Malaysian Grand Prix - March 23-24, 2013

I saw my first Formula 1 race in Malaysia back in 2010, and even posted a few tips about it. Since then, I’ve attended two races in Singapore, one in Japan, and seen dozens of other races on TV, so I’m no longer an ignorant newbie. The more I’ve learned, the more I enjoy this fiendishly complex sport, which doesn’t get much coverage in the USA, where NASCAR dominates the racing scene.

Asia holds 8 of the 19 races this year and the first of these is the Malaysian Grand Prix, which is the 2nd race of the season (after the Australian GP in Melbourne). Malaysia is probably the cheapest F1 race as well, with earlybird tickets bought before December 31, 2012 half-price, an unbelievable bargain. With the circuit next to the airport, it makes sense to fly from Singapore and spend the weekend there. In fact, the combined price of the flight, hotel, and Turn 1 ticket is still half the price of a Turn 1 ticket in Singapore.



I bought my tickets back in November and secured a great spot at the top of the K1 Grandstand, which looks down the pit straightaway. Turns out these are probably the best seats on the track as you can see the cars racing down the straight as well as the maneuvering in the first two turns. That is the start below, there was still water on the track from an earlier storm which hampers the view of those starting back on the grid.



Qualifying was held on Saturday and the race followed on Sunday. No need to recap the events, although the race was quite controversial as Sebastian Vettel ignored team orders and passed Mark Webber to take the chequered flag, causing a significant bit of friction between the two drivers. Incidentally, I have seen five Grands Prix and Vettel (below) has won every one of them. That's Webber in the second shot below. You'll notice that the cars are identical except for the drivers number (Webber's 2 is barely visible) and the colours on the cameras atop the air box (black in Vettel's car, fluorescent yellow in Webber's). The top driver in the team gets the black camera, and the second driver  gets the yellow; this is probably the easiest way to recognize the cars from afar.





There was an incident at the start of the second lap when Fernando Alonso lost control after damaging his front wing and drove straight into the gravel in front of us. That's his car below on the flatbed.



As usual, the F1 was an excellent experience but there were two occurrences that made the race slightly less enjoyable. The first was that the diamond screen (which shows the live TV feed) in front of our section was off for most of the race, only becoming operational with about 12 laps of the 56 total left to be driven. When at a big track like this, you want to see what is happening at other areas, along with replays. Not having this functionality was very disappointing.

The other problem was that the race commentary was in both English and Malay, meaning that some key points were not communicated to those at the track. The locals should have their own frequency and the full race should be broadcast in English; when combined with no screen it meant that we missed some very important developments.

Of course, the most important aspect was the fact that Vettel went ahead and won the race despite having been told to stay back. We did not know this sitting in our seats and didn’t find out until much later. It could be one of the most significant events of the F1 season and shows how the sport is more for the constructors rather than the individual drivers. Lewis Hamilton finished third and his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg was furious for being told to stay back in fourth. At least Rosberg followed orders, while Vettel is now public enemy #1 in Australia.

These are just two of the storylines that promise to make this an interesting season in Formula 1 this year so if you haven’t followed it before, now would be a good time to start.

Best,

Sean

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Tips for watching the Malaysian Grand Prix

Formula One could be the most difficult sport for a road trip. Each Grand Prix takes place in a different country, there's only one race per Grand Prix, and the races are a week or two apart. So you really only get one chance to get it right. As the tracks are huge, your seat choice is critical. With that in mind, I'm offering a few tips on the Malaysian Grand Prix.

1) Book early and stay near the airport for the weekend. Sepang International Circuit is about an hour from downtown and you'll likely be going for two or three days. I was only in Kuala Lumpur for 2 days, but took six separate 1-hour bus rides between the airport and downtown (two for the flights, four for the races). That's a lot of wasted time; it would have been smarter to stay close to the circuit but the decision to go was made at the last moment. There aren't many hotel choices nearby, so book early. If you don't mind basic accommodations, the Tune.Com hotel near the Low Cost Carrier Terminal seems like a good bet.

2) If you are staying downtown, use the Skybus to get to the circuit. There are options that use the train but these require a transfer and it's much simpler to just board the bus at Sentral or KLCC and relax for the hour ride. It's RM15 one way which is pretty cheap.

