#tommy hilfiger cap | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

paddockpr · 11 months

Note

Hey, something has been bugging me, and im wondering what the pr perspective is. What on earth is the pr strategy for most of the teams when they decided to publicly state that they hate the idea of Andretti joining? It just comes off as whinning to me

Hey anon, thanks for the question!

What you are seeing here has a lot to do with how teams use or attempt to use their PR positioning. This is also a major example of why PR is so important, which is that you can leverage it for things that go beyond brand image and go into the very nature of profit in sports. I will briefly touch on the PR of F1 for context and then talk about why teams may be behaving this way.

F1 PR

When it comes to F1 there is one thing that is paramount to understanding its business model, which is how exclusive it is, Even if they accept the Andretti bid that is part of the appeal. F1 sells itself as exclusive and luxurious.

Where other motorsports are also expensive and highly exclusive, they may present themselves as somewhat rough and tumble, with a lot of emphasis on ideas of grit and being "hardcore" so to speak. You see it a lot when fans of one motorsport weigh in on which motorsport is the best one in terms of skill and the likes by weighing in on racecraft related skills like endurance, frequency of collision and strategy. The other thing to understand is the luxury aspect and the monetary value of that.

I touched on the association with certain groups on the Charles essay, what with the Monaco GP, and things like high profile guests etc come into it, but another element of that is that luxury in sports also is the means through which teams justify the high price tag to participate in the sport as a fan.

You can also see this in things like the culture around attending Wimbledon (a similar feel to the Monaco GP) or Equestrian Dressage and so on. And whilst generally sports merchandise is expernsive regardless of the sport, and the fans that frequent these sporting events live are not the average fan (hence the importance of things like viewership and social media engagement which are less cost prohibitive than for example going to a La Liga final or the Superbowl in person and has not just merch and tickets, but food, hotels, transport and so on but that is another essay entirely). F1 is a whole other ball park of that.

F1 sells that its luxury and exclusivity is a necessity. If you look at most sports, a big part of sports journalism is about growing the game, even ones considered to be the domain of the rich like tennis. And when teams sell to audiences they are selling their merchandise, yes, but they are also selling the rare opportunity, perhaps the only one to invest in being a participant.

F1 tracks are predominantly in the middle of nowhere and are already logistically difficult to go to, there is emphasis on the heritage of the sport and most of the sponsors outside of gambling companies are also for people who make a lot of money.

Think about the response to a potential Porsche-RBR team versus RBR-Ford, or about the Mercedes team uniform and merch being Tommy Hilfiger. The luxury and prstige with a high price point is part and parcel of how F1 makes its money.

If you participate in the sport outside of social media and TV, the cheapest parts of participation (like a standard issue team cap or a lanyard) are pricier even compared to other motorsports like NASCAR. I remember last year the special pride collection from NASCAR was cheaper than any standard issue F1 merch. And this is actually where (at least I think haha) Andretti comes in.

The Andretti Animosity

Andretti comes from the American (although American motorsports is extremely popular outside the US but once again, another essay) cultural understanding of motorsports which is more laid back, more easily accessible and is understood to be cost prohibitive but not to fans. American motorsports have a host of accessibility issues both in person and through things like TV, and like most sports the fans that can afford to attend are the minority, the kind of pricing around F1 for fans would be considered to be outrageous.

Yes in those spaces F1 is also seen as this high price point product, but if IndyCar for example were to sell at the price point of F1 it wouldn't fly. For F1 with some of the cheaper tickets being (at least when I looked it up) 2000 USD when its expensive to spend 200 USD at IndyCar, the amount that F1 fans pay to attend is steep. And then F1 says, yes but there is only 20 drivers and 10 teams with some of the most expensive engineering in the world and therein lies the disgruntlement re 11th teams and the idea of how much dilution fees should be.

They likely are not refusing Andretti because they think its beneficial PR wise, they are trying to leverage the PR that they have because they perceive any 11th team as a threat to exorbitant pricing and sky high profits. They are also attempting to close the door on further pushes for more teams. As you may have seen people already brought up Haas and that is what they don't want, precedence to add more teams. So from a PR perspective how may you leverage that?

