F1 baby! Love it...

I don't know how many Sundays I spent watching NASCAR with my dad. We would always talk about how cool it would be to see a race live. I could count on him saying "The noise, I just can't imagine how loud that would be." I think that would be the first thing I would have said to him after yesterday. The noise is unbelievable. Don't worry Mom and Grandma; I did put earplugs in after the first two laps. After imagining myself with nonexistent hearing for the next day, it was a no brainer.

Ok, the morning started out with a debate weather I would take the bus or taxi. I couldn't figure out exactly where I needed to transfer (as my map is in Chinese exclusively) so I opted for a taxi. This ended up being a good choice as I went right to the venue and was able to catch a nap as we waited in traffic. I arrived at the shuttle pick up point where I met Dan, another friend in Shanghai and also from Larimore. I arrived a bit early and was hustled by ticket scalpers before I even got out of the taxi. One even opened the door for me, but as soon as I said "Wo you piao (I have tickets)" he quickly left. The spectacle had begun even before I stepped foot on a shuttle. Watching all the people decked out in their team's gear, chatting with each other, buying tickets from the scalpers; everyone was in an excited state that I would not have expected to see. When Dan arrived we set off for the shuttles. I expected that it would take some time to get to the racetrack as it is in the northern part of Shanghai, but it took nearly an hour to get there. We didn't want to go to our seats right away, so Dan and I wondered around the plaza area that was full of displays for each driver.

The big fan favorites were Renault and Ferrari for teams, but for drivers it was Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raumlik Koumlnen. The amount of people decked out in their team or driver's colors and merchandise is mind blowing. This makes sense to look at the westerners, but the Chinese people that I saw were very into the F1 experience. One wouldn't have thought that many Chinese would have that much disposable income to be able to afford the whole package, but then one would be wrong. Dan made the comment that Ferrari must be so big because of their colors (red and gold/yellow) corresponding with China's national colors. Good job with the marketing on their part.

Then came the race itself. The track is shaped like the first character in the city’s name “Shang” and our seats were on turn 6 I believe, which is a pretty awesome hairpin turn. There were some ceremonies and a few parade looking things that passed by our section. I don’t know much of what went on then because even though we had a loudspeaker in front of us, no one bothered to turn it or see if it worked, so Dan and I were left to guess what was happening in other parts of the race. The whole thing was 56 laps and that’s on a 5 km track, so even though it wasn’t very long there was a lot of action and it was quite the sight. For the first 10 laps or so I didn’t have any comments much past “Wow. Did you see that? Man that’s fast/loud/amazing!” The dumbstruck-ness did wear off and I enjoyed the race quite thoroughly. There was what I would call a super fan. He was head to toe in Renault gear and every time Fernando Alonso came by he would wave his large team flag wildly and give a thumbs-up or pump his fist in the air. I think he only missed 1-2 laps near the end, but was elated when Alonso won the race. It looked like all he was barely able to keep himself in the stands near the end of the race.

It was a little bittersweet that I ended up seening a race without my dad, but the whole day was amazing. I went into the day a little blind, but was able to transfer some of my race car knowledge and not be totally lost. Big props to Dan for helping me out during the day. I would definitely go to another F1 race and recommend it to any race fans or just car fans in general. The race qualifies as the most expensive ticket to an event that I have ever bought, but it was well worth the price of admission.