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stusegalA fantastic trip to see our first Formula 1 race in Montreal . . . . where we got to party with Jackie Stewart, and see Robert Kubica win his first Grand Prix in the mighty BMW . . . . .
PARTY WITH JACKIE STEWART!
Saturday night GP Tours invited us to a dinner, and unexpectedly (at least to us) Sir Jackie Stewart showed up and shared some racing stories with us, and spoke about Jim McKay who was his friend and who passed away today. Then they had an ITV commentator James Allen interview Pedro De La Rosa who is now a test driver for McLaren and Sam Michael who is tech director for Williams.
On Friday night we were at a cocktail party which finished off with Mark Webber and Peter Windsor talking about all kinds of things.
All pretty interesting stuff, but especially listening to Mark Webber and Jackie Stewart.
QUALIFYING!
So we showed up at the Circuit this afternoon to watch qualifying live. Our seats were in the grandstand at the end of the hairpin turn.
Q1 & Q2 were interesting, but thank goodness we rented the thing called "Kangaroo TV" from F1. It's a very cool handheld wireless device that has live streaming video from the main TV feed and from in-car cameras, and most importantly it has live timing. So instead of sitting there and having no idea of anything but the cars powering by, you get live timing and can see the lap times and positions of everyone (and they have the "knockout" positions highlighted so you can always tell who's going to be bumped).
At the end of Q2 we left the grandstand and moved onto a piece of lawn along the curved straight between turns 7 and 8 - where the cars come flying by, maybe 15 feet from the lawn where we were sitting. And since it was Q3 everyone was on track, and the sound was just awesome!
And the most exciting part was (SPOILER FOLLOWS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN QUALIFYING) in the final minute Kubica literally flew by in the mighty BMW Sauber, and then we saw on the live timing he was P1 - - - to be taken away in the next 30 seconds by Lewis. But how exciting it was to think Kubica was going to be on pole, even for just an instant.
So tomorrow we're hoping for Kubica to pull a holeshot and make it to turn 1 first.
The only negative of the trip - suprisingly, the heat and humidity feels more like Asia than Canada.
WE'RE HERE . . . .
. . . . for our first Grand Prix!!!!!
We got to the track this morning just as F1 practice began, and were standing on the straight leading into the hairpin turn as the first car, one of the Sauber BMW's, thundered by - - - wow, what a thrill!!! That first sight and sound of the mighty BMW made the entire trip worthwhile!
So then we sat in the hairpin for the practice session - - - and everyone quietly watched as Rubens, and Mark, and Robert, and Fernando, and everybody did their practice laps. And about an hour into the session the Ferraris came onto the track ant the entire crowd came to life - - every time the Ferraris passed our bleacher a roar went up from the crowd! I guess, no matter what they all say, they've all come to see the Ferraris!
Anyway, after one half day here at the Grand Prix du Canada I can report Rashmika and I are having a great time - we're invited to a party hosted by Mark Webber tonight, and then we'll be at qualifying tomorrow and the race on Sunday.
I'm a tad concerned about the 92 degree heat plus humidity forecast for Saturday and Sunday (given a certain health condition), but we'll do our best to deal with it.
PARTY WITH JACKIE STEWART!
Saturday night GP Tours invited us to a dinner, and unexpectedly (at least to us) Sir Jackie Stewart showed up and shared some racing stories with us, and spoke about Jim McKay who was his friend and who passed away today. Then they had an ITV commentator James Allen interview Pedro De La Rosa who is now a test driver for McLaren and Sam Michael who is tech director for Williams.
On Friday night we were at a cocktail party which finished off with Mark Webber and Peter Windsor talking about all kinds of things.
All pretty interesting stuff, but especially listening to Mark Webber and Jackie Stewart.
QUALIFYING!
So we showed up at the Circuit this afternoon to watch qualifying live. Our seats were in the grandstand at the end of the hairpin turn.
Q1 & Q2 were interesting, but thank goodness we rented the thing called "Kangaroo TV" from F1. It's a very cool handheld wireless device that has live streaming video from the main TV feed and from in-car cameras, and most importantly it has live timing. So instead of sitting there and having no idea of anything but the cars powering by, you get live timing and can see the lap times and positions of everyone (and they have the "knockout" positions highlighted so you can always tell who's going to be bumped).
At the end of Q2 we left the grandstand and moved onto a piece of lawn along the curved straight between turns 7 and 8 - where the cars come flying by, maybe 15 feet from the lawn where we were sitting. And since it was Q3 everyone was on track, and the sound was just awesome!
And the most exciting part was (SPOILER FOLLOWS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN QUALIFYING) in the final minute Kubica literally flew by in the mighty BMW Sauber, and then we saw on the live timing he was P1 - - - to be taken away in the next 30 seconds by Lewis. But how exciting it was to think Kubica was going to be on pole, even for just an instant.
So tomorrow we're hoping for Kubica to pull a holeshot and make it to turn 1 first.
The only negative of the trip - suprisingly, the heat and humidity feels more like Asia than Canada.
WE'RE HERE . . . .
. . . . for our first Grand Prix!!!!!
We got to the track this morning just as F1 practice began, and were standing on the straight leading into the hairpin turn as the first car, one of the Sauber BMW's, thundered by - - - wow, what a thrill!!! That first sight and sound of the mighty BMW made the entire trip worthwhile!
So then we sat in the hairpin for the practice session - - - and everyone quietly watched as Rubens, and Mark, and Robert, and Fernando, and everybody did their practice laps. And about an hour into the session the Ferraris came onto the track ant the entire crowd came to life - - every time the Ferraris passed our bleacher a roar went up from the crowd! I guess, no matter what they all say, they've all come to see the Ferraris!
Anyway, after one half day here at the Grand Prix du Canada I can report Rashmika and I are having a great time - we're invited to a party hosted by Mark Webber tonight, and then we'll be at qualifying tomorrow and the race on Sunday.
I'm a tad concerned about the 92 degree heat plus humidity forecast for Saturday and Sunday (given a certain health condition), but we'll do our best to deal with it.