The main things to consider are as follows:

American audiences are viewed as desirable as a profitable group to sell F1 to

The prices and nature of access that American audiences associate with motorsports that they are already familiar with is far cheaper than F1

American audiences would likely invest more with a team that is not just American owned or driven, but feels culturally American

So you as a team see that there is money to be made, in an audience that does not need to be convinced that motorsports can be interesting, but these audiences are not satisfied by your arguments that they should be open to such high price points, their local taxpayers footing the bill to host F1 races, and an audience of non American fans that hold contempt (for both valid and invalid reasons) for anything that they consider "too American".

So, either you let a team, especially an American one like Andretti in, you tell American fans that you have someone truly American for them to root for. You know Andretti already, and now you can support him in the exclusive big leagues. It is more expensive than you are used to, but its a global stage, an exclusive one, imagine being able to support your team every weekend.

To you and me, that is a sweet deal, especially since the bid includes General Motors and the F1 factory being US based. And its so likely that the profits really go into overdrive as a result, and so the other teams don't lose a piece of the pie as the pie gets bigger. If you are familiar with american fan culture with teams then you already know this, but the sports merchandise industry is worth billions, its not loose change, if American fans invest in the sport the numbers are sky high.

But then again, a more Americanized F1 also means other exorbitant prices are pushed to come down, and they don't want fans, American or otherwise to expect to participate in the fandom of the sport, they want fans to pay the high price tag and not challenge it. These record profit and viewership years with a noted larger American audience involved them paying up, but as the entirety of motorsports experiences something of a renaissance, fans are less enthused about the price tag, and every continent (yes, every single continent) has other more viable motorsports options for fans.

Yes its not necessarily the same kind of glamor and prestige as F1, but a lot of what people love in one motorsports, can be found in another. And, with lockdowns gone in most places, audiences are not at home likely spending more, and so to them what went up, must come down. So what do F1 and F1 teams do instead? Try to spin PR in a way that persuades audiences that there is something remarkable that they are paying for.

Andretti brings more profit yes, but he also brings people who do not necessarily view F1 as this novel thing in the way that fans who came in 2020-2021 do. As a result, you may get them to pay a little more, but not thousands more, especially for what (based on the last COTA and Miami race fan experiences depict on social media) seems to them to be a mediocre at best fan experience. So now what you are seeing is an attempt to leverage PR to say that fans ARE paying for something, exclusivity and the best of the best. And its not just about convincing American fans either.

How often are European fans told that they are paying for the exclusivity, history and prestige of F1? How often do European fans speak of being priced out of F1? Sometimes this is attributed to the pursuit of American audiences by fans but thats a clever PR slight of hand which moves discussion away from why F1 is several times more expensive for fans than whatever their local motorsport competitions are, and instead tells them that they need to protect F1 and its exclusivity as fans from the sinister forces that will Americanize the sport, despite the fact that Americans are also priced out, and in the case of Las Vegas, have been negatively impacted by the presence of F1. Lets circle back to Andretti.

There are two things about Andretti that makes the attempt to leverage PR seem strange. Manufactures backing, and a motorsports experience. Incidentally, motorsport experience is part of how Haas found itself in the sport, but the manufacturing backer is a big one. Now there is a lot of money to be made if he gets in, potentially record profits, but how willing will people be to pay how much they have since at least 2022?

From a financial perspective, the prices were always going to need to come down and F1, Liberty Media and Teams should have prepared for that, alas, corporations tend to hope for exponential growth and now what we as audiences view as the logical move is like pulling teeth and there is talk of how high the dilution fee should be to compensate teams for loss in revenue. And that is where, from a PR perspective, I presume this is all coming from.

Teams kick about, talk of an 11th team as a sort of manifestation of this hidden threat to the sport, fans want proof that Andretti isn't going to ruin and Americanize the sport and apply more pressure on the sport to make sure F1 protects its roots, dilution fee is negotiated very high as a result and when its announced, fans debate if its too much or too little, Andretti pays up and expresses that he is happy to and tells the American audiences that want to support his team how it was so worth it to pay x money because F1 is worthy of it, fans that want to support Andretti/a culturally American team begrudgingly take his word for it and pay up for merch or GP tickets or whatever, European fans are assured that the sport will not be dictated by Americans and continue to support it, and then the exponential growth continues.

Of course the locals especially in places where the race track is not far from their homes, where they work etc, still are not happy, and for obvious reasons, residents tend to dislike it when taxpayers foot the bill for sporting events, safety issues and more, but based on the reporting around building the Las Vegas GP, and also what has occurred in the various places F1 has raced in over the years and even historically, how F1 impacts locals does not seem to be a priority in stakeholder analysis, but rather is an afterthought.

