F1 gets set for summer holidays

It is definitely holiday-time in Formula One when Ferrari's media boss Luca Colajanni has a Maldives holiday booked.

"We all need a breather", wrote Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary.

He's not the only one. Silvia Hoffer, working for McLaren's PR department, was stocking up on gossip magazines in Hungary, the last race before a four-week calendar break.

"I need something to read on the beach," she smiled, revealing her vacation destination is Italy.

The reason for the rare glut of holidays is a mandatory two-week factory shutdown for all the teams.

Red Bull's factory will stay open until later this week, but McLaren opted to kick-off its two-week shutdown at the stroke of midnight after Sunday's race, despite having a lot of work to do to improve the MP4-25.

"I'd love not to have a shutdown and be ploughing on, to understand what's permissible on the front wing and make them next week," said Martin Whitmarsh.

The happiest vacationer is therefore Mark Webber, the Hungaroring winner and new championship leader with just seven races to go.

"There's everything to play for," said the Australian, "but not until I've turned my phone off and had a couple of weeks' holiday!"