I used to live and work in Monaco where my office was directly above St.Devote (the first corner). Great view but a bit above it all on the 15th floor. If the Singapore GP goes ahead I won't be far away again
Oh what an awesome perspective that most have been! I can only imagine. I have been twice to the Monaco GP and always envied the VIPs watching the race from their balconies. Life can be sweet.
Better yet. I used to park in the garage underneath the office where they stash the course cars. In 1997 I blagged a lap of the circuit in a Renault Spider race car just before the GP. I was waving at the crowds who thought I was a VIP, what a laugh!
If they want to have another street race by the water they should do it in Beirut, Lebanon. Plus it's pretty central for both Asia and Europe.
Singapore will be a great place to host a F1 race. The city is beautiful and the people are very welcoming. Singapore is also a ver safe place and has the resources and infrastruture to handle a F1 event. I am Beirut, Lebanon, is not such a god idea given security concerns and lack of infrastructure. Do not misunderstand me... I have visited Beirut and it is a great place to visit, but I do not see the infrastructure and resources that will be required in Beirut.
The question is: Does Singapore want to have the F1 fans? Not all of them are wine drinkers and cheese eaters. Chances are some of them get out of hand and - brace yourself now - might even spit their chewing gum on the floor. Heck,I've heard of young kids spray painting. Better get those canes ready...
Remember the start of 1994 guys?. Senna had little or no points leading up to Imola ... MS is in exactly the same situation. The only difference is that he has not changed team and is not as emotional. But in both cases the expected champion was struggling with a below par car and a new younger man was putting the pressure on (Alonso in this case). Lets just hope MS is handling the pressure better than Senna did ... 'cause I still believe that that was the major cause of the accident. Sorry to be morbid ... but my father just reminded me of the similarities and he and I will be both glad when Imola is over and everybody is okay, etc. ... and a great race was had Pete [EDIT:]Er somehow I posted this in the wrong thread .. was supposed to be in 'Upcoming F1 races -What to expect?- ' ... [/EDIT]
When visiting a country it is important to abode by the rules of that nation. If some F1 fan spits gum or spray paints in Singapore then the local law enforcement will deal with the issue as they see fit.
I understand that part. I'm just wondering whether the Singapore officials have thought this through: They want a GP to boost their global image and attract tourists and businesses. But they might get also a bunch of hooligans who won't play by the city's rules. So the Singaporian authorities might get caught in a situation where they need to go by their book, which includes Medieval punishment such as public caning and thereby offend the world and smear their own image they tried to boost in the first place.
To be honest i cant see to many people being bothered by hooligans copping a caning, hell most would like it to happen in their neck of the woods
True and I didn't feel to bad when they caned that American kid who spraypainted Mercs. But I'm sure it would be a PR nightmare for Singapore. Kinda like that famous pic of the guy and the tank in Tyenamen (sp?) square.
It would be nice to see F1 in Lebanon, but I know it would never happen. It was more of a joke, then a real comment. But it's interesting you say that Beirut would not have the infrastructure to support the volume (of people) required by F1, Monaco is the same size if not smaller yet they can accommodate the people. Let's take security out of the equation, I realize it's not stable lately, but let's say it was. How is the infrastructure in Monaco any different than Beirut? This is not an attack on your statement I'm just curious!
Monaco's infrastructure is neighbouring Nice. That's where the hotels, restaurants and airport are. Forget Monaco, that's only for a few thousand super rich.
There are many support structures that are required in order to host an F1 race. Here are some examples. Hotels to accomodate teams, fans, officials, press, media and support staff. Airports and logistic providers to move equipment and transport all the "visitors". Local infrastructure to route traffic another way during race day (non F1 related people still will want to go about their lives). An extensive telecommunications network to support the press and the media that decend on the city with their laptops, cell phones and satellite link ups. These are just some examples. Singapore has this infrastructure in place. Beirut on the other hand might have some catching up to do.
On the other hand, tolerance for hooligans is at an all time low. Singapore has a well defined and structured justice system. So if the person is found guilty, many people around the world will applaud a public show to punish the hooligan and make an example of the culprit. Places like Bahrain and Dubai also have similar justice and punitive systems. Their image around the world has not yet been tarnished. In the US and Europe, we refer to their system of punishing criminals as Medieval only because we have moved on from those days and decided on a new system. What is to say that in all reality the old "Medieval" system was right and the crime rate was lower! I remember travelling to Singapore with a few colleagues and someone handing us a pamphlet that explained the general rules and regulations. It stated clearly no littering, no chewing gum and no spitting on the road. Yet one member of my travelling party decided to do just that. The authorities did what they had to do. No one around the world made a big deal out of it. I do not know if the punishement would have been the same if the person was not a visitor. None the less the individual was punished and learnt a lesson.