So yeah, as usual with F1 its really about the money, and what they think will maximize it. So they will keep up this PR song and dance about exclusivity and luxury as necessity, media will keep contextualizing how exclusive it is, everyone will mention how much Andretti and other interested people paid to go ober their bids because its so exclusive, and then Andretti with General Motors and Cadillac will pay up, parrot these same ideas about being in the most exclusive sport ever, and maybe even do interviews.

Then teams will either welcome them publicly for meeting the stringent standards of the sport and emphasizing how necessary the whole thing was, or ignore the entry to reinforce that they were only logically concerned, media will put out pieces about who Andretti is and maybe even F1 primers for new fans, American broadcasters will be talking about the new American team in the most exclusive sport whilst European broadcasters talk about how if the sport was going to have another team and how now American audiences can enjoy a team in the most exclusive sport, and then similiarly to Haas, people will for the most part stop debating. That is of course until someone says something, or a team leaves, or people or corporations want to come in.

On the flipside, if Andretti doesn't get in, teams will be like "we said that this is an expensive exclusive sport and not everyone can join", Audiences won't like that for the most part, because to most Andretti makes sense for F1 regardless of if you want Andretti specifically or not, and probably won't buy it, especially since audiences are already not very moved either way by Stefano Domenicalli speaking about F1, but it may very well alienate large portions of American (and also Non European in general) audiences especially if they like other motorports.

Already because of the nature of fandom in F1, other motorsports fans don't have a great impression of being engaged in the free ways like social media, so if you want them to now be paying fans be it for a cable package or merch or GP tickets, having a new team that is neither European own nor European funded is one of very few means to persuade people to want to participate in the fanfare of F1 regardless.

And for European fans it will be difficult to tell them that rejecting the Andretti bid is not strange, because for the most part, he doesn't have the PR image of someone who would rock the boat too much in F1, and the fact that his teams do well in other motorsports also creates interest as it is not a given that he will be a back marker.

But ultimately, regardless of what happens from here on out, most teams are publicly against it because of money, and they are hoping that the PR built up so far can be leveraged to defend how the money is made, and also ensures that should they negotiate with Andretti re dilution fee, it will not look good if he or the manufacturers he is teaming with publicly state that they think its too high. You will also probably have noted that drivers don't tend to strongly oppose a new team and tend to be in favor of a new team, or indifferent and that adds another dimension to the song and dance but once again, another essay, for another day.

Thanks for the ask, sorry its so long haha.

#paddockpr #sportspr #jjessays #jjasks

10 notes · View notes

heavenzscent · 10 months

Note

what are some of your jeankasa modern au hcs? ☺️ and i’m kind of curious what you think their respective fashion styles r like

I’ll start with Fashion :

As for fashion styles : I’ve made two posts showing how I think they would dress.

Mikasas style : X

As a child she likes girly sort of cottage core clothes and overalls. In HS she goes through a goth phase, more in a 80s/ 90s goth then an early 2000s mall/ hot topic sort of way. But she did enjoy getting accessories at hotopic and twilight sleepy shirts. By the end of HS and Uni she is mostly in aethlesure. She was so many sets. She still wears dark liner as a nod to her old style and she’s back to gravitating to pinks , and blues again. She is a silver girl for sure. She wears a lot of jewelry even if she’s wearing a unitard and a hoodie. She manages to never look messy somehow. Her crazy bed head is her best kept secret only Sasha ,Armin and Eren know about it. Her makeup bag is expensive but kinda bare bones. She wouldn’t be the type to have a makeup room.

Jeans style: X

As a child he would get dressed by his mom like a little dork alot of sweater vests. In HS I think he would dress a bit accurate to bad boy Jean in Isayamas school castes. I think he would try to break free of his mothers styling choices for him.

In Uni he would find himself. Jean loves gold. He is the type to ask for gold for every special occasion. He has a gold Cuban chain that he never takes off. He has some diamond studs but he only wears them to parties and Connie teases him.

He gravitates towards , preppy /sporty sort of clothes with a 80’s and 90s influence. Think Tommy Hilfiger and college sweatshirts / caps. He also wears a lot of work wear and takes alot of inspo from people like James Dean, Paul Newman . And generally old Americana and music videos.

