Singapore to name 3 Corners for next GP

THREE turns on the Singapore Grand Prix’ 5.067km Marina Bay Circuit will be named next month, and the three racers Today spoke to yesterday are hoping to see history honoured.
Singapore GP and Today launched It’s Your Turn at the Singapore Grand Prix yesterday, inviting readers to email in suggestions with names for Turns 1, 7 and 10 on the circuit.

“I hope we find appropriate names that make you understand what the nature of the turn is when you hear them,” said former motorcycle racer Looi Beng Hoe, 62, who rode in the original Singapore Grand Prix from 1959 to 1973.
“Like ‘Devil’s Bend’ — when you hear that name, you know it’s to be feared and respected. It was a treacherous corner in the race, and even now, I still think.”
Devil’s Bend was an iconic turn on the original Singapore Grand Prix circuit at Old Upper Thomson Road.

Motorcyclist Alfred Armstrong, who raced alongside Looi in the 1960s and 70s, agreed.
Said the 66-year-old: “The names of corners at the Old Singapore GP werevery appropriate, like The Snakes and Devil’s Bend.
“They are the kind of names you can tell your grandchildren and they’ll know what you’re talking about. They’ve got history.”

Hafiz Koh, Singapore’s youngest professional racecar driver at 25 years of age, may not be familiar with the twists and turns of Old Upper Thomson, but he’d like to see Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew mentioned.
“We shouldn’t name the track after drivers who come and go,” said Koh, who had three Formula V6 Asia driver podium finishes last year.
“Turn 10 is near the old Supreme Court, and I’d like to see it named after the Minister Mentor, for what he’s done to bring Singapore to where it is today.”
Shamir Osman - TODAY Paper

Ticket Price Review for Singapore GP

TICKET prices for this year’s Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix will reflect the current economic climate.

Singapore GP gave the assurance yesterday, and already in the pipeline are offerings like “early bird” packages, which will offer significant savings compared to last year’s prices in many popular areas.
“We are committed to cater to the demands of all race fans,” said a Singapore GP spokesman. “In the early bird phase we will also extend the popular one-day ticket on Friday with the lowest price ever to experience the Grand Prix.”

While the ticket prices for the public have still to be finalised, all corporate tickets except for the Paddock Club went on sale yesterday. The organisers are confident that premium corporate suites around the 5km street circuit for the Sept 27 race will still be able to fetch top dollar, which is why the price for the Stamford Suite, for example, has gone up. They now range from $5,000-$7,000, an increase of $1,500 and $2,500, respectively.
Said the spokesman: “Prices for some were raised because they were not realistic. The Stamford Suite, for example, had the same menu and two viewing spots, compared with other premium locations around the track, but were priced lower. It just wasn’t realistic.”
Singapore GP will offer a lower entry price point for this year’s race to attract corporate clients.
“We have introduced an option with The Green Room at Turn 3 at $3,388, much lower than the Sky Suite, which remains at $6,500,” said the company’s spokesman.

Singapore GP also revealed yesterday that they have been given the green light to make adjustments to the circuit.
Turn 1, after the Start/Finish line, and Turns 13 and 14, in front of the Fullerton Hotel and Esplanade, respectively, will be modified to provide more overtaking opportunities, while the entry and exit points of the pitlane will be repositioned, after drivers complained during last September’s race that the current design could cause accidents.

Ian De Cotta
ian@mediacorp.com.sg

Tweeked Singapore Circuit in Hopes of more overtakings

The Marina Bay circuit, which plays host to Formula 1’s night race in Singapore, will undergo layout changes in a bid to boost overtaking ahead of its second grand prix later this year.
The sport’s inaugural floodlit race was widely hailed as a big success last September, but organisers have wanted to improve the racing spectacle for 2009 and have now announced track alterations following discussions between themselves, the teams and FIA.

