F1 Singapore Night Race 25th-27th Sep 2009

My apologies for taking so much time to update my blog. I had wanted to strive to update my blog at least once a month and guess what? Today is the last day of the month..and updating my blog is not on my 'to-do' list!

If its not on my 'to-do' list and I do it,i'll consider it as 'fire-fighting'. Anyway,I have been busy being in direct participation in the recent F1 events and I would like to share with my readers what I saw behind the scenes. This,I believe even people who paid $5k for the sky suites tickets may not even get to see ;)

1st,the Pit Straight,one of the best locations especially if you want to look at the teams in the pit lanes. Being straight would also means the highest speeds is likely to be here(so is the start & end of the race)..one bad thing though..they were really so fast till you almost cannot see the cars when they zoom right past you. Here's a view of the Pit Straight from the Corporate suites.


Night view of the Pit Straight from the Sky Terrace..

Since this a night race,a lot of lighting are employed to illuminate the tracks..much more than last year. This is to ensure that its brighter to the video cameras(which is different to the human eye) covering the events for the world audiences. The following view is from Pit Entrance Grandstand.

In fact,the lights are so bright that they seemed to illuminate the whole town too..

One of the best places to watch the race from in hot weather Singapore is from the air-conditioned Club or Sky suites.From here,you have the option to go out thru a glass door onto the private outdoor grandstand should you wish to...

...if not,you can still enjoy your free-flow wines and champagne inside..you cannot bring any glasses out of the glass door for safety reasons..

Anyway,the original cost for a sky suite ticket was sgd$7500,but nearer the event,they did dropped the price to $5000. This makes the corporate suites very restricted in access due to the free-flow F&B.



The most restricted areas in this event is actually across the track on the opposite side: - The Paddock area.In this area, authorized people are issued a paddock pass and they will not care who you are,they will only recognize the pass. Security is especially tight in this area as the racing teams and their cars are located in the pits here.


The Paddock building at night..

Right beside the Paddock building behind the race offices,I came across 2 interesting areas. I always thought that they must have a gasoline station to supply fuel for the race cars,but I could not be more wrong. All these cars use very special fuel which is some what different from what our ordinary cars uses. They come in "200kg" steel oil drums and are stored inside air-conditioned containers..these rows of containers make up the Fuel Store.

Can anyone make a guess which is my favourite team?? :)


Next to the Fuel Store is this area known as the Gas Compound. Each team have their cylinders of gas ready.Nitrogen,Helium,Hydrogen..can you guess what they are used for?

When I heard that the cars arrived,I was so excited as I have never seen them for real so up close before..so I made a trip to the pits..

When I got there, my excitement was a bit dampened because the race cars are not unpacked yet :P


Anyway, the F1 night races in Singapore has been so far so good. The Singapore GP learned a lot from their maiden event last year and made improvements to this year's race.


I am very sure that the patrons to Singapore Night Race enjoyed themselves very much. Next year's F1 in Singapore could be the last time they will be using the Marina Bay Street circuit..I would like to invite you to come and soak up the atmosphere to get the full experience.
I am very glad to have the opportunity this year to go behind the scenes for the event; It makes me understand more how everything came together to make up this international event rather than just sit at home or at the grandstand to watch the race.