He would actually be surprisingly articulate in fashion.

He loves dressing up but acts really nonchalant when people comment on his clothes. Although He once sliced his food budget in half for 2 months so he could buy a dressy coat. Any vacation he goes on he looks up the shopping first then food places.

HEAD CANONS

Jean and Mikasa are both really involved in university extra curriculars and they make it look easy.

Mikasa finds Jean a little over bearing at first but since she sees him at so many community and Uni events she gets to know him and actually finds him kinda funny when he isn't trying and reliable.

Jean was in a frat for his first semester before he decided it was dumb because someone was rude to Marco.

Mikasa and Marco really get along and that makes Jean jealous at first when then were all just friends.

Marco and Sasha finally get Jean and Mikasa confident enough to ask eachother out

Jean spent a whole day learning how to change car oil because Mikasa complained about the price one time. Then he casually dropped that he had been tired because he been changing his car oil earlier and if anyone needed their oil changed they could hit him up. Unfortunatly that meant everyone else in the firend group now gets free oil changes now.

Mikasa is never on socials and Jean is on them too much

Mikasa has a extremely clean car but the trunk is basically a storage unit

Both spend too much when they go shopping

Jean turns anything and everything into a date. Barnes and noble date ! Study date ! Errand date ! Taco Bell date !

Everyone thinks Jean and Mikasa are just some odd opposites attract fling . When they move in it’s a shock ! When they get engaged it’s a shock!

Have more but those are connected to my neglected Uni AU fic.

#jeankasa #head canons #I rambled too much I think #thanks 💘#ask

9 notes · View notes

girlypopbops · 2 months

Text

my wishlist atm:

༻ bling phone camera lense covers

༻ white Tommy Hilfiger LEXXA sneakers

༻ new black kanken bag

༻ disposable cameras for senior yr of college

༻ EOS vanilla cashmere shea butter

༻ new black & white wildflower phone case

༻ black & leopard slippers

༻ black bonnet & shower cap

༻ silk black & white floral pjs

༻ oversized cashmere zip up hoodie

༻ aquaponic black electric tooth

༻ the bell jar by Sylvia Plath

༻ everything I know about love by Dolly Alderton

༻ all about love: new visions by Bell Hooks

༻ transparent & black post it notes

༻ black sleeping mask

༻ new sunset lamp

༻ black fluffy rug

༻ chunky silver jewelry

༻ maroon framed glasses

༻ new black Stanley

༻ black version of the 5 minute journal

༻ new workout long sleeve top

༻ I love being delusional t shirt

༻ maroon and silver belt

༻ leopard print button up

༻ leopard print pants & short skirt

༻ oversized black and white stripe trousers

༻ y2k scarves

༻ sparkly pants

༻ metallic cow boy boots

༻ candle warmer

༻ clear drawer organizers

༻ white oversized silk button up

༻ clear glass plates

༻ cocktail making kit

༻ atomic habits by James Clear

༻ hair masks

༻ red acrylic nails

༻ were not really strangers

༻ nice record player

༻ tv & LED strips to go behind

༻ vinyls : GUTS, hit me hard and soft, blonde

༻ coffee cup jelly cat

༻ mushroom lamp

༻ stick candles

༻ cannon g7x

༻ bangles

2 notes · View notes

leclercskiesahead · 1 year

Text

Singapore Grand Prix: from the ground

Hello everybody this is gonna be a blog recap of what I got up to with F1 in my city.

(will update with pics later)

Pre-race events

Various racing-related pop ups started appearing even on Thursday or Friday the week before the race (aka during the week between Monza and Singapore). However the bulk of the events really only started from the Sunday before or Monday of race week.

There are some team-specific pop ups as well as general grand prix week events. Last year Heineken had a trailer that gave out free beer but sadly they didn't have it this year.

There are also lots of trailers around selling F1 merchandise - mostly team shirts, jackets, and caps. Prices are super high though. $90 for a cap...$200 for a shirt...it feels really jacked up and I've heard that if you purchase it directly from the teams pages or certain sites it is cheaper even with shipping. Even previous years' shirts are still going for like $60.

