Sunday, April 10, 2016

Finding The Singapore F1 Course

Happy Monday! Well, for some of us at least. I am in Singapore this week, traveling with my wife, Darcy, as she attends a trade show here.

Let me tell you, the trip here is an absolute haul. Our flight left Chicago at noon on Thursday, and the first leg of the trip was a 13 1/2 hour flight to Tokyo. We were only there a couple of hours but it gave me the chance to try sushi for the first time, as well as sake.

Both were really good, especially the sake. But man, it certainly doesn't take much to hit you pretty hard!

Next was a 6 1/2 hour flight from Tokyo to Singapore, and we arrived at just after midnight, meaning we spent around 23 hours traveling and experienced a 13-hour time change.

I'm still adjusting to the jet lag, but it's getting better, I don't have the desire to sleep ALL the time, so I'm adjusting.

After spending Saturday getting accustomed to my surroundings, I was up at about 6:30 on Sunday morning and decided to go for a run.

Our hotel is just across the street from the Singapore River, which has a riverwalk that connects to the marina, a place with a ton of things to see and do, along with beautiful views of the skyline. That is also where much of the Formula 1 racecourse is located, so I decided to add finding as much as I could of the course.

Looking at it on Google maps before the trip, I thought it might be difficult to find, but it really wasn't. I actually stumbled across one section of it almost without even realizing it. Next to the marina is a large section of grandstands, which faces a floating soccer pitch, and it turns out the running path in front of it is part of the F1 course!

You can see the paint on the ground in front of the grandstands. All of the barricades that were up were for a half marathon that was going on that morning.

The course actually turns in and goes under the grandstand, then joins up with the street on the other side. At the intersection at the corner you can still see some of the paint from a DHL logo.

I hope that is the case throughout the course as tomorrow I may go out and try and walk the entire circuit.

I continued following the edge of the painted line of the edge of the pavement -- it was barricaded -- and on the other side of the Singapore Flyer, the large ferris wheel you can see
in the above photo were the garages. I made my way down behind them and was able to get around the barricades near pit out and the first couple of corners of the course.

In the background there are some luxury suites. After watching some highlights of the race, it's pretty amazing what it looks like on race weekend compared to what it looks like now.

Once on the other side of the barriers, I was able to move up for a closer look. It's pretty cool how each individual garage still has the driver's
names above them. I'll post all of those photos at the bottom.

Finding the start-finish line was pretty easy as it was the same starting line for the half marathon!

The finish line is a little further down, which I found a bit strange, but it is still there.

It's just an interesting setup, while the doors to the garage areas are locked, of course, there are no fenced-off areas or anything else that keeps people away. That and the course itself
is used for running, biking, etc all year round. Much like Monza, it's funny how accessible the circuit is to the public.

Below you'll find more photos from my adventures, as well as a few I took of the surroundings so you can see what the area looks like around the circuit.

Enjoy!







































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