My Palace, My symphony of life and the rhythm in My heart: March 2013

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Unforgettable Formula 1 Paddock Visit

Once I heard that Joel won the formula 1 paddock club visit through Oris Facebook Contest, I was doubted what so special with paddock visit as most of my friends went to watch the motor races instead of visiting paddock clubs. He elucidated to me that what paddock visit is so grand about. Free flow of food, nice view of the race, getting VIPs treatment and may have the luck to meet the drivers in flesh! Hence, when I was extended an invite by Joel to the Paddock by Williams F1 team via Oris Facebook Contest, I accepted his invitation as his partner to visit Formula 1 Paddock Visit without second thought.

He had also won an exclusive signed glove set by Pastor Maldonado apart from two exclusive Williams F1 Hospitality Paddock Passes.

Facebook contest winners at the ORIS F1 event: (L-R) Joel Quek, ORIS Ambassador Pastor Maldonado, Gajendheran Nadaesan, Victor Wong (guest), Taib Idris, and ORIS Regional Manager, Karim Gerber.

Before heading to Sepang International Circuit, we had our group photos. Each of the contest winners can bring along his guest for this event :）

It was my first time to step into Sepang International Circuit. Swiping into the F1 paddock with the free passes, we had our camera ready for photo-shooting.

At Williams F1 Hospitality Lounge, Ms. Amanda Rusell-Lowe welcomed us with open arms. She explained to us about the entire experience here included paddock , pit access (for next competition's winner), VIPs treatment and chances to explore the dashboard or steering wheel.

Each of us were given Willams F1 team hospitality suite 's food menu with an image clearly explained the features of dashboard, free paddock pass and earplugs.

Seems like holding game dashboard, nah.. it's a dashboard for racing in Formula 1.

While waiting for the paddock visit, we were treated like VIPs. Pleasant fine-dining and I hope the portion could be bigger. LOL.

Every food suits my appetite, hmm..

Everybody was too hungry and had started to eat our starters delightfully once they are served.

The main course of meal | Main event :)

I ordered my roast duckling.

He chose fried sea bass and the meat are very succulent!

The twins had their spaghetti and the prawns were in big sizes.

Before the events of the Malaysian Grand Prix 2013 officially kicked off on the next day, we were led by Ms. Amanda for the main event of the day i.e. paddock visit. In general, paddock is the place where the team vehicles are parked, sometimes including the pit building and that's where the team garages are. Upon entering the garage, we passed by the pit lanes, seeing stacks of tires along the way. I had been told that two front and two rear wheels are going to be used during the race while the rest would be spare tires in stacks.

The paddock visit allowed us to gain insights on the power of the engines, the design of the body work, the unique technology and the technician teams' efforts in ensuring everything is fine before the drivers compete.

The Williams F1 team were busy working on the cars, tuning and checking every single component before the qualifying race commenced.

Awesome!! A close-up look on the car design.

I would say that the best venue to be at F1 race is the paddock because the drivers aren't on the track fighting with each other wheel-to-wheel. We had opportunity to see test drivers testing the sport car.You would never know when the drivers will appear so we spent a splendid amount of time at the paddock waiting for the super stars to pass by.

Joel managed to capture photo with Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas. So envy!

After an hour at the paddock visit, we went back to lounge as the qualifying race was going to commence soon. We had our desserts while watching the qualifying race.

Free flow of drinks and this is my cappuccino. Slurppp..

Rain fell during the last part of qualifying race and it was Vettel who managed to grab pole position in a dramatic finished to the session. We went out from lounge to walk around, hoping that could capture photos with the drivers or Tan Sri Tony Fernandez. However, most of the drivers were busy preparing for the race on the next day and we didn't see any of them coming out from pit lane. However, I managed to capture some behind-the-scene shots from the Formula One paddock! The pit crews were busy again checking, cleaning and preparing tires for the race on the next day.

I spotted this handsome journalist! (Joel said this was the best shot as it could prove we did come to paddock!)

As shown in above photo, the flat screen television showing all the racing action live on Grand Prix TV Superscreen. Around 5pm, Ms. Amanda said the words we least wanted to hear which was, “Well, that’s all about it.”. Before walking to the paddock entrance, we took photo with Ms. Amanda and hoped that we would meet again in future. Hopefully have the opportunity to be one of the guests of paddock in F1 again.