Wednesday

Arguably the biggest in town was Williams' pop up which took up a corner of a mall close to turn 9. They had 5 sim stations (you get three laps and it is free!), a reaction test station, as well as some activity with their team app where you go around the store to check in at various stations to collect badges. If you collect all the badges you get a pair of plastic Williams sunglasses. They also had quite a lot of merch and a display of some shoes from Alex's new range.

On Wednesday they had the meet and greet cum q&a session with the two drivers. To get into the m&g, staff would give out wristbands starting from 10am that morning. I had to go into work that morning, ran down at lunch time but the wristbands had already all been given out. Apparently people camped at the mall at 5 or 6am to claim their wristbands!

Anyway the same mall also had a Tommy Hilfiger pop up for Mercedes so I went to check that out. This was a lot smaller and mostly a series of photo ops, plus one sim station. There was a queue for the sim whenever I passed by so I never got to try it. They also gave out free postcards, and you can also get some stickers if you download some Tommy Hilfiger app.

I walked over to a different mall where there was a Ray Ban pop up for Ferrari where they also had a sim (1 free lap, if you make a purchase at the Ray Ban store you get another 3 laps and your fastest lap will be entered for some challenge with prizes to be won. but alas, these shades are expensive). However the highlight here has to be the full-length mirror with life-size cutouts of the two drivers in their sunglasses at the side of the frame. Amazing photo op. The pop up wasn't busy while I was there so the staffers gave me extra laps on the sim hehe.

Side track - Williams vs Ferrari sim. I dunno if the set ups have reflect anything about the actual racing cars but. The Ferrari sim had a looser steering wheel and I was crashing so much on that sim. Williams had gone ALL OUT with their set up with the full seat that's actually reclined at the angle the drivers sit at (Ferrari's was still a little high) and haptic effects and everything, and their steering wheel had a bit more resistance. I also don't know if there are any in-game settings that affect the drive. But I only crashed once on the Williams sim and found it easier to control. Or maybe it was just time of day, who knows.

After I walked to Marina Bay Sands, going along parts of the circuit in the process. The cafe in the lobby of the ArtScience Museum (the small building in front of MBS that looks like it has a hand or a lotus for a roof) had some racing-theme desserts and drinks but the menu didn't seem appealing enough at the price point so I gave it a pass. I strolled around the mall a bit - only found out at the end of the day that apparently Charles and Yuki had both been spotted that same afternoon around the mall! But sadly I did not see them. I went over to the hotel side of MBS where the SF-90(!!!) was displayed in the lobby. It had this year's livery pattern on it though. Carlos and Charles had both signed it.

Walked back to the Williams pop up and waited outside to catch a glimpse of the drivers. The team were staying at a hotel right next door so there was a walkway the drivers would come through and I got a spot there. Logan's event had already started, and we had quite a huge international crowd here. I later heard that the fans in the m&g asked him some stupid questions like "do you know the difference between km and mile" or "how does it feel to be the first f1 driver i've met" and the poor guy didn't quite know how to answer. He stopped at intervals on the way out to sign things and take photos. Then it was an hour wait for Alex's event to start and by this time, more people had ended work or school so a larger crowd had formed along the walkway. You could also see a crowd gathering outside the second entrance on the other side of the pop up, within the mall. Someone brought a giant Williams flag and was waving it around at the back.

Alex made a pretty speedy entrance down the walkway although he did stop for one or two quick pictures and signed some things for kids. Lily was there with him too! Then he entered the pop up and went over to the fans at the second entrance to sign some things for them, so the start of his m&g/qna was delayed. He finally came out like an hour plus past when the event was meant to end and stopped for EVERYONE along the walkway. I got a selfie with him :) a lot of people also wanted to say hi to Lily and she was very patient and nice.

On this night was when some people went to the track late and saw Carlos jogging around in his tank top 🔥 imagine seeing that in real life.

Thursday

Thursday afternoon had a few more public team events that I couldn't attend due to work. McLaren had an m&g with Lando, George had one with Puma, and Red Bull's drivers were expected to visit the team's Tag Hauer pop up. I heard a lot of people fainted while gathering at the RB pop up before the event because it was outdoors and the weather was just too hot.

Thursday night however was very exciting: I went to the Pit Lane Experience! This event has been going on for a few years now - on Thursday night they open part of the fan village and the pit lane while the teams may be working in the garages! The event is completely free, Singapore residents simply apply for a ballot. The tickets are given in pairs and I had no one to go with so I actually invited someone I was chatting to outside the Williams event while waiting for Alex the day before. We ran into someone they knew while in the fan village and those people had also ran into other people they knew so we ended up having this little group that went around together.

