Tomatoes and Mozzarella and Pasta with Tomato sauce!

Gilberto Maffeo isn't one of the best-known AF Corse team members, but he's one of the most important: he is also the best-known cook in the paddock.

Maffeo has been at most of the races over the past four years. During the week he is a chef in a restaurant and at the weekends he cooks for the AF Corse team.

Today, he's expecting 120 people in the hospitality unit bearing the famous Prancing Horse badge! “I have to give the drivers food as well as the team and its guests. The drivers are the easiest to satisfy. They don't eat a lot during the race weekend. On the other hand, they all have their little foibles.”

Giancarlo Fisichella likes starting the day and finishing his lunch with a banana smoothie. Gimmi Bruni has a weakness for jam. But they all sit down to the day's menu: octopus carpaccio, ham, melon, tomatoes mozzarella, pasta and rice salads, pasta with tomato sauce, pasta with tuna fish, roast turkey, grilled meat, potatoes, green beans. A big choice!

“It's very hot today,” Gilberto continues. “People want to eat something cold. We've made more salads than hot dishes.” On a normal day ten to twelve kilos of pasta leave the kitchen. At Le Mans he cooked over 70 kilos! “It's a rather special setup there. Another chef joins me and we have a waiter to help us last the full 24 hours.

“We adapt to where we are. Cooking is a question of organization. You have to buy good products in the right quantities. At Spa we based our menus around meat. Here it's mozzarella pomodoro!”