Saturday, March 27, 2010

Whrooom .......the Australian Formula 1

Uncharacteristic for me (not being a petrol head) nor for Anna (definately) we wondered out to the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

First being new to this, we forgot our ear plugs. That was soon fixed with the purchase of a Survival Kit - earplugs, sunscreen and tablets for headache. Well the day was overcast - so the sunscreen was redundant but yes the plugs were mandatory. 

We settled on Turn 2 on the bank and were impressed with the power of these machines.  As we walked around the track area we saw different cars being tuned and prepared. This is going to sound silly, but not being petrol-heads: what impressed us were that these were not made for any degree of comfort or safety -- it was all about speed !

With our man Mark Webber gunning for 'pole' the crowd revelled in his fast laps. Lewis Hamilton who had been arrested the prior night for 'hooning' in St Kilda was not impressive on the track and struggled.  Despite this the crowd seemed to not give him a hard time; which of course made alot of sense when I realised that that would be for them make him more worthy of hero worship.

To cap off the day I even took a photograph with a Driver from the Mercedes Grand Prix team who I spotted in the public area. Not exactly sure who he was but he was wearing the Petrobras uniform that Schumacher Mercedes team wears - perhaps he is a backup driver?

(Footnote: we will be back for the Sunday session - not in our original plan, but hey this is great)

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