The World’s first F1 night race, The Singtel Singapore Grand Prix is into its 5th year and despite the contradicting noises coming around, the night race contract has been extended for a further 5 years. That means that Singapore would be hosting the world’s only night race till at least 2017. Its a street circuit like Monaco, but where it scores above Monaco is that its a F1 night race and the Singapore skyline lit up in all glory looks fabulous in the top shots.
Though the race track is nothing much to speak about. There are enough bumps on the road no matter how much the Singapore government tries to keep the roads clean, cos the roads on which the race happens is the most heavily used in terms of traffic all through the year. Its in the Central Business Area of the city and most of the time its chock a block with traffic.
But when the race comes to town in September, all the roads are blocked and barricades are formed all around the roads to stop the traffic on the road. The place turns into a ghost town or a riot torn city with all bollards and barricades coming up. The businesses around the place more or less stop working from Thursday itself. So, if you work around that area, you can count your blessings that at least the last 2 days of the week (Thursday, Friday), there is less work and that you can leave for home early. As for Saturday and Sunday, even if heaven falls, you need not come back to work.
The Singtel Singapore Grand Prix as the Singapore Formula 1 race is known is sponsored by Singtel. Its the government’s telecom company funded by the Temasek / Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) (arent they both the same in terms of the source of money and the secrecy they maintain with regards
to the source of their finances and how the spend the same?). Anyway, those are for another day and another post.
The tickets for the race have more or less been sold out with only few Single seats available. If you are still interested in getting your eardrums split by those defeaning sounds or have fun seeing cars going round and round in circles some 40-50 times, then head down to the Singapore GP website. The prices of tickets range from SG$68 to more than SG$2188 depending on where you sit. Whether you are suckered into sitting at some stretch where all you can see a car is for a fraction of a second or at a bend where you can see the car for a second more or at the pit stop where you can see the race starting and ending and so probably see the cars and their drivers for a longer time. Try it out on the website to see if you can get the grand prix tickets.
The schedule is from Today (21 Sept 2012) to Sunday (23 Sept 2012). There are 2 practice sessions today at 1800 and 2130 hrs and another on Saturday at 1800 hrs. Qualifying race is at 2100 hrs on Saturday. The actual race is on the 23rd of September (Sunday) at 2000 hrs. All timings are Singapore standard (+8hrs east of GMT)
Apart from the race, there is another interesting part of this whole thing. Its the festival that is organized around the 2012 Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix. A whiole galaxy of international artists, parades and other kinds of production are winded around the race. This year’s performers include Katy Perry, Maroon5, Jay Chou, Noel Gallagher, Bananarama, The Proclaimers, Pretenders, Fuse, Iva Lamkum, The Mamaku Project, Tom Thum, Mama Kin Soul Mystiquem N Faly Kouyate, Angus Watt – The Flags, and many more. For a full listing of all the performances, timings and tickets availability, please see the Singapore GP website.
This is how the drivers are stacked up before the Singtel Singapore GP race.
The weekend is here, finally. It rained heavily in the morning today (Friday) and rains has been predicted for Saturday and Sunday too. A night race, wet conditions and a street circuit is going to be a hell of an experience for the drivers. Am not a great fan of the sport and hence cant be expected to shell out the hundreds of dollars to watch the race. I haven’t subscribed to the sports channels and am not sure if the race is being telecast on the local channels.
Maybe i will flip channels and see if anyone is telecasting.
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ur not going to the.. f1 race tonite?
Toh Phir tera kya hoga kaaliya??
@Shahib, the race is tmrw and day after. Today the drivers test the circuit.
@Manpreet, wahi hoga jo manzoor e khuda hoga 😉 I will watch movies at home. I have an invitation for dinner at a friend’s place. Or maybe read a book. See, so many things to do 😀
OMG! Is that a Ferrari in the 2nd pic? Singapore mein (tobacco & other) ads banned hain kya?
Must-watch race this will be….and will be made all the more exciting if it rains!
Yup looks like a Ferrari. Btw, that’s part of a promotion wallpaper on the Singapore GP website. Tobacco ads are banned in S’pore but not alcohol.
Its a sunny morning today (Saturday), but then cant say anything. The weather in S’pore changes every hour. Keep the fingers crossed for the night race.