These are headlined by minor changes to turns one, 13 and 14 to try and give drivers a better opportunity to attempt a passing move.
In addition the controversial pit lane entry, which used the exact same piece of track as cars on a flying lap and saw Nick Heidfeld and Rubens Barrichello penalised for an incident there in 2008, and exit will be revised, while improvements to the bumpy track surface will be made between turns five and seven.
“While the circuit and the event exceeded expectations around the world, as with any brand new event, there are always things which we now know we can do better,” said Singapore’s technical and race operations director, Michael McDonough.

“Minor modifications are proposed on the track, at Turns one, seven and 14 in order to improve overtaking opportunities whilst the main changes will be to the pit entry and pit exit to provide added margins of safety for cars entering and leaving the pit lane.”
Organisers say changes to the first corner will involve moving the corner apex and reducing the corner radius in a bid to reduce entry speeds and give drivers more of an opportunity to try an out-braking move into the turn.
And after drivers took advantage of a concrete verge to take a wide line into the corner last year, kerbing will also be installed on the entry so to force drivers to take a narrower line.

Changes at turn 13 will see the previously tight left-handed hairpin, the turn immediately after the iconic Anderson Bridge, altered to increase cornering speeds so cars carry more speed down the next straight into the braking zone at turn 14.
In addition the geometry of turn 14 will be altered to give more overtaking chances under braking.
Meanwhile, the pit lane entry and exit changes will see a dedicated approach lane created, with the vast run-off areas around the final turn reduced, while the exit will be extended past the first turn so drivers now feed back onto the circuit off the racing line at turn two.

Singapore F1 track scoops award

The Singapore Marina Bay street circuit has come into the limelight again after winning international praise with its inaugural night race on Sept 28.

The street circuit has won the title of world-wide Motor Sport Facility of the Year at the Professional Motor Sport World annual awards ceremony, held in Cologne, Germany on Nov 11.
The Singapore Grand Prix venue was commended both for the revolutionary track lighting and the spectacular way in which it wove the track through the heart of the city.

The Singapore Grand Prix venue went up against other candidates such as the European Grand Prix venue at Valencia in Spain, the new Toyota Racing Development chassis engineering building in Cologne and a new start-of-the-art motor racing facility at Sturup, near Malmo in Sweden.

Jonathan Hallett, Director of Media and Communications for Singapore GP, praised the entire team involved in the event.
'We are delighted that the efforts of the entire team, the invaluable contribution from all our fantastic partners, and the strong collaborative efforts from the government agencies and businesses, particularly those around the circuit, have been recognised by this award,' he said.
The Professional Motor Sport World Awards, which are in their third year of recognising international motor sports endeavours, were selected by a distinguished judging panel from all areas of the sport.

Other awards given out at the gala Award show in Cologne included Safety Innovation of the Year (awarded to the FIA Foundation for their work in improving safety in the World Rally Championship), and Team Principal of the Year (awarded to Franz Tost of Scuderia Toro Rosso).

Exclusive! First Day at the Track!

First Day at the track was in a word awesome! A full dress rehearsal for about 900 marshals, medics and training officials. Here are some photos from last night. Oh and during our last briefing at around 9 plus in the evening, I was distracted with the sight of several F1 drivers walking out of their garage together. There was Kubica, Bourdais, Rosberg, Kovaleinen ( I said a hello earlier in the day).. and... Raikonnen and Massa fooling around on bicycles. It was quite a sight. But as we were still being briefed, it wouldn't be proper for me to snap a pic of that moment. Anyway, the experience is thrilling. Have a great race weekend!

Body-clock problems for F1 Drivers

Lewis Hamilton isn't eating breakfast before early afternoon while McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen has blacked out his hotel windows and taken his phone off the hook.
There is more than meets the eye to preparing for Formula One's inaugural night race.
Qualifying on Saturday for the historic event will not take place until 10:00 pm while the race itself on Sunday begins at 8:00 pm, hours later than the mid-afternoon starts the drivers are used to.

