Speed, sound, style
Just when you think that Singapore with its island-wide shopping belts, vibrant culinary scene, and rich ethnic brew was content with being one of the world’s most prosperous countries, it pulls a fast one and hosts the first night-time event in Formula One history. Four races on, the Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix has not only become a major bullet point in the FIA Formula One World Championship calendar. It’s now a gem in the well-run city-state’s tourism portfolio, a full-on global gathering that attracts both spectators and superstars. Hey, if the country can turn a stretch of road into an alternate runway for F-16 fighter bombers, turning its other streets into a living, breathing circuit park shouldn’t be a problem at all.
Since I was an F1 newbie, I really had no clue what to expect. So going by “Live louder than life,” this year’s theme, I giddily held my breath. As race day drew closer, the Singapore Grand Prix became more and more like a Greek drama, with action in the form of DJ sets taking place off the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Kele Okereke, Digitalism and Simian Mobile Disco all spun at Avalon one night. The Bloody Beetroots, LMFAO and Ludacris headlined the LED-heavy Avalon At Large GO! on another. Taio Cruz, the Chemical Brothers, Boy George, Rick Astley, several members of Big Bang and get this Charice were also waiting to entertain the hordes somewhere in the republic. Those names, if you can believe it, were just the opening acts.
a wormhole into another dimension
Entering the gates at Padang, once the center for sporting life during Singapore’s colonial era, was like entering a wormhole into another dimension. On one end, you had tents selling ear plugs or glasses of beer, both survival tools in this sort of situation.
On the other, you had a basketball court-sized stage, big enough for chart-toppers such as Shakira, who performed after the qualifying round, and her grass-skirted Colombian hips, which apparently don’t lie. In between were F1 fans with their families, wandering around taking snaps as the atmosphere started to build. I felt like a gate-crashing alien, but in a good way.
I never realized how loud it could get at the stands either. I was in Zone 4, a prime spot right in front of City Hall and the old Supreme Court building, structures that will be repurposed as the National Art Gallery by 2014. From that vantage point, the firecracker-like noises the cars emitted as they negotiated Turn 10 were more deafening these cars were whizzing by at speeds of up to 300 kph making the air even more electric.
The northern side of spectacular
Life is a highway: Since 2008, Singapore has been the proud host of the world’s only Formula One night race. But the goosebumps, which first appeared when I witnessed Kamui Kobayashi’s accident the night before his Sauber took off over the kerbs at Turn 10 and crashed into the concrete barriers truly manifested themselves during the final race. The sight of Singapore’s architectural icons bathed in light Anderson Bridge, the Merlion, the Esplanade, Helix Bridge and the Singapore Flyer made me feel as if I were part of history. It was on the northern side of spectacular.
If I was beaded with perspiration, I could only imagine how the F1 drivers, their ranks diminished, must’ve felt. Sixty-one laps, or two hours, around the five-kilometer-plus track was no joke: Every fraction of a second mattered. Just ask the lightning-fast pit crews. I’ve never seen anyone work that fast in my life.
As it became clear that Sebastial Vettel, never overtaken in the race en route to the checkered flag, would take his 11th pole position of the season, my mind jogged back to what he said in 2010: “I think Singapore offers a great show for the Formula One fans. The cars come across on TV like they’re in a computer game and the scenery is amazing.” The 24-year-old German was spot-on with the computer game reference.
When Linkin Park finally took the stage, singing and growling to the delight of an estimated 50,000 concertgoers, it was as if the entire Singapore was in on the fun. Making my way to the series of after parties Ku Dé Ta, St. James Power Station and Podium all had theirs I was impressed to see the city so alive on a Sunday night, obviously basking in the afterglow of the 2011 Singapore Grand Prix. Sebastial Vettel wasn’t the only winner here. Tiny as it may be, the powerhouse industrial nation that hosted his victory deserves a huge pat on the back, too.
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Special thanks to Sherina Chan and Ramon Jose Gutierrez of the Singapore Tourism Board; Audrey General and Shiela Pino; Winnie Ubbink; Pam Pastor; and Singapore Airlines, the official carrier of GPSS.
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