3) Don't buy your ticket in advance. There are plenty of tickets at the box office, but even better, lots of scalpers who are selling tickets well below face value. Many tickets are given away or sold at discounts to local groups; some of these tickets find their way into the hands of resellers. I got a 500RM ticket for just 200, about $60. Study the seating options, there are many different choices. I recommend sitting in the mall area, there's plenty of food options between the two seating areas. The difference between the upper and lower level is significant; my ticket was for the lower-level Citrine section, but I just walked upstairs to the Topaz section which offered a better view. Check out the pictures below for the difference.

The fence blocks your view down low

The bottom right corner shows where the fence is when you are upstairs

Obviously the start/finish line is the prime seating, but I found the opposite side to have a better view of more of the track. The hillside seats are much cheaper but seem to have limited amenties. Generally I would recommend getting there early on Saturday and looking for a grandstand seat from a scalper. If you get a lower seat, it seems pretty easy to walk to the upper level so try that if you can. The picture below shows the grandstand - the left side is where the finish line is while the right side is the Citrine/Topaz section where I was. Note how long the grandstand is, it takes nearly 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other.

4) Bring earphones. It is very, very loud. I bought the race radio headset which was ridiculously overpriced but helped a lot in understanding what was going on and also blocked the worst of the engine noise. Earplugs are also available outside the circuit for just RM5, so that's another option. But don't try to tough it out; the race is 90 minutes long and your ears will suffer without some protection. Binoculars are also very useful.

5) Eat at the circuit but bring lots of water. There are some great local food selections at reasonable prices. I had a big bowl of watermelon for the equivalent of $1. Kept me hyrdated for a while, but you will need a couple of bottles of water for the long day. If you get there at 11 am, you'll spend 7 hours outside in the heat so water is a necessity.

Satay stand

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Wyclef Jean and Fatboy Slim - Malaysian Grand Prix Post-Race Concert

You may be asking yourself why there is a concert post in a blog called Sports Road Trips. After the Malaysian Grand Prix, the promoters had a great double bill: Wyclef Jean followed by Fatboy Slim. I'm a big Slim fan since his song "Praise You" and the accompanying video, documented in Torrance Rises. My girlfriend is also a fan of both artists (I had no idea who Wyclef Jean was when I first saw the ad, which shows how little I follow music) so when I told her that they were both performing at the F1, she was eager to go.

If you had a race ticket, the concert ticket was only RM100, or $30. Without a race ticket, the concert was RM250. But the cheapest race ticket was only RM100, so it made more sense to buy the cheap race ticket and then the concert ticket. When you bought the concert ticket you were given a wristband which was all you needed to get in.

My girlfriend had stayed downtown while I went to the race on Sunday afternoon. But at 6pm, as most of the race fans were heading home, she made her way to the circuit and we walked up the hill to the concert entrance. We had a bottle of water that was not allowed to be brought inside so we chugged it and entered. I was surprised at how few of the race spectators were at the concert and we made our way almost to the front of the crowd. We then waited for about an hour, being entertained by a local DJ known as Twilight Actiongirl. Finally, after the sun had set and the crowd had swelled considerably, Wyclef Jean made his appearance. He came out wearing sunglasses and a Ferrari team shirt and immediately got the crowd moving.

I'm not going to review his concert in detail, other than to say he put on a great show with lots of energy. Much of his material is based on other songs and one memorable bit was when he did a bit of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that had the crowd going crazy. He also brought several fans up on stage to dance with a belly dancer, which was good fun for everyone.

We were about 5 rows from the front, right at the center, and near the end of the show he made is way into the crowd. We were split down the middle and he walked right in front of us, as you can see in the picture below.

After he went off to raucous cheering, there was a 30-minute break while we waited for Fatboy Slim. Several spectators in front of us left, so we moved closer to the front.

I'm not a big fan of the electronic music/DJ scene, but have always enjoyed Fatboy Slim's unique take. His only instrument was a turntable and a computer as you can see below.

Early in the show, there was a sudden system failure that left him momentarily stunned. As the crowd watched anxiously, a couple of technicians rushed out and after a couple of minutes, restored order. The joint was jumping again.

His show was one continuous beat, highlighted by Rockefeller Skank, one of his biggest hits. He would wave his arms and pump his fists before returning to the headphones to set up the next record. As the show drew to a close, he wrote "Let's Have a Rave Up" but I knew that wasn't going to happen in Malaysia and shortly thereafter he walked off as the tired crowd prepared for the long bus ride back to KL.

