Eshin Direct

Managed to score some last minute tickets for Singapore’s first ever F1 yesterday (thanks to Lyn for that). Having no wish to go to F1 by myself alone, I dragged along my friend to watch the race from the Padang stands. It was a moment of triumph as we both realized that we too could walk around Singapore and look like we owned the place with our F1 badges¹.

The F1 certainly brings a holiday atmosphere to the place that almost makes the actual race a moot point. In some ways, it was also Singapore’s first actual world event², and there were plenty of vibes in the air that Singapore could yet be cool. The upper crust of Singapore echelons finally had an outlet to display their wealth beyond their country clubs while the general rabble could feel Singapore’s prosperity first-hand, even if it was just latching on to a small part of the F1 in some way.

Actually, the F1 was quite exciting.

When we arrived and were finding our seats, the drivers started doing their warm up laps. Hearing the sound of their engines roar around you without being able to see them certainly triggers the adrenaline³. It turned out that they had turned the whole of the Padang into one big hawker centre with a live entertainment stage with a rather dodgy-looking Elvis impersonator performing sickly ballads. One wonders the mental barriers needed to overcome to allow such a mass congregation of individuals at the very heart of Singapore’s government. Oh wait, that would be the F1 payday for the country.

To be fair, the F1 itself was indeed very exciting. The only thing was that it was damned hot and one almost cheered on the drivers for the breeze they brought with them as they passed. They did have big screens projecting the whole race and it did make a difference watching and feeling the cars zip by.

I used the race as an opportunity to practice my own sports photography with my new D90 (more of that in another post). I haven’t quite nailed it yet in terms of capturing objects moving that fast but towards the end I was getting there. It was great that they needed the safety cars out twice since it slowed down the lead cars enough for me to get a few good shots of the cars as they passed. Of course, mesh safety screens⁴ did spoil a lot of the shots as did heads bopping up and down in front of me. But I was happy for the experience as it teaches me what I need to do in future to get photographic quality from an event like this.

Most memorable for me was the sight of a poor bat flying about blinded by the lights. It reminded me of a post that I had read earlier that day about the ecological impact that conducting a night race would have⁵. One does wonder how F1 will cope with the move towards CSR being a bankable item.

I did enjoy myself at the F1 oddly enough and I will definitely be going next year. I remember once my father tried to take me to a race on the European mainland once but the tour organizer canceled it. Perhaps next year we’ll be able to watch it together in Singapore. And definitely, for an amateur photographer, walkabout tickets are probably a better bet.

1. Of course, no amount of waving these badges entitled us to anything free or exciting except to access the circuit. [↩]
2. That people actually care about, folks. [↩]
3. It is actually proven that loud events like rock concerts biologically stimulate you to release adrenaline, giving you that euphoric high [↩]
4. Personally, they look like detention centre barricades. I wouldn’t be surprised if the powers that be get quite attached to them for the future [↩]
5. How long will F1 night racing last? [↩]

Tags: car, f1, racing, singapore