Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

Singapore Grand Prix Preview
(Special Post)

Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere in the Pacific, you should have already known that the Singapore Grand Prix is the first Formula 1 night race ever! Hosting the race doesn't come cheap though. It is reported that more than SGD100 million dollars is paid to the FIA just for the hosting rights alone! Well, the race day (28 Septemper) is drawing nearer as I speak.

To find out what the organisers has done for the S'pore Grand Prix preparations, I did a 5 hour tour round the Marina Bay Street Circuit during the June holidays. As far as I can see, the track is 3/4 done at that time. Half of the circuit's unique lighting system is already in place. Most of the roads that will be used for the track was resurfaced with a special blend of asphalt to cope with the immense power of these F1 cars. I also visited the newly opened Singapore Flyer.


The Singapore Street Circuit layout. It will run in the anti-clockwise direction with a distance of 5.067 KM per lap. Drivers will be completing 61 laps come late September. The circuit will bring the drivers past several of S'pore most interesting buildings. The old style colonial buildings around the Padang area, including the old supreme court and Victoria concert hall. Drivers will also zoom across the Singapore river on 2 occasions.

The first will be the century old Anderson Bridge, this is the narrowest part of the track, thus the drivers must be careful when speeding past here. The second bridge is the Esplanade Bridge which immediately follows the corner after Anderson Bridge. It is one of the widest part of the circuit as drivers will zoom down to the iconic Durian -shaped Esplanade. Drivers will then zoom past the National Day grandstand and, another uniquely Singapore feature, drive under the grandstand! It's a shorter version of the Monaco tunnel!

You'll get a better idea of what I've talked about by looking at the circuit plan diagram The road surface is different from normal roads as the road has to withstand the great forces applied onto the road by the powerful F1 cars.

As you can see from this picture, the darker surface is the racing track surface which is more coarse than the lighter, normal road surface.
Surface on the left is the normal road surface while the surface on the right is the racing track surface.
Many drivers have complained in the past at other venues that the white lane markings are very slippery, especially in the wet. As the track will be run on public roads, it will not be feasible to remove the road markings. Thus, the people had come out with an ingenious solution.

Notice the small dots on the painted lines? These dots are there to provide traction for the F1 cars. It has dots punched into it to mimic the road surface. It also helps to drain water away in the wet (to a small extent)
Now, for my 5 hour walk, I started off at Suntec City Convention Centre, walked up Raffles Boulevard towards Benjamin Shears Bridge and towards the Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel. I went up the Shears Bridge and back down again to the opposite side. Walked down Raffles Avenue towards Esplanade to have a water break. Yes, my water bottle ran out halfway so I refilled it with tap water! Walked down the St Andrews road towards the Padang. Then I crossed over to Esplanade Drive where I went to the Anderson Bridge.

Now, pictures time! (Pictures are taken using my ageing Sony Erricson K750i, apologies if pictures are not of good quality)

I started off my journey here, just before Marina Square on Raffles Boulevard (between Turns 5 and 6). The F1 cars will go against the normal traffic flow here.Further up the road, I spotted the unmistakable lighting poles which supports the 1600 lights that will surround the track.
Behind me was the Pit Building! It was built in a record 8 months! Further up the road is the famous Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel. It is one of the hot spots to catch the race! It is also a hot spot for me to take pictures of the track.

The Singapore Flyer Ferris WheelI love this picture below, I think it is very artistic. Not bad considering I was using a camera phone =) ~ Taken at the base of the Ferris Wheel.


At the flyer, I got an even better view of the Pit Building. Too bad it's vicinity is closed off to the public and this is as close as I can get to the Pit Building.
The Flyer also provided me a good spot to look at the track and the lighting system beside it.

This is the stretch of track just before the last corner of the circuit, which will lead us back to the Start/Finish line.
The lighting poles and the lights themselves!The lights close up

This, along with the other flyer picture, is one of the best pictures taken here. Heaven blessed me with beautiful skies that day. This picture is in no way edited or some people might call it, Photoshopped. I have no idea how to use photoshop and I don't have one installed in my computer. What you see here is what it looks like that day =)

Artistic right? Thanks to the beautiful sky too!

Track side!
The weather was hot hot hot! I was sweating bucket loads of water by then, took a quick rest under the comfort of the flyer and I set off again.

Turns 20 and 21 still in a big mess.Beside this corner, a new DNA shaped bridge is being built. It will link Raffles Ave to the new Marina Bay IR when it is completed in 2009 or 2010.I went up Benjamin Shears Bridge to have a better view of the circuit. It was amazing in many ways. The bridge was shaking quite a lot as vehicles zoom past me. It was quite scary standing on it. Obviously you can't feel it move in a vehicle. This was also my first time climbing the bridge on foot. The view of the city skyline was simply spectacular!

The Singapore Flyer taken from Shears BridgeRaffles Boulevard, between Turns 5 and 6. Cars will go against traffic flow on race dayBird's eye view of Turns 20 and 21Raffles Ave, just before Turn 20. F1 cars will again, go against normal traffic flow here. The Marina Bay Floating Platform. The F1 cars will zoom past here and through a tunnel underneath the Grandstand to re-emerge onto Raffles Ave.F1 cars will emerge from the tunnel here after passing the floating platform. [Turn 19]
I found this interesting electronic board that states the number of car park lots in the area so that drivers do not have to circle the area finding for lots, causing even more jam.The new 'Marina Bay DNA' Bridge I mentioned earlier is undergoing construction.I then crossed to the opposite side of the Shears Bridge to have a better view of the eastern part of the circuit.

Turn 5, F1 cars will, as usual go against normal traffic flow here
The stretch of track before the last corners, Turns 22 and 23. You can see just how close the cars will zoom past the sea. Scary!I walked to Esplanade Mall to have a drink. Here's a picture of Turn 15 beside the iconic Esplanade Theatres. I walked down to St Andrew's Rd. This is where F1 cars will zoom against traffic flow (as usual) past some of Singapore's century old buildings. This includes the Old Supreme Court, Victoria Concert Hall and Padang.

This stretch of track is between Turns 9 and 10

The F1 cars will drive over the 100 years old Anderson Bridge to meet at Turn 13

Anderson Bridge
Turn 13Light pole (without lights) at Turn 13After Turn 13, drivers will drive past some Singapore landmarks including the statue of the Merlion and past at the same time, have a great view of the floating platform and the S'pore Flyer.

Merlion

The view from Esplanade Bridge after Turn 13
Esplanade Bridge, between Turns 13 and 14Now we come to an interesting part of the circuit. It is the junction between Raffles Ave, Nicol Highway and Standford Road. As you can see from the circuit diagram, there is a part in the middle of the circuit where the track 'splits' up. From this view, F1 cars will turn right into Turn 8. It will come around in the opposite direction and then turn right again into Turn 14.

Turn 14 <<-----Left--- ----Right------->> Turn 8
This siginifies the end of my tour round the Marina Bay Circuit. Remember to watch the inagural Singapore Grand Prix from where ever you are. For Singaporeans, it will be shown 'Live' on Channel 5 on 28th Septemper (Race) and 27th September (Qualifying). Who will win the first ever night race? Stay tuned to find out!