Formula 1 Down Under

brought to you by Barrantes Tour & Travel sports reporter, Todd

Formula 1 racing, the most popular form of motor sports in the world, and they just happen to run a race every year in Melbourne Australia. So I figured since we wanted to visit Melbourne anyway while we were here, why not make is the same weekend as the Grand Prix? Seemed logical to me.

The Australian Grand Prix is almost always held in the very early part of the race calendar with it being the fall in the Southern-hemisphere. This year it was scheduled to be second race of the year, but the Bahrain race, which was supposed to be the first, was postponed because of a little civil unrest. Their loss was our gain as the Australian race is now the first of the season, which always brings a little more excitement as it is the first time all the teams with their new cars race together.

Laura has already detailed much of the build up to the race, so lets jump straight into Saturday afternoon and the all important qualifying. Our ticket package had us in four different locations on the four days of the race weekend, and on Saturday we were seated in the Brabham grandstand looking at turns 1 and 2. Qualifying involves three sessions over the course of an hour with every driver needing to set a lap time and the slowest drivers being knocked out and not moving on to the next session. All the regular heavy hitters moved on to the final 10 driver / 10 minute shootout for pole, except for the seven time world champion Michael Schumacher who ended up 11th (which worked out well for our seats on race day, but I am getting ahead of myself). The final qualifying session for pole had the Red Bull cars, including local favorite Aussie Mark Webber, going head to head with the Mclaren cars, and our favorite Lewis Hamilton. Pole position was grabbed by the reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull by 3/4 of a second, which is HUGE in F1 lap-times. Unfortunately the HRT team, starting their sophomore season in F1, failed to qualify because there time was just too slow compared to the time of the fastest driver. Hopefully they will do better next race.

 We were able to follow all the action and drivers positioning during qualifying and the race with our Kangaroo TV. It is a really cool portable TV setup with multiple channels and audio from BBC5 radio. The system is called Fan Vision and allows for watching on-board cameras of up to four drivers at once, the main TV feed, and even your own replays. Very cool!!

Race day dawned with great weather, finally. The first thing we watched on track was the final Display of Speed for the weekend, a one lap race between an Mercedes AMG road car, a V8 Super Car, and the 2008 McLaren Formula 1 car (the one Lewis Hamilton won his first World Championship). They raced all three cars around the track, delaying the starts to try to make it a photo finish at the end. The F1 car can lap Albert Park easily under 1 minute and 30 seconds. It gave the V8 car a 32 second head start and the AMG a 49 second head start, and was still easily able to pass both cars before the finish line. SOOO fast!

Our seats for race day were on the Fangio stand, in the FRONT ROW, across the main straight from the Ferrari pit garage. Probably about 5 meters from the track. We got a great look at the driver's parade, then the teams began to set up on the starting grid where they do the final preparations of the cars 30 minutes before the race.

Our seats were right in front of grid position 9, with grid position 11 just to our right, the spot for the afore mentioned Mr. Schumacher.

We had a great view to see all the famous Formula 1 people walking by, including Ron Denis, Ross Brawn, Anthony Hamilton (Lewis's dad), several TV commentators, and all the drivers.

 

 

Oh, and the grid girls.

The start of a Formula 1 race is probably one of the most exciting things in all of sport. Twenty four race cars, each with over 750 horsepower, all sitting stopped in their grid positions, reving their engines waiting for the red lights to go out. Then they all accelerate as fast as possible in a race to be the first into turn 1. It is INCREDIBLY loud and exciting. The cars first however leave the starting grid for a formation lap. A chance to warm up tyres and brakes for the last time. During this time, all the mechanics race to get off the grid and back to the pits. A funny looking event in it's own right. Then the cars come around, take there starting positions, and the excitement really begins.

Everyone made it down and through turn 1 safely. Unfortunately, our friend Mr. Schumacher, clipped another car's front wing in turn 3, cut a tyre, and his race was basically over. He made it around to the pits, but was so far back at that point, he was last. The race proceeded mostly without incident. There were some close battles with some Ferraris and McLarens resulting in a drive-thru penalty for Jenson Button. Then there was another small accident resulting an a second drive-thru penalty, this time to Rubens Barrichello.

The winner was the pole sitter Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull, who beat Lewis Hamilton by over 22 seconds. Vitaly Petrov, a Russian, was able to hold off Ferrari driver and 2 time World Champion Fernando Alonso (eyebrow man) for 3rd. The local hero Mark Webber unfortunately came in 5th.

After the race, they allow the fans to come onto the track. So we made our way down to an opening in the wall and walked down the main straight. I got a change to feel first hand what marbles from the tyres of a Formula 1 car feels like. There were little bits all long the track. We could hear the National Anthems of the wining driver and team being played and watch the champagne being sprayed as we walked.

We slowly made our way across the start-finish line and then off the track and back home to the hotel and dinner. Truly a marvelous and international experience. Two F1 races down, many more to go.