Formula One in Singapore - for free!

It is now more than a week ago but I definitely have to tell you about the Formula One race in Singapore. As you probably all now it was the first Formula One race in Singapore and the first night race ever. I think all the preparations took more than one year - the buildup of the "Marina Bay Circuit" itself took several month. Like in Monte Carlo the race took place in the middle of the city. You could see the parts of the circuit (security fences, light installations, ...) actually more than a month before the race weekend. The technical and logistic effort was really immense.

Seeing this I really wanted to take part and see the race. Unfortunately all the cheap tickets, the so called walkabout passes, were already sold out. For tickets on the grand stands you had to pay at least 150 Euro. That's actually quite cheap compared to European Formula One prices but for a student it's anyway a lot of money. So I was a bit undecided what to do... until a friend came up with a great offer. He heard from another friend that there is a possibility for working as a volunteer. So I did not hesitate and signed up for being a volunteer at the Formula One race! Before the race itself I had not really an idea of what I will have to do there, but the prospect of seeing the race for free was enough...

Finally it turned out that we were working for the St. John's Ambulance (something similar to the Red Cross) selling "Formula One Survival Kits". These kits consisted of a rain coat and a pair of earplugs. The profit of the sales went in to the charity fund of the organization. So we had a booth right next to the entrance and we had to sell those kits from about 1pm to 8pm. The job was really okay, however it was a bit tiring - especially during the peak hour. Sometimes the booth was surrounded by people and we could hardly keep up with selling the stuff. You had to talk all the time ("Excuse me - do you want ear plugs?", "Two dollars please.", "Thank you very much.", "Do you want to donate for charity?",...) so that you soon got a dry mouth, but fortunately the drinks, as well as a lunch and a dinner, were for free. When the race finally started and no more people were coming in we could leave the booth and watch the race.

It was my first Formula One race and it was really cool. The brightly illuminated race track in front of the Singaporean skyline made up a extraordinary atmosphere. Since the streets in Singapore are not very spacious you could get really close to the cars. In some turns there were a mere 10m and the security fence between yourself and the cars. In real life the cars are actually much smaller than they appear on the TV screen - but the sound is deafening. Fortunately the supply of earplugs was sufficient... The drawback is that you don't really know whats going on without a TV screen - but there were everywhere some people with small portable TV sets. The best action was in turn 7 right after the long straight - we could see some nice fights and some overtaking maneuvers.

In conclusion it was a great day at the Formula One circuit and all that for free! A lot of friends in Singapore were envious when I told them about my day there... :-)