I have to say, the fan village was a tad disappointing? I don't think everything had been fully set up, but there was a store to buy merch

Already as we entered the circuit we saw Yuki whizzing by on a scooter. All the teams had people working in the garages this year (I've heard that at previous years some teams had not been around so the garages were closed) so we could all look in (they barricade it at a certain distance so you can't actually enter the garage). However, McLaren didn't have their cars in the garage so no sneak peek of the stealth livery.

Some teams even had crew members doing work at the pit wall. Lawson's car was wheeled up the pit lane at one point and then wheeled back down over an hour later.

Zhou, with his freshly announced contract, came out to greet the fans outside Alfa's garage. There was a large gathering at Ferrari's garage as the mechanics came out to practice pit stops (oh the irony) AND THEN CHARLES CAME OUT but I was too far behind in the crowd to see him 😭 he signed a few things and took a few pictures but went in pretty quickly. I waited outside the garage to see if Carlos would make an appearance too but no :( also I did not see Fusaro. You know, THAT mechanic.

Some people got glimpses of Pierre and Alex as they made their way out for track runs. Max and Fernando were seen having their seat fits. George and Esteban came out quite late on to greet fans. There was a crowd outside Red Bull that kept chanting Checo's name but he didn't make an appearance.

People were mostly waiting around outside RB, Ferrari, and Mercedes. I kept waiting outside Ferrari because I had some artwork I was hoping to give them but eventually someone got a call from a friend outside the circuit that the Ferrari and RB guys were all spotted leaving the track altogether.

I also saw pictures much later on that Lewis had also come out at some point to sign things for fans. I have no idea how that went under the radar because every time a driver appeared you would hear a cheer - as we got when George and Esteban came out late on.

Anyway knowing the Ferrari guys weren't around any more, I went to the end of the pit lane to take a look at the podium and the safety cars. As I was exiting the pit lane (although we enter in the opposite direction so this is actually at the entrance where the cars would drive in during a race), George came zooming out on his bike and he whirled around to wave at fans before starting his cycle round the track.

I forgot to take a photo with the DRS sign along the first straight.

I think around 10.30-11pm they started clearing everybody out of the track and pit lane. We saw Alex return from his run just before leaving.

RACE WEEKEND

Friday

It's Friday theeeennnnn... Of fking course I fall ill on this day. At the start of the race week. I had planned to see a few other race week pop ups before practice, maybe go back to the Merc/Tommy one to have a go on their sim and compare it to the other teams', but that was not to be. Luckily, I recovered in the late afternoon and headed out to a viewing spot.

The good thing about street circuits: if you don't have a ticket, there are lots of buildings around to watch from.

I watched FP1 and 2 from two different locations. No one around me had a stream on so I only found out the results a while after each session. Very happy with the Ferrari 1-2s and cautiously optimistic for tomorrow. In between practices, there was testing (I think) for the Porsche Carrera Cup, which was our feature series (last year we had the W series which was cool). The sounds of those cars were so different from the F1 cars, lower and a lot louder. You could almost feel them rumbling from where I was.

Saturday

I had personal commitments so wasn't able to see any of the sessions from near the track, but passed through the mall with Merc and Williams' pop ups on my way to one said commitment. Ran into one of the new friends I had made at the pit lane experience and we caught up for a bit.

Watched FP3 over dinner, went for my other commitment, which ended right around the time Lance crashed in q1. I went for supper with some people and there is one other person in that group who is also a Ferrari fan so we were both glued to our phones throughout. We couldn't make too much noise to not disturb other patrons but we were making all these tiny noises and gasps especially when Lawson improved his time to knock Max out of Q2. And then punching the air when Carlos got pole.

Sunday

I had a commitment in the afternoon and then immediately bolted to the malls so I could nab myself a good viewing spot. I went to the same spot I watched FP2 from as it is near a supermart so I could make a quick pit stop for food and drinks that needed to last me the next 6+ hours. My only mistake was I, much like Charles on a twitch stream, forgot to pee. So I had to ration my drinking before the race start.

