My trip to Shanghai(to watch the F1!)

Hi guys, noticed my thread title is past tense, as for security reasons, I didn't really tell many people I left the country.

Anyways, I wasn't even sure I was going to Shanghai until a month before the race! I told my missus as a joke, lets go to Shanghai to visit your sister, and I can go watch the F1! My missus asked me later the same evening to ask when the race was? A quick search online, and it was over Easter weekend, which means my kid will be on a 2 week break, so she says lets go! Game on!!

Of course we needed to call the sister first to see if it's ok, and to see if she could sort me out with some F1 tickets, no problem she said, and a few days later, she emailed me a pic of this!



I can't even express how excited I am!


So after an 11hr flight over to Shanghai and making it to the house, I finally got my hand onto the pass, it opens up to this.



And inside is the F1 lanyard and pass.



I got there one hour early, and was still near the back of the queue! Lol, took this whilst waiting.



The actual signing session was a minefield I managed to get 19/22 signatures, Massa was a no show, so all his supporters with their Brazilian flags was disappointed, didn't get Adrian Suitil's and Marcus Eriksson.

Couple of pics of the drivers

Kimi, cool as ice he was, whilst the grumpy Alonso disappeared after 10 minutes, Kimi had loads of time for the fans. He didn't say much, but he hung around and signed everything he could! No wonder the Chinese fans love him so much!



Seb, he didn't mind signing aswell, though you could see his body language, he wasn't the happiest chap, that award goes to Dan Ricciardo, no pic of him unfortunately.



Riccairdo, all smiles from this man, clearly in a better mood than his team mate.



Nico Rosberg, just got on with it really.



Last but not least, Lewis comes out, easily the most wanted autograph, the crowd roared as he came out, and I was nearly crushed as he came my side first. Now I didn't have time to take a pic of him up front, as I had this A3 poster I wanted him to sign! He actually paused for a moment, laughed, then signed it!



It's me in the pic btw.

The podium(through some metal railings)


As much as I enjoyed the signing session, my son broke his arm whilst I was gone, the missus didn't tell me until I was on my way back, so I could enjoy myself! I went to the hospital direct from the F1 track!
Still suffering from jet lag, I stayed up most of the night beside him, it was a second break of the same bone in 6 months, a clean break this time round, so had to be repaired under anaesthetic!
The hospital bill was just over 50k RMB in the end, or £5.1k basically, but luckily, I purchased travel insurance the night before I left, and it's all covered!

I gave free practice a miss, but went to Quali, really happy Lewis got the pole!

I was allowed onto the grid after quali aswell.

Turn one.


Pit Exit as the light was fading fast!


Picked up a piece of 'marbles' off the pit straight as a momento.


On Race day, I ended up sitting in the grandstand just ahead of the start line.


I didn't take many pics during the race, got a couple of vids, need to upload them on YT before I can post them up. I went there prepared with earplugs and ear defenders, but both was not needed, as the sound was loud, but bearable, certainly missing the screaming V8 aspect of yesteryear! The experience was great though, but I think it's easier to follow the race on television than sitting on the trackside.

Lewis Hamilton was cleaning up naturally, you could see the gap getting bigger and bigger everytime he drove by, after lap12, he was heading into turn 1 and Vettel was coming into view on the last turn for the pit straight, which I found amusing. Of course the day was capped off by my man Hamilton taking the chequered flag at the end, which made me very happy indeed!

The seat allocation is a farce, it's a free for all, first come first served! Lol, I managed to find this seat by luck! I also had to leave as soon as Lewis got onto the podium, couldn't hang around for the driver's interviews or anything, as we needed to escape before the traffic got heavy!

Overall though, I'm glad I went, it's a nice way to pop my live F1 cherry, but experience aside, I was more worried for my son, he made it with me to watch the race, despite me telling him he needed to stay at home, he really wanted to go!

He's all smiles though, and nothing fades him. Even got him a Real Madrid 'Ronaldo' kit to cheer him up!

JoJo jnr.

Ha, if you noticed I put no pic of Riccairdo in the text above, then I posted a pic of Riccairdo. I typed it up, then realised I DID have a pic of Riccairdo, and inserted it. lol

One thing I forgot to mention aswell is all the F1 drivers are tiny, I think maybe Jenson was the tallest one? But I guess it's a bit like horse jockeys being tiny is the advantage, the smaller you are as a driver, the lower you can stick your ballast to reduce your center of gravity.

I also got these free for the race. The seats there are like nasty plastic seats you get on a fairground ride, totally exposed and filthy, so they gave away these foldable cushions with the track layout pressed into it. I got my hands on 2 unused ones and brought them back to Blighty.

Cars pulling off from the grid for their installation/warm up lap



Gap between the top 4 cars after 3 laps.



Lewis Hamilton crossing the Finish Line!



I didn't film the start, as it's the most exciting bit of the race, and I wanted to watch it in full live, than hold my iPhone in front of me to film it!

Andy Crooks said:

Lucky sod

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Indeed I am, apart from the flight tickets and a bit of spending money, mostly spent on travelling by Taxi, which was dirt cheap, and food, the whole F1 thing cost me zilch, my Sister in law pulled some strings to sort me the driver's signing session and race weekend.

If you think driving standards are poor over here, China will shock you! The only difference is, there's very little roadrage over there, they all accept its part and parcel of driving whilst being cut up multiple of times every journey, whilst you do it to other drivers aswell. The horn is used constantly to warn other motorists you are either there or about to make manouver where you will cross someone else's path. Things that your just wouldn't get away with in this country anyways.

45bvtc said:

Hey jojo, I have to say that the machinery available in 1985 Shanghai was somewhat different for me:

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I don't recall seeing one of these there, just a load of MPVs and SUVs these days, and VW Santana's(like a B3 Passat hybrid) as Taxi's. Plus a load of electric moped being rode with no form of head protection, and they don't flick their headlights on at night!