on air diary...
SPECTACULAR SINGAPORE
posted by Lee McKenzie on 25/09/2009
I don’t want to seem as if I have too much fun at work but I have had a great evening in Singapore. I watched the start of free practice 2 in a pod on the big wheel, or the Singapore Flyer as it is known. To see the cars dancing round the strip of light round the dark Marina was amazing.
This is my first time at the night race in Singapore and although I knew I would become vampire-like, sleeping in daylight and coming out at night; it is not until you get here that you realise how confusing things actually get.
I, and most other people here, have chosen to stay on European time. Basically it means going to bed at 5am and getting up and midday. We have breakfast at 2pm, lunch at 7pm and dinner about 2 or 3 when we leave the track! I was a bit worried about it on day 1 but you wouldn’t believe how easy it is to do. I think it will make it pretty tricky to adjust to Japan next week though but I will cross the bridge when I come to it!
Back to my flying/spectating experience; The Singapore Flyer is the World’s largest wheel and has views across not only Singapore but on a clear day, to Malaysia and Indonesia. I think it is the closest thing to watching a practice or race in a helicopter that you could get. For 30 minutes I was right above the track and had an elevated view of the circuit, you could see the different lines the each driver uses through corners and also how close they get to these unforgiving walls.
It has been a pretty busy time regarding news stories since Monza, the Renault scandal has been resolved in court, BMW-Sauber has been sold, Lotus will return, there will be 19 races next season including Korea and just when we thought things might return to normal and we could concentrate on the racing, ING announced they were leaving Renault with immediate effect. I found out about that at 3am in a restaurant last night and it made a long night of work, trying to get to the bottom of the story.
So back to the main story and as the temperature in Singapore hots up, the championship is reaching boiling point. After 1-2 in Monza for Brawn it looks like this year’s driver title will be either Button’s or Barrichello’s. And this weekend we could get a step closer to finding out. You can watch all the coverage live on BBC 1 and the Red Button.
Lee x
