development of my passion for all things car.

If you’d have told me five years ago I’d be paying to go and watch cars go round a track I would have laughed in your face (or more likely poured forth some torrent of expletives, as is my want). My best friend at uni, Annabelle, was a massive F1 fan, and still is, and I used to mock her come race day when i encountered her in the corridors of the halls of residence with cotton wool in her ears. This was, she explained, because she had recorded the race and didn’t want to inadvertently hear the result before she’d had a chance to watch it. ‘What a fool’ I mused. Little did I realise I would soon be acting in a similar fashion (minus the cotton wool) a few years down the line.

It was thanks to Annabelle’s love of the sport and another good friend of mine working in the industry that I started to actually pay more attention to F1 in particular to see what the fuss was all about and once I started watching I became addicted and now I am a self-confessed motor-racing geek. This addiction is what found me, up at 3.30am on Sunday, Red Bull in hand, very excited to watch Hamilton stick it to Ferrari in the first race of the season.

Whilst watching races on TV is all good fun, nothing compares to experiencing the F1 circus first hand. I can say that my trip (with my F1 buddy Annabelle) to the Italian grand prix at Monza in 2006 was without a doubt one of the best holidays I’ve ever had. Sitting on the pit straight, I experienced one of the most amazing sounds - an F1 car going full tilt literally 10 feet away. I thought my eardrums were going to burst but I was hooked! Not only are the cars awesome the fans are exceptionally friendly, like a happy community of like minded people. All the more so when we all stormed the track after the race and stood under the podium when Schumacher was spraying the champagne (you wouldn’t be allowed to do that in England…)

This September I’ll be returning to Monza and I can’t wait, not only will it bring back great racing memories, it will also make me smile as on our inaugural trip Annabelle and I (using our feminine wiles) managed to gatecrash the GP2 end of season party where a certain Mr Lewis Hamilton was partying hard having just won the GP2 championship and learnt that he was going to debut in F1 the very next year…