Singapore Grand Prix 2015 - Formula 1 Night Race

The past weekend had Singapore in a flurry of activities, with the F1 night race taking place!

F1 has always held fond memories for me, ever since my school mates and I were kindly volunteered by our tertiary institution to work for free as part of an attachment, to gain experience and exposure. It really gave me an eye-opener, for I stepped into the Paddock Club for the first time, got allocated to the Ferrari suite (which then sparked my love for the Prancing Horse), and stood side by side with racer Kimi Raikkonen. The rubbing shoulders with superstars did not stop there, I also got to see Lewis Hamilton close up during a charity gala auction dinner.

But ever since that very first F1 held by Singapore, which was also my first, I had not been part of the action. Attempts to ballot for the free tickets dished out by my company had been futile, I have never been 1 to have such luck. This year, 2015, due to Maroon 5, I bought my very own F1 Walkabout Ticket!

Very proud owner, even though it is just a walkabout ticket

Had never been to the walkabout carnival area, and after exiting City Hall MRT, when queueing up to enter, you can hear the sound of the engines! 

Paid a visit to the dear title sponsor, Singapore Airlines' booth 

They had this damn awesome mural wall for people to take photos, 

totally love the vibrant colours! 

It was a rather good initiative to make the exhibit more interactive; if you look closely enough, you can see that it actually also functions as a photo screen for people to take photos! Unfortunately, the background is not very nice, you can see passer-bys walking around at the back. Would have been so much better if it was a standard background. 

But of course, they are not the highlight. The qualifying race was going on as we went about exploring and trying to find the best spot to watch the cars. Eventually, we settled here and camped out. 

The straight stretch of road in front of Esplanade, with a sharp bend coming at the end of the stretch (translate: cars will slow down as they approach the end of this stretch, so we can get better views!)

Can you spot the Ferrari?

Or the Mercedes? 

We had fun spotting the cars and identifying the team at first, but soon advanced to spotting the driver. How? By spotting the colour of the helmet! So you need to identify both the car AND the helmet within that split second when the car raced past. The challenging part about spotting the helmet is that, some are very similar. At certain angles, you may miss the identifier or unique trademark of the helmet and recognised the wrong driver. 

The spotting guide that came with the booklet, our mantra for the race 

No secret that many of the crowd came because of Maroon 5, so after the qualifying was finished, we quickly headed to the Padang to get a good spot for the concert. Our definition of good spot = behind the mega huge screen (since it is impossible to be at the front such that we can see them clearly), but yet as close to the stage as possible. 

This was the spot we picked in the end. 

Check out the crowd waiting eagerly for the band! 

We actually waited one hour for the concert to start, and luckily everyone was seated down and no standing was done until the concert commenced. Adam Levine shaved his head bald, which in my opinion, reduced his sexiness and appeal a bit, but his awesome crooning and hot bod totally won many girls over. 

CAN YOU SEE HIMMMMM

Goshhhhh, just a human being, but able to command such a huge audience

Crooning away~~

At one part of the concert, he actually put on a bright flamingo pink electric guitar and started strumming away, running around on stage, and singing at times with it. 

Everyone knows that Maroon 5 songs are damn hard to sing - it starts low, goes higher and higher, and the beat / rhythm is catchy. Adam Levine was simply amazing during the live concert; his first few songs were a little off, but I believe that is due to his vocals not warming up yet. After the 5th song, it was apparent that he has gone into concert mode and started getting more and more high, along with the songs. Not only did he performed the songs well, managed to rah-rah the crowd, but he also made some impromptu changes to the tune of the songs on the spot. And of course, how could they end the night without performing the latest hit, Sugar? 

Here are some for enjoyment =) 

This was the only video I managed to upload successfully; have a couple more but couldn't upload it here as the video size exceeds the maximum limit allowed by Blogger. Nonetheless, enjoy!! Will see if I can upload it on Dayre =) 

Also, this is the last post before I jet off to Seoul, South Korea! Will utilise my camera more there, and snap more photos!