I’ve been getting this question quite a bit lately.
My answer is always a straight “No”. (Unless you wanna give me free tickets, of course!)
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Reasons To Go
Seriously folks, why pay exorbitant amounts of money to go to catch the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix?
It’s just a money-squeezing exercise by the organisers, if you ask me. (Ticket prices range from S$168 to S$1,388.)
I can’t really understand why so many people are fighting to buy tickets to the inaugural Singapore GP.
There are only a few reasons (many of which are not legit) why you should severely hurt your wallet and go catch the Singapore GP on September 28th.
1) You’ve never been to a live F1 race before and desperately wish to witness a first-hand F1 experience.
Seriously, if you’re really keen on watching a real F1 race, then Sepang is just a 4-hour’s drive away (or 3, depending on how you drive).
The Malaysian GP has been going on for 9 seasons now, surely you would have made the trip up at least once?
Or how about catching next month’s Malaysian GP on the 23rd of March? Malaysian GP tickets are still on sale, it’s not too late. And they are cheaper too!
So yeah, a first-hand F1 experience has never really been out of reach for S’poreans, so reason No. 1 isn’t really valid.
2) You want to see F1 cars on Singapore roads.
Oh really? Then you should have been at the Chingay last Friday. And it was free!
NB: Video taken from YouTube, not shot by me. I was not there.
3) You want to be part of history by attending the world’s first ever night F1 race.
Ok, I’ve no issues with that. As long as you’re happy spending the money.
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Reason Not To Go
Here’s one good reason why you shouldn’t go to the Singapore GP:
1) Don’t be silly bro, it ain’t a real “race”. It’s just a huge commercial exercise. Who actually cares about the “racing”?
Ok, I’m being a bit cynical here, but let’s face it, our Singapore GP is more or less the Asian version of the Monaco GP.
I’m not too familiar with our “circuit”, but I’m guessing there aren’t too many overtaking opportunities on a makeshift street circuit a la Monte Carlo. The race basically happens on Saturday (qualifying), to be honest. Just watch all the past Monaco GPs and you’d get what I mean.
As it is, overtaking is a rare commodity in F1. Some circuits offer a few overtaking opportunities, others hardly any. For circuits like Monte Carlo, you’d be lucky to see any overtaking manoeuvres after Lap 1. And I don’t think our circuit would be any different.
The Singapore GP is probably not a real “race” in the true sense of the word, and ours is definitely not a real “racing circuit” in the true sense of the word.
Sepang is a racing circuit. Marina Bay isn’t.
We never designed the Marina Bay roads with a Ferrari or McLaren in mind. Herman Tilke never had a hand in any of our corners.
To be honest, I think the whole Singapore GP is more of a procession than a race.
People are there to see and hear the F1 cars zoom past them. (See YouTube clip above.) That’s what they’re there to see. I’m not sure if more than half of the spectators know their Kimis from their Kovalainens, their Heidfelds from their Hamiltons.
It’s a “show that’s coming to town” more than anything else. Like Jay Chou staging a concert here, or the My Fair Lady production coming to the Esplanade, or Cirque du Soleil setting up shop at the Indoor Stadium. It’s in that kind of a category.
My gut feel is that 80% of the ticket buyers are people who are deeply interested in seeing F1 live for the first time, to finally experience what it is all about after reading so much about it and watching it on TV for so long. My gut feel is that these ticket buyers want the “F1 experience”. They want to see the big stars like Hamilton, Alonso and Kimi drive past them with their very own eyes.
My gut feel is that after this inaugural race, most people wouldn’t be interested to spend S$1,388 on an F1 ticket ever again. They’ve experienced it once, there is no reason to experience it again. They are the “casual spectators”.
Which makes me believe that after the first Singapore GP, the demand for tickets for subsequent Singapore GPs would inevitably drop, since most of the buyers are casual spectators who just want to watch an F1 race once in their life.
Look what happened to the Sepang GP after the overwhelming response the first few seasons. Nowadays, it’s mostly the more serious race fans who attend.
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So after all is said and done, I’m really looking forward to watching the inaugural Singtel Singapore Grand Prix…in the comfort of my living room.