None of the top names getting ready for the Singapore Grand Prix has raced an F1 car after dark, or so late, and to be at their peak new regimes have been put in place by team bosses.
Essentially, it boils down to the drivers remaining on European time rather than acclimatising to Singapore's seven-hour time difference.
"Singapore is going to be a unique challenge for every member of the team," said Britain's championship leader Hamilton.

"Our doctor has prepared a very precise schedule for the drivers to stick to because all the sessions are so late in the day. Essentially we must not acclimatise to the local time which is totally different to how we normally operate."

"Our training programmes ensure that over a race weekend we are at peak performance during the afternoons and as a result we are going to be staying in European time so this doesn't get disrupted."

For Hamilton it will mean getting up early in the afternoon for breakfast, having dinner at 1:00 am and going to bed around 3:00 am -- not easy when your body naturally wants to adjust to the local conditions.

"It will be very different preparation to any other race but we'll try and do the best job we can," he added.

Kovalainen is adopting similar tactics. "For example, the hotel rooms will be blacked out so we can sleep late into the day," he said. "Special arrangements will be put in place to make sure the cleaners don't come into the room as they would not expect people to be sleeping until early afternoon. "The telephones will not ring, all those kind of things. We will essentially be isolated from the normal workings of the hotel."

Toyota driver Timo Glock's regime is rather less elaborate. "I won't do anything special -- just go and race. I will set the alarm when I have to get into the car," he said. "That's it. I don't philosophise about what I'm going to do to stay in whatever time zone. I will get up when I have to get up, I will sleep when I have to sleep and I will drive when I have to drive."

Red Bull nightowl David Coulthard can see the benefits of staying on European time and is looking forward to it. "I am staying up late at night, I am going out to nightclubs, and I'm eating a lot of carrots because they apparently help you to see better in the dark," he joked.

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said getting into the swing of the different night-time routine was one of the toughest challenges facing every team in Singapore. "Inevitably, ensuring all the team personnel have the opportunity to get enough sleep will be the main challenge over the course of the weekend," he said. "For example, the mechanics won't be going to bed until 4:00-5:00 am, because we finish running late in the evening and there is a programme of work to complete prior to the next day.

"The reality is, it will be hard work for the mechanics, engineers, support crew, marketing operation and we will take measures to support this. But I don't believe it will have a massive impact on the cars and the drivers."

Singtel Singapore F1 Grand Prix Simulator.

I have managed to book a slot for this afternoon at the Comcenter to go round a few laps on Singtel Singapore F1 Grand Prix Simulator.
My slot is at 4 pm and I'll post pics and maybe a couple of videos on the event ( If I don't crash too often that is...)
Come back later to find out how it'all went.

How it all went ?

I arrived early so I got to practise some laps on the PC simulator first, for about 20mn and so did my wife ( Who doesnt have a driving license by the way)

Then it was time for the real stuff...

don't be disapointed it's gonna pass very fast. You are limited to 2 full laps or 10 mn whichever comes first and no extension allowed...

After it was all over, I had spare time to try on the racing suit and take some pics for souvenirs

Thank you to the staff on duty for their help and good humour.

More Singapore F1 tickets on sale from Monday

THREE-DAY grandstand passes at $498 each along the Padang for the 2008 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix will go on sale on Monday. A total of 10,000 tickets will be made available, while another 1,000 tickets at the same price on the City Hall steps will be released later this month once the configurations for seating have been confirmed.
.Organisers Singapore GP also said on Friday that details of one-day walkabout ticket passes and the launch of Premier Grandstands at the Esplanade and Singapore Flyer will also be announced soon.
.Tickets for the two Premier Grandstands are expected to be in the high end as they will include hospitality aimed primarily for corporate entertainment.
.In a separate announcement, ticket distributors OmniTicket Network said they have improved the ticketing system considerably, multiplying the number of connections the system can take by four times and installing separate connections for the call centres and over-the-counter sales at SingPost outlets.
.The improved system will now also be able to tell buyers making their purchases online of the number of tickets available.
.Apart from the website http://www.singaporegp.sg/ and SingPost outlets, tickets can also bought by calling 6738 6738.