Ferrari's European theme park has taken a step closer to opening after Sebastian Vettel helped lay the first stone last week in a slick and occasionally comic ceremony that showed just how hard the Italian firm works both its brand and its star employees.
In case the news passed you by, Ferrari last year announced its second theme park after Abu Dhabi's FerrariWorld would be coming to Spain, more specifically to a corner of the giant Port Aventura theme park an hour north of Barcelona. Among other attractions FerrariLand would have Europe's tallest and fastest accelerating rollercoaster as well as a five-star, Ferrari-themed hotel.
Obviously the brick is from Enzo's house
Since they were in Barcelona anyway for last weekend's Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's face-saving F1 team boss Maurizio Arrivabene were whisked up to lend their star presence for the stone-laying ceremony in a giant tent next to cleared scrub land that come November next year will be home to a 75,000 square metre Prancing Horse play park.
No one said it, but they must have been gutted local boy Fernando Alonso wasn't still at Ferrari to give the location some legitimacy. Given McLaren's results in Barcelona compared to Ferrari's, he probably is too.
A troupe of dancing girls spinning umbrellas preceded Vettel's arrival in a white California, after which the German took a few softball questions. Very much the anti-Raikkonen, he agreed to his interviewer that sitting in a rollercoaster while it accelerates to 112mph in five seconds, equivalent to 1.35G, might conceivably come close to replicating the thrill of a Formula 1 drive.
G forces aside, that's doubtful, but we can report that PortAventura's Shambhala rollercoaster, currently Europe's tallest at 76m, is a proper organ-rearranger and well worth a go.
After Vettel, Arrivabene sauntered up in some racy yellow trainers, told us that life was better when you've got something to smile about (no doubt thinking about positive F1 results as well as funfair rides). Then they both helped to crudely cement a brick taken from Enzo Ferrari's house on a concrete plinth, aided by a local politico who claimed credit for bringing the park's 100 million euro investment to Catalunya.
Then they were gone, bustled off by red-sheathed Ferrari PR girls and smooth commercial rights executives, presumably to their next publicity gig. It's hard work but worth it - Ferrari collects money from around 60 companies that buy the rights to use its name, understood to be worth over 50 million euros a year.
The park executives then stood up to be quizzed and we asked whether the petrolheads among the million extra visitors FerrariLand is predicted to attract will be won over?
We were assured the automotive fixtures would be authentic as possible, so for example the planned 'F1 paddock' area of the park with cars being off-loaded from transporters will contain real (obviously former) F1 cars while any engines displayed will be real too.
Also planned is a replication of the Maranello production line, while helping to fix the atmosphere will be ersatz Italian streets and piazzas featuring vaguely familiar landmarks.
The indoor area will have F1 race simulators as well as something secret that the park spokesman said will be the biggest draw to the park, something "between ride and experience". An F1 ride in which you wear 3D goggles maybe? Who knows.
The giant scalextric track you can see is said to bring some racing feel to a ride, possibly by flinging you about faster than you'd be allowed to if it was a conventional karting experience.
Automotive stuff will be 'as authentic as possible'
The five-star Ferrari themed hotel, looking like a giant wing in sketches, is a long way off yet so those hoping to book rooms featuring showers built from old fuel-injector nozzles and TV remotes shaped liked F1 steering wheels (they should ask PH for ideas - we have loads) will have to be patient.
That plinth will be joined by a carbon-fibre time-capsule that contains a piston from the 2014 racecar, a map of the PortAventura park, a brick from Maranello and a copy of the day's local paper. The picture on that paper? The door to No. 10 Downing Street on UK election day.
As with our newly reelected leaders, it'll be a year or so before we see if FerrariLand has kept its promises or whether the park will end up appealing more to lovers of Ferrari caps than Ferrari cars.