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I’m at Stamford again this year; always free for a quick meet up if anyone is up for it! Send me a message here or a tweet @czhihong.
I’m keen to go to Sepang next year too, will most probably be driving up from Singapore. I’ve subscribed to the email notification thing on the official website, so presumably they’ll be notifying me once tickets go no sale (which should be in a few weeks’ time?). Looking forward to sharing information and tips with fellow race go-ers!
Mercedes will have a fair bit of advantage for qualifying, which will help quite a bit for India, Suzuka and Abu Dhabi I think. It seems that qualifying is a little important for Interlagos and Korea. Alonso will probably always fight his way up there, and it’s just very hard to predit how Massa will do in the race on any given weekend, but I do think he’ll stay close to Alonso during qualifying.
All things considered, I’d say Mercedes.
Question for those who have sat at Pit/Turns 1 or 2 Grandstand: Where exactly do they open the track for the fans to invade for the podium ceremony? From what I saw yesterday it looked like the area where the Pit Grandstand (A22) meets Turn 1 Grandstand. Is that correct? Does anyone know if they open the other side (Pit Grandstand A1 area) as well?
Will probably be buying a Zone 1 ticket next year, looking at my options.
@Oli
You’ll have to ask at the gates, no idea. They do sell tickets across all categories though, it might be worth a shot.Tickets are on course to sell out on the website (most categories are sold out or have limited availability), but do remember that they keep some reserve tickets at the gates (supposedly to combat re-selling) and you get still buy them there.
Keeping fingers crossed for some dry running during practice sessions. Note that this year’s Saturday programme is an hour earlier: FP3 is at 6pm instead of 7pm (same time as FP1, which means it’ll be run in mostly daylight), and qualifying is at 9pm instead of 10pm. I’ve always liked the 6-7pm running since it shows the city and cars in a different light (and I usually miss FP1 due to work), so it works out well for me.
Wow! I was at Silver 2, right at the start/finish line. You must have been pleased with the Hamilton win, or were you rooting for the McLarens? I was with some business partners, one of them was local, but they were all going to their first F1 race besides me. Unfortunately, the main thing that they all remembered from the race was the absolute nightmare queuing two hours, ten abreast, in ~40deg heat for the taxi to get out of the circuit!
I’ll be there (like I’ve been every year), will be at Stamford this year. I actually attended the Hungarian Grand Prix this year too, was a wholly different experience, but there’s nothing like home :)
I’ll be there all three days, always up for a beer with anyone. Drop me a message here or on twitter (exact same username). Alternatively, just say hi to a Chinese guy with a Ferrari flag and Alonso cap and there’s a decent chance it’ll be me.
Something else for General Admissions (Walkabout) ticket holders to think about:
I agree with @Mankster that the areas around T11, T12 are probably the best for getting close to the cars, together with perhaps the stretch between T15 and T16, but the biggest problem with both these spots are the lack of a viewing screen.
Personally, I would be lost without the screen, especially during the race, since I would have no idea what was going on. There is trackside commentary, but half the time it’s impossible to hear it since the cars are too loud! One way to get around this would be to get the Fan Vision set, which I did get last year for $100 (I think. Could be $150) for the weekend.
If not, the main viewing platforms with screens are the two along esplande drive (stretch between T13 and T14), the one at T16 or between T7 and T8. They will all be VERY popular on race day naturally, so do go early, especially for the ones at T16 and T7/T8 since they’re pretty small.
This all only applies to the general admission walkabout, since there are a lot more options for premier walkabout, but I haven’t bought that before so can’t comment on views for that. From the map, there seem to be quite a few options for screens though.
Looking forward to maybe meeting up again next year @Mankster!
@Christopher
I was at Stamford in 2011 (met up with Mankster for a bit), will be there again this year. If I’m not at Stamford, I’m usually at the Bay Grandstand. The main difference is that getting in and out of the Bay Grandstand can be a huge headache on raceday due to the huge crowd (it seats ~25,000 and it’s always sold out), Stamford (and the rest of the other grandstands in zone 4) offers a little exclusivity plus extremely convenient entrance and exit from the track from Gate 3.I can’t remember which section I’m in (tickets are not with me at the moment), but I find it decent value.The corners see quite a bit of action generally, which more than half of the passes coming at Turn 7 in any given race. Will probably see a bit of squabbling towards Turn 8 too.
By the way, this September has been unseasonably rainy. On the morning of 5 September, we had more than 100mm of rain fall in about an hour in some parts of the country, completely flooding one of our main expressways for some time. I won’t hold my breath just yet for a wet qualifying and raceday (if that’s what you want), but there have been a number of days in the past few weeks where we had rain throughout the day and well into the night. Purely based on my perception, we probably still get the least rain during the race timings from around 7-11pm, but it is definitely the most unpredictable weather we’ve had in a while.
Like the past 4 years, I’ll be there. Can meet up for a beer with any of your guys! I’ll probably reach the track at ~7pm for friday, and mid afternoon for the weekend. Drop me a pm or mention, will be checking the website on my phone from time to time. Cheers! Can contact through twitter too, same name as my username here.
