Chaos Pavanred's Blog ….. Exponential Error

Singapore F1 Grand Prix ’09 experience

This was my first F1 race ..live. It was an experience that I am super happy to cross off my wish list.

I had walk about tickets to the GP – street circuits sell you tickets that allow you to walk around the track and watch the race from wherever you want in other words you don’t have a seat. These tickets were more souvenirs than just GP passes.

Race Day: I was with my friends and we reached the Marina Bay street circuit right after lunch. There were a few other races that were going on when we went in. Well, that set the tone of the evening and also gave an essence of what to expect. It was loud, unabated pure engine noise and I was overwhelmed already. There were Porsche, BMW races going on. We were then walking around the track looking for good spots, slow corners and high speed straights from where I would like to watch the F1 cars go by.

We found a lot of vintage cars parked in the arena as well. It was all too good already but just then it got better.

The night fell, it grew darker and the entire circuit was lit up by artificial lights. It was awesome, brilliant. We were all set and anxious for the race to start and a while later all the drivers did a lap in the vintage cars we had found earlier and the crowd went ballistic. And the live commentary on the loud speakers all over the race track just made it better.

We had picked a spot by then to watch the start of the race – we were standing just before turn 10. I had studied the circuit before I left for Singapore actually and it was a good spot as cars would come down the straight at about 240 KM/H and would slow down to about 130 KM/H going into turn 11. And in addition to that there was a huge screen that was showing the race live so that meant I wouldn’t miss the racing happening everywhere else other than turn 10.
Right across where we were standing was the old Supreme Court (If I remember right), it was a magnificent building and it looked more like a palace under all the race lighting. Well, the city's skyscrapers in the back drop looked marvelous as well. The drivers did the warm up lap and I just realized how much faster and louder F1 cars were compared to other races I saw earlier that evening. The drivers did their warm up lap and it was all set to start the race.

The 5 red lights went off and the race began. We could see the race start on the huge live screen. The cars approached us and there it was the entire pack of 22 F1 cars one behind the other, revving ferociously past us before we could blink. The First lap from my camera..

I was just awe struck. That is when I got a real sense of how much more a F1 race is than what we see on television. The cars are loud, no I mean LOUD. If you are close enough to the track then you can faintly smell the burning rubber. There is a loud cracking sound when the F1 car brakes, as though something broke off and surprisingly this sound is not picked up by microphones – Neither have I ever heard it on TV nor did my camera pick it up when I filmed it. You watch closely, you can see the brake discs of these cars are glowing red hot. Honestly, I was just amazed at looking at the cars zoom by in front of me, for the first few laps I didn’t even bother keeping track of who was leading the race.

These two pictures were captured by my freind Ajayram. He was on the F1 trip along with me and by these pictures anyone would have guessed, he is a photographer. If you look closely you can see the brake discs of the Ferrari glowing red hot.

We then kept moving, we first walked through the park to what I was told is the Esplanade drive. This is long straight where the cars touch up to 280 KM/H. On this stretch I swear, if you blink, you miss the car.

We then walked straight down to turn 15. This is a turn where the cars brake from around 280 KM/H to about 85 KM/H. If that is not spectacular enough, they turn and then go revving full throttle all the way from second gear.

This is the part I can’t explain. I will tell you how loud it gets here – all this while I was saying it was loud and I was enjoying every decibel of it but at this point I put on the ear plugs because I was pretty sure that if I hadn’t I would perhaps go deaf. Watch this; I am sure the video doesn’t do justice. Nevertheless listen to the engine roar.

We then took the MRT subway underneath the race track to go to turn 8 and turn 7. Turn 8 is where the car goes closest to you. It’s almost like if you reach over the railing you might touch it.

I didn’t get to do two things though, which I had planned or rather hoped to do. First, eh… I wanted to see a F1 crash - well that didn’t happen. Second, to walk on the circuit after the race and perhaps collect some race debris souvenirs but turns out the walk about ticket doesn't allow you to walk on the track after the race is over.

The race eventually came to an end, Lewis Hamilton won. I wasn’t supporting him but I really didn’t care. I had just lived one of the best nights of my life. I was overwhelmed. Even after everything, the race, long night, after I got back I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes I would hear a F1 car. It might sound funny, but its true and I loved it, every bit of it. I also made up my mind that I would visit and watch many more F1 GPs to come.