This was a great show from two world-class performers. Being right at the front for a concert of this size is something that I had never experienced before and will likely never again. I'm not sure if the other F1 races have a similar post-race celebration, but if they do, it's definitely something worth attending.

Best,

Sean

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Malaysian Grand Prix - April 3/4, 2010

After a couple of nights in Singapore, I flew to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday morning to spend the weekend watching the Malaysian Grand Prix. The qualifying was scheduled for the afternoon while the actual race would be held Sunday.

Formula 1 Primer

Before I get to the race, I want to give a bit of background on how F1 works for those who may not be familiar with the sport. I am no expert on motor sport in general but it is a fiendishly complex (not to mention expensive) activity so this primer will just give the very basics.

Formula 1 is the highest class of auto racing with the Formula in the title referring to the fact that each car must conform to a set of rules. These rules are very complicated and are always changing, so I won't attempt to explain them here. I will mention that in 2010, no refuelling is allowed during the race, the first time this has been enforced since 1993.

This is the 61st season of F1 racing. This year there are 12 teams who are responsible for entering the cars in the race. The teams are often known as constructors, but this is not entirely accurate. Constructors are the companies who are responsible for building the car itself, particularly the chassis. The team, on the other hand, is usually sponsored and includes the constructor in the team name. For example, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is one of the teams; in this team McLaren is the constructor.

Cars are composed of two main elements: the chassis and the engine; generally each constructor builds the chassis and acquires the engine from somewhere else, although this is not always true. Ferrari, likely the most famous of the 12 teams currently racing in F1, builds both its chassis and engine; McLaren uses a Mercedes engine however.

Each team has two main drivers so each race begins with 24 cars on the track. The starting order is determined by a qualifying session held the day before the race. When the race is complete, points are awarded to the top 10 finishers. Beginning this season, the points are awarded on a 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 basis, which gives a large advantage to race winners.

There are 19 races scheduled for this year; each race is known as a Grand Prix and is held in a different country. Melbourne, Australia held the first race of the season At the end of the season, the driver with the most race points is the world champion and the constructor with the most points wins the Constructors Championship.

Got it? If not, use the Wikipedia entry for more detail.

Getting To Sepang

The Malaysian Grand Prix is run at Sepang International Circuit (SIC), located near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, about 60 km outside of the city itself. There are plenty of options to get there, but the best is likely the Skybus that is run by Air Asia. You can board at KL Sentral among other downtown locations, and the bus takes you directly to the circuit for only 15 Malaysian Ringgit (RM), about $4.75. The ride takes around an hour, but it's better than the other options which involve trains and transfers to a bus. They might be slightly faster, but they are not as simple.

A funny story though - I caught the last Skybus at 2pm from KL Sentral and was disappointed to discover it lacked air conditioning. As we cruised down the highway, we passed another empty Skybus which looked much more comfortable. A few minutes later, the driver pulled over and got off the bus, causing a few perplexed looks amongst the passengers. Turns out the nicer bus had also pulled over and we were transferred to it for the rest of the ride. It was surreal walking along the side of a Malaysian highway but well worth it when we boarded the cool confines of the newer bus.

Seating Options

Once you get to Sepang, you need to buy your ticket. It is possible to buy tickets on-line but I waited until I got there. There are dozens of categories and it would take a separate post just to enumerate them all. This seating viewer helps; the Mall Area is the best as there are seats on two levels, entirely covered, with food and merchandise options throughout. Definitely try for the upper tier if you can; it's slightly more expensive but provides a better view. The hillside seats seemed farther away and in some cases were uncovered, so I wouldn't recommend those.

I didn't know much of this when I arrived at the box office and tried to get a ticket to the Tower section where the final turn before the finish line is located. But my credit card was declined - they were using a PIN system which I wasn't familiar with. Apparently I do have a PIN for my card, but I've never used it before. They had an ATM onsite, but I had already used an ATM at the airport and so was prevented from making another withdrawal (I had left most of my cash at the hotel, idiotically thinking my card would be enough).

I was getting a bit worried, but soon realized that there were plenty of people with an extra tickets . In particular, one local gentleman had been given a freebie and was now trying to see his own ticket. It was a Citrine ticket worth 500 RM and I managed to get him down to 200 RM, about $62 and almost all the cash I had left. At the time, I didn't know where I would be sitting, but it turned out to be a great spot with views of most of the south side of the circuit.