Because I was there early, I watched the end of the Porsche race. Then we had the driver's parade! I think some of the drivers weren't expecting spectators at this part of the track because it doesn't have grandstands, but they didn't account for non-ticket holders gathering at the malls and hotels around. We were also close enough that if you yell, they might hear you, so you saw their heads all turning as they realised there were people calling out to them. A lot of people did the Piiiiieeeeerreeeee Gaslyyyyyy when he came by but I was the only one who did Nico Huuuuuuulkenberg.

Then we had to wait again before the race start and I ate my dinner. Some guys had been camping all day with proper foldable camping chairs and a large stash of mcdonalds that they were slowly making their way through.

About ten minutes before the race I tried to set up a stream on my tablet - I always do this when I go to watch the race from a viewpoint so I can still see what's happening once the cars have passed our section. However reception in that area was bad so I eventually gave up and resolved to just texting people for updates on the lap number - if I wasn't busy taking videos that is.

The viewpoint I was at, there's a linkway between two malls that the cars emerge under. It's really tall as there are some shops within the linkway itself, so your view is partially blocked. (However there's a decently long straight after that and your can make out the corner and run off area at the end if you tilt your head right.) You hear the cars approaching from the other side and hold your breath a bit wondering what order they will appear.

Because I didn't have a stream, I didn't know how the race start went. I was just praying that Carlos would get a clean start and keep his lead from George. I SCREAMED so hard when the cars emerged fro under the bridge and both red cars were at the front. That's how I knew Charles got the jump on George from lights out. I was so excited I almost didn't clock Lewis had come out in third.

Knowing my boys had a good start I half-settled a little bit - never fully because they were still so close together that I knew they would lose a lot of places when pitting. Yuki came by on the bike after his DNF. A few times I used the stopwatch on my phone to get their intervals myself, since I didn't have a stream to check it.

Some people were refreshing live blogs on their phones, plus an overseas friend texting me, and eventually word went around that Sargent had brought out the safety car. My heart fell when the pack appeared and I saw that Charles had lost places, plus Max was now right behind Carlos. I had honestly lost track of the laps so I didn't know how old the RB tyres were. Luckily, when the SC ended and we saw the cars again, Carlos was still first to emerge. We had a few overtakes or near-overtakes happen in front of us right after the safety car and everybody was really enjoying it.

Somehow, Valterri's retirement went under the radar until we saw him on the bike being escorted back to the garage. Because he has a blue helmet and Alfa Romeo also have black-based race suits, someone thought it was George at first and everyone was confused for a hot second.

Word of the VSC came around a bit late so I heard about it right as Carlos was already coming out under the bridge followed by Lando and Charles back in P3, with neither Mercs in sight. From that point, it was a nervy watch till the end watching the Merc closing the gap to Charles each time the pack came by, while Lando was keeping tail with Carlos. Once both Mercs had overtaken Charles, it felt like Carlos had managed to pull a gap on Lando. Then at about six laps to go they came by and Lando looked super close to Carlos again with the Mercs rapidly catching up too. Plus I was updated by text abotu Carlos saying on the radio that his front tyres were gone. I didn't dare film any more because I was so scared I would catch Carlos getting caught on camera. Each time I heard the cars approaching I held my breath and had to bang the railing in front of me to release the tension when Carlos still kept appearing first.

I was quite comfortable with the gap between Charles and the rest at first, but then Max got Pierre and was rapidly catching up and that made things even more nervy.

There were some screams and 'shit's around when George crashed out.

At the corner of the linkway there was an open-well staircase that was also packed with people trying to get a higher vantage point. Someone up there probably got a stream on because there was then a loud cheer - I wasn't sure if Carlos had yet crossed the line or something else had happened. Then Carlos zoomed past one last time, out in front, and everyone cheered for him, even though during the race you could hear people rooting for one driver or another. I was banging on the railing yelling YESSSSS VAMOS CARLOS VAMOS.

Surprisingly, the crowd dispersed pretty soon after. In previous years people have hung around to see the fireworks and watch the podium on whoever's device had a stream. I finally managed to pull a stream up on my phone in time to catch the top 3's interviews and just sat on the now emptier balcony watching the podium and finishing my food and drinks. Some people were also still sitting around, catching their breath. Everyone had been on their feet for near two hours getting our heart rates up. I might have cried except that I was sweating out all the moisture in my body.

And then I finally got to pee.

#singapore 2023

7 notes · View notes