News briefs from Monaco: Saturday 1

(GMM) His own team's press office made it loudly known that Monaco is Sir Frank Williams' 600th grand prix as a formula one entrant.

Predictably, however, the unsentimental 66-year-old was the least impressed of all as he said the milestone "means very little to me!".

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Triple world champion Nelson Piquet, who never won in the Principality, disliked the Monaco grand prix, once famously describing it as like riding a "bicycle around your living room".

His son, despite living in the glamorous city for eight years as a boy, seems to agree, after not impressing during Thursday free practice. "It's not anything special," he said of the famous layout.

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Giancarlo Fisichella, Flavio Briatore, Eddie Irvine, Jean Alesi and other notable F1 luminaries are all showing off pretty impressive yachts in the Monaco harbor this weekend.

But reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen's enormous offering, more resembling a luxury cruise-liner than a boat, takes the cake. Apparently he rented it specifically so his friends can have a mighty party.

"I have a boat," Toro Rosso rookie Sebastian Vettel confirmed in Monte Carlo on 'day off' Friday. "A kayak."

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GP2 race winner Bruno Senna denied that his Monaco breakthrough, the first for his family name since his famous late uncle won the grand prix for McLaren in 1993, is a passport to a formula one future.

"Winning here doesn't guarantee me anything," the 24-year-old Brazilian said. "I will not even begin to think about F1 until I win the title."