Day 02 Friday – Free Practice Peering
Grandstand tickets for quali and race day were practically non-existent by the time I got to order anything. It was a bit arduous but I did scroll around enough to pick up some scrap Fangio grandstand tickets.
It’s now Friday, where the F1 cars made an appearance for free practice, and we’ve started the day with a bit of a blunder… upon my learning of the (official) free shuttle, I, of course, wanted to save a quick buck. This cost saving, as I would later come to learn, was moot. All the trams were basically free – nobody was doing anything to validate their trip and nobody was going to stop you. The shuttle was an absolute hack. There were lines snaking for metres upon metres, and that continued around the corner!
My foot never saw that shuttle.
Replacing the tram was an.. interesting DiDi ride that started oh so fantastically with the driver showing up pre-disgruntled. Great. An unfriendly attitude, antagonistic mutterings and driving unnecessarily recklessly; how could it get worse? Stopping a few hundred metres from the elected destination might do the trick. Now here’s a kicker.. one of my friends had a crook foot and hobbled on crutches. The path wasn't always smooth and paved. Adding to that, that DiDi driver continued along the very road we walked alongside for another hundred odd metres anyway. What?? Why? Wha- wh- 😕
As the ticket specified, we were to only enter through gate 1. Which was an absolute load of crock. My other friends entered through another gate completely on the other side of the track, without fail of course. This sucked because gate 1 was traaaaash. Congestion before even getting close to the gate itself and zero movement because we weren't wanting to be anywhere, right? Stupid.
Luckily, that marked the end of the tumultuous start. Once through and sat in our seats (albeit after a sneaky sit down at the “premium” grandstands…😏), it was just going to be another fantastic day of witnessing some motorsports.
Being on the start/finish straight can get boring just seeing the cars simply zoom past, but it was exciting, seeing the cars wildly weaving, neatly line up, slam on the revs and finally launch off the grid and put pedal to the metal. However, being in the frontal standard area, it was a bit eh because of the constant sun glaring over you and you can’t see much due to the lack of elevation. It wasn't like I could choose my seating arrangement either, so it’s just up to your RNG luck or pay buckets of money to get the good spots.
For a few hours, I was baking in the sun with moments of cool reprieve, watching the other series’ qualifications and races. It was some splendid stuff; even if I couldn’t entirely follow the action. And admittedly... even with the loud roaring noises, I did find myself dozing off frequently 😅.
The time for F1 cars to come out finally arrived and I was shocked to see how busy it got; there were barely any empty seats, given the emptiness just moments before. Much like the cars starting up and leaving the garage, I felt reinvigorated seeing the cars and my sleepiness leave my body.
Though I have never personally experienced the great sounds of Formula 1 before the hybrid era, I see why the masses enjoyed the older generation. There was nothing exhilarating or satisfying, especially when compared to the series before it giving off those vibes. Though they didn’t sound great, the speed they were going at easily compensated for that. I could barely get a clean shot of the cars, and that’s over two practice sessions super sad. Making up for it, I did manage to get some photos of the teams in their garage through some precision aim and maximum zoomage; the poor man’s pit lane access.
As night fell, most folks had cleared out the grandstands and I could see that the teams were doing some work on the F1 cars. It was pretty neat seeing them doing their thing, albeit from hundreds of metres away... and through fencing... and then some distortioning plastic barriers...
As it was time to leave, things returned to crapness. The path to leave gate 1 was already chockers, despite having spent time dilly dallying. There wasn’t a chance of getting on the trams without waiting for what looked like hours. And that was along a few stops, not just the stop at trackside. There was a bus service that would also shuttle you back to the city but that was few and far between. It took hundreds of metres to get to a more quiet tram stop... I just don’t see how you could plan an event of this size and not have the incentive to prevent situations like these.
End of day two and I felt semi disappointed about the grandstand pick for the day, but least it was for free practice and not the bigger days. At this point, I did worry about what was instore the next day. Thank you for reading.