Qualifying

As I entered the gates, I could hear the engines revving in the distance. Qualifying had begun. The qualifying process involves three sessions in which the slowest cars in each session are eliminated. The first session (Q1) runs 20 minutes and all 24 cars can run as many laps as they want. Each driver takes his best lap time and the seven slowest drivers are then eliminated, taking starting positions 18-24. The remaining cars then conduct Q2 over a 15-minute session and again the slowest 7 are knocked out, taking positions 11-17. Q3 is only 10-minutes and again the best lap time here gets the coveted pole position.

The qualifying process is not that exciting as it is difficult to follow the qualifying speeds for each driver. I didn't have the race radio, so I was just watching as cars zoomed by at around 200 mph. Below is Bruno Senna of the Hispania Racing Team.

To make matters worse, it rained hard and they stopped the qualifying for a bit. It turned out that the rain was the biggest story of the weekend as it forced the teams to change tires and several of the top drivers were eliminated early due to bad decisions. In particular, Lewis Hamilton of McLaren and Ferrari's Feliipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were all eliminated in Q1 and started 20th, 21st, and 19th respectively. World Champion Jenson Button spun out and started 17th. It was a shocking development as Red Bull's Mark Webber took the pole with teammate Sebastien Vettel in 3rd. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes took the 2nd spot. The complete results are here.

In all, I only spent an hour at the track. The rain and loud engines forced me out but I had seen enough to know that this was a sport worth following. I went back to Kuala Lumpur with high expectations for the race on Sunday.

The Race

Sunday morning was hot and sunny as I made my way back to Sepang. After arriving, my first task was to buy the race radio headphones, which would protect my ears and give me live radio coverage of the race. At RM150 ($46) they were way overpriced, but you can't put a price on hearing. With the engines so loud, you absolutely need some protection for your ears.

Once inside, I noticed lots of festivities before the race, including an autograph session with some drivers, but the throng of people waiting prevented me from getting anywhere close. Rather, I made my way to my seat and studied the morning paper, which had a starting grid and a few articles about the race.

After a while, I walked about the Mall Area (above) and grabbed some lunch. But it was too hot to stay out in the sun for long, so I returned to my seat. But someone was sitting there, so I decided to venture upstairs to see what the view was like. This was the best decision I made, as the upper tier offers far better views of the entire track. I stood there for the entire race but it was perfect as it was covered and there was a light breeze that was not felt in the lower tier.

As race time approached, the Malaysian Air Force did a short air show (shown below).

The drivers were paraded out to answer questions posed by local children. Each of the twelve teams had to answer one question; it was a nice segment but I found it odd that they would do something lighthearted just before the race. Shouldn't the drivers be focused on the task at hand?

While the drivers were preparing for the race, a track inspection was conducted. Having the race radio was useful here as I could hear driver interviews and other tidbits of info. Fifteen minutes before race time, the national anthem was played and then the cars made their way onto the track. There was a single lap run to get the cars ready and then it was race time. Only 23 cars started as BMW's Pedro de la Rosa's car failed to start for the test lap.

The start line was behind me but I could hear the roar of the engines as the cars accelerated into the first turn. As things would happen, the race was decided here as Vettel passed Rosberg and Webber to take the lead immediately. When the cars first passed in front of me they were bunched together (see below), but by the fifth lap, there was already significant separation between them.

The first incident happened right in front of me when Timo Glock spun out and couldn't get started. The race officials ran onto the track and pushed the car out of danger. Glock was done and took a motorcycle back to the paddock while his car was lifted onto a flatbed.

As the race continued, Massa, Alsonso, Hamilton and Button made their way through the field, but nobody was able to catch Vettel and Webber, who continued to run 1-2 as shown below.

Michael Schumacher had a wheel issue and was forced out on the 9th lap. That's his car on the grass below.

There was little excitement in the race after that. Vitaly Petrov had a gearbox problem and was out on lap 32 - that's his car on the flatbed.

The rest of the race was uneventful and Vettel won going away, completing the 56 laps in 1:33:48.412. Webber took second and Rosberg third as the top three didn't change from lap 1. Hamilton had moved up to 6th, but his poor decision in qualifying hurt him badly. The results tightened up the points race with Vettel moving up to 37 points, tying him for second with Alsonso, just two points behind Massa who finished 7th.

Below are the drivers being cheered by track officials as they run the post-race lap.

Throughout the race, the announcers talked about the impending rain, but the race ended on a dry track and the storm that was supposed to cause havoc never appeared. Frankly, the race was anti-climatic - Formula 1 offers few opportunities for passing and the difference in the top cars makes it difficult to catch up. I still had a great time here though and would recommend the experience to anyone who has a chance to attend.

