When we moved to Singapore in July one of the first things people would ask is "are you going to the F1 night race?" It sounded interesting, but considering my sole experience with Formula 1 was watching Jean Girard drive the Perrier car in an underrated Will Ferrell movie, I was a little skeptical. If the whole city is talking up something, its probably not a good idea to miss it. So, we ended up getting tickets to the Saturday night qualifying session. The real reason we went Saturday will become apparent shortly, but that seemed like a good compromise. Watch qualifying at the track Saturday and if it was really interesting we could watch the race on TV Sunday evening.
We got off the MRT downtown and this was one of the first sights you saw. Everybody really pulled out all the stops for this one. Its a small picture, but in the upper lefthand quadrant you can see some lights. Why wouldn't you charter a helicopter to watch race weekend from above?
The noise and the speed of the cars were obviously the two aspects that stood out the most (once you got past staring at all the buildings lit up). If you tried to watch a car drive by you it was like standing on the tee box to the side at a golf tournament and trying to watch someone hit their drive. You might catch it for an instant, but then its 200 yards up the fairway curving around a dogleg.
We'll stick with the golf analogy. Now pretend that an angry swarm of bees is flying towards the guy who is teeing off. Only its not a few hundred bees, its a few hundred million. And they are carrying chains saws and machine guns. And they are using them. You can hear them off in the distance, but can't see them.
All of a sudden the bees have taken form and look like a blue and red Red Bull blur for an instant, but are then gone. Trust me, if any pro golfer was teeing off with this noise their whole bag of clubs would be broken. Might up the entertainment value though. Luckily we had ear plugs. You didn't think they were working, but then you took one out to adjust it and you thought the world might be ending.
I did wimp out and didn't bring the good camera. Couldn't tell how much of a hassle it would be with security. So these are all iPhone and a few point and shoot shots. Its probably just as good as you could never get a clear shot through all the guard railing. Though I guess I shouldn't complain about something that is designed to keep you safe if a tire flies off a car at 200 MPH.
After the cars are finished each night they have a big concert on the cricket club pitch. Sunday will be Katy Perry. Saturday night was...... Maroon 5. For anyone that knows Sarah you now know how we ended up with Saturday vs. Sunday tickets. Somehow this was her 4th time seeing Maroon 5 (what I'm a little embarrassed about is it was my 2nd). We spent about 15 minutes debating whether or not Adam Levine finished filming the Voice 2 days ago, hopped a plane, landed, performed and is heading straight back. Regardless, the life of a rock star still appears to be a good gig if you can get it.So after all that I don't think we're going to be buying our team Ferrari or Red Bull shirts and traveling the world to watch F1, but if you're ever in Singapore at the right time this would absolutely be on the must do list.
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