BRUSSELS, Belgium – My mentor once told me that there is no such thing as a perfect shoot and, having spent more than a decade in the sports news business, I’d have to agree with him.

Wednesday’s shoot with Michael Schumacher in Brussels was a perfect example. The story that a drinks company — Bacardi Limited — was launching a drink-driving campaign was interesting enough, but what really enticed us to the Belgian capital was the lure of an interview with Formula One’s record-breaking seven-time world champion.
Although retired from professional racing, Schumacher remains one of the biggest names in world sport. But, even for top broadcasters like CNN, such interview opportunities are rare.

Therefore I travelled on the early-morning Eurostar from London with a long list of questions, ranging from Schumacher’s thoughts on retirement, his recent success with motorcycling, the current F1 championship, F1 safety, the future of the sport and his legacy. Oh, and of course his thoughts on the road safety campaign! Failure to ask a question about the launch would be like turning up to a dinner party without a bottle of wine.

The dilemma was that the PR company had only given us 10 minutes, and this clearly wasn’t going to be long enough. Believe it or not, we haggled for an extra two minutes, but Schumacher’s PR staff — and there were plenty of them — were going to be watching the second hand of their watches extremely closely.

The trick now was to cover as many topics as possible, asking follow-ups where appropriate, but without jeopardizing our shopping list of topics. There’s nothing worse than being wrapped up with 6 questions still to go, equally it’s infuriating to rush through and finish with minutes to spare.

After a bit of practice, you develop a sixth sense for the timing of these things, but are always on the lookout for a gesticulating hand in the eye-line … the dreaded signal to stop asking questions.

Usually, one can ignore the first of these with a hand signal of your own, indicating your acknowledgement. To pass through the second will set the pulses racing on the sidelines however, and the third risks a full-scale confrontation. Often, the time elapsed during this entire process will be no more that 45 seconds, but it’s enough to risk the wrath of a PR entourage.

I was always told to save “the naughty question” until the end, and it was this strategy that caused real panic. As I asked whether FIA president Max Mosley, who had reportedly been caught in a sex orgy (of all things) should step down, Schumacher’s PA hissed to my producer, “If you don’t wrap him, I will!”

Michael diplomatically side-stepped the last question and we all remained friends; and although it was frustrating not to have had more time, I realised that I was fortunate to have gotten any time in the first place.

So now we had to cut our piece and with six hours to kill in Brussels, we were ushered off to a “private room” where we could begin our edit. It also just so happened to be the dressing room for Bacardi’s rather attractive hostesses.

Actually, what was I saying about there never being a perfect shoot …!BRUSSELS, Belgium — My mentor once told me that there is no such thing as a perfect shoot and, having spent more than a decade in the sports news business, I’d have to agree with him.

Wednesday’s shoot with Michael Schumacher in Brussels was a perfect example. The story that a drinks company — Bacardi Limited — was launching a drink-driving campaign was interesting enough, but what really enticed us to the Belgian capital was the lure of an interview with Formula One’s record-breaking seven-time world champion.

Although retired from professional racing, Schumacher remains one of the biggest names in world sport. But, even for top broadcasters like CNN, such interview opportunities are rare.

Therefore I travelled on the early-morning Eurostar from London with a long list of questions, ranging from Schumacher’s thoughts on retirement, his recent success with motorcycling, the current F1 championship, F1 safety, the future of the sport and his legacy. Oh, and of course his thoughts on the road safety campaign! Failure to ask a question about the launch would be like turning up to a dinner party without a bottle of wine.

The dilemma was that the PR company had only given us 10 minutes, and this clearly wasn’t going to be long enough. Believe it or not, we haggled for an extra two minutes, but Schumacher’s PR staff — and there were plenty of them — were going to be watching the second hand of their watches extremely closely.

The trick now was to cover as many topics as possible, asking follow-ups where appropriate, but without jeopardizing our shopping list of topics. There’s nothing worse than being wrapped up with 6 questions still to go, equally it’s infuriating to rush through and finish with minutes to spare.

After a bit of practice, you develop a sixth sense for the timing of these things, but are always on the lookout for a gesticulating hand in the eye-line … the dreaded signal to stop asking questions.

Usually, one can ignore the first of these with a hand signal of your own, indicating your acknowledgement. To pass through the second will set the pulses racing on the sidelines however, and the third risks a full-scale confrontation. Often, the time elapsed during this entire process will be no more that 45 seconds, but it’s enough to risk the wrath of a PR entourage.

I was always told to save “the naughty question” until the end, and it was this strategy that caused real panic. As I asked whether FIA president Max Mosley, who had reportedly been caught in a sex orgy (of all things) should step down, Schumacher’s PA hissed to my producer, “If you don’t wrap him, I will!”

Michael diplomatically side-stepped the last question and we all remained friends; and although it was frustrating not to have had more time, I realised that I was fortunate to have gotten any time in the first place.

So now we had to cut our piece and with six hours to kill in Brussels, we were ushered off to a “private room” where we could begin our edit. It also just so happened to be the dressing room for Bacardi’s rather attractive hostesses.

Actually, what was I saying about there never being a perfect shoot …!