Photos

Just a few shots here of some of the cars.

Sebastian Vettel

Vettel again

Adrian Sutil

Felipe Massa

Mark Webber

Sebastian Buemi

Nico Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton

Notes

Merchandise is widely available but I didn't partake. Lotus was very popular here though as they are a Malaysian team. There was also a display of historic F1 cars located near the entry gate. This was pretty cool and also a good place to stand during the thunderstorm that affected qualifying.

Now that I understand the sport a little better, I'm looking forward to attending another race soon. Singapore in September anyone?

Best,

Sean

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Formula 1, AFC Champions League and other updates

Schedule Changes

OK, so the tentative Sports Road Trip schedule has seen some changes over the past couple of weeks. My week-long trip to Western Japan has been postponed, and I've had to cut back on my baseball extravaganza to California and Arizona (more on that in a later post). There are a couple of reasons for these changes.

First, the trip to Florida, the surprise trip to Canada and then the jaunt in Thailand and Manila meant that I was out of the country for 41 out of the first 80 days this year, which has not put me in good stead with my girlfriend. The second reason is that she is changing jobs, and has a couple of weeks of free time. For some odd reason, she wasn't intrigued with my idea of a two-week long MLB trip to the West Coast, so we are going to visit Singapore and Malaysia instead.

But don't worry, the sporting gods have smiled on me still. Turns out the Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix is in Kuala Lumpur on April 3rd and 4th, which is something I've been meaning to see for some time. I'll also catch an AFC Champions League game between the Singapore Armed Forces and Henan Construction on April 13th.

Japanese Sports Updates

Speaking of the AFC CL, the competition began last month and tomorrow is already the third match-day. Melbourne Victory is visiting Kawasaki Frontale in a battle of 0-2 squads. The loser likely will be eliminated from the knockout stage, but it's not a game that excites me greatly, so I won't be attending. There are three other Japanese teams in the group stage, with Kashima Antlers the only one picking up wins. They are 2-0 while Gamba Osaka has two draws and Sanfrecce Hiroshima have yet to notch a point. So it could be a quiet round of 16 here in Japan.

The J League started a couple of weeks ago and there's not much to report there. I hope to get to some new stadiums this season, but the schedule makes it difficult to combine more than a couple of games in a weekend. It's just not worth the money or time to travel to Osaka to see two soccer games and nothing else.

Of course, baseball is a different matter, and the Japanese baseball season began for the Pacific League over the weekend, while the Central League starts this Friday. The minor leagues are underway as well, so I might try to catch a game or two when time permits, but having seen all the local stadiums last year makes this season a bit less compelling. I do hope to see some of the minor league stadiums in the Western League, but that schedule is not as road-trip friendly with only 5 teams.

Finally, a quick update on the bj League, Japan's pro basketball circuit. I saw games in 3 cities at the end of last year but obviously have not had much time to revisit the Tokyo Apache or other teams. The league still has a couple of months to go, so I'm planning to attend a couple of more games and perhaps some playoff action depending on who makes it.

Self-Indulgent Time

As you can see by the above updates, Japan has a rich and varied sports scene. But I don't spend as much time going to the games as I should. There are two main reasons for this.

The first is that I'm much more interested in doing true road trips. I prefer having a car and being able to see several games in different stadiums and cities over an extended period. It's not difficult to watch the local teams every day, that just takes cash, time, and an understanding partner. But I find that it gets boring after a while and I need some variety.

The second is that traveling in Japan is not cheap and not that easy. The bullet train is expensive and local trains are time-consuming and their fares can add up quickly. The sports venues are often quite far apart and not necessarily easy to get to on public transport. Hotels here are small and not that cheap either. So the best bet for road trips here is a short weekend with two or three games in a concentrated area, particularly if there's a travel package that can be found. I'll be looking for opportunities to do so in Hiroshima, Sapporo, and Nagoya later this year.

For now, the next month will be quiet, with just the Singapore and Malaysia trip on the schedule. After that, I should get busy again. I'm still set for two weeks in Arizona, Nevada, and California in May, as well as some time in Minneapolis and Kansas City in July. Finally, there will be a Christmas trip to Ottawa and the World Junior Hockey Championship in Buffalo around the New Year. It promises to be a busy season of road trips, so hope you can ride along.

Best,

Sean

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