F1 diary GP Singapore 2018

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F1 diary GP Singapore 2018
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A us a Formula 1 journalist's point of view is Singapore the craziest weekend of the year. The late start times of the individual sessions move the end of the day into the late hours of the night. In order not to be woken up by the cleaning service shortly after falling asleep in the morning, I put a note on the door every year that nobody should dare to knock on me before 2 p.m.

As a late riser, you can't miss anything. Before the end of curfew at 3 p.m., hardly anyone is out in the paddock apart from the security service. The only exception is Michael Schmidt, who lounges around the track at lunchtime every day - before the press center even opens. I have no idea whether it's old age or the daylight behind the curtain that always drives my colleague out of bed so early.

In recent years, he still met Bernie Ecclestone and Niki Lauda two like-minded people with whom he could kill time in the paddock. But Ecclestone can hardly be seen in the F1 circus after his dismissal and Lauda was not ready for action again after his successful lung transplant this year.

Late start of work

So Schmiddi somehow had to join in occupy yourself. In the end, this led to the fact that he simply wrote a few stories in the morning out of boredom, which I was allowed to post on the website after my arrival. Although I was still one of the first journalists in the press room shortly before 3 pm, I was always greeted with a friendly 'Tobi, where are you staying for so long?' Thrown at my head.

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In Singapore the day starts a little later. But it ends later.

In addition to the start of work, the end of work is also a daily topic of discussion. On Thursday we hoped to be able to leave the track at least once at more or less normal times. It helped that the FIA ​​had kindly put Lewis Hamilton in the official press conference, which took place at 6 p.m. Usually, Mercedes always makes us wait forever on Thursday. While all the other drivers are through with their program at 7 p.m., the press work in the pavilion of the world champions does not start before 9:30 p.m.

So this time it was not Mercedes to blame for the fact that nothing was regulated Dinner was, but the technology. A few weeks earlier, our IT department had installed a new VPN program that was supposed to prevent harmful interference with the editorial system from outside. But unfortunately the software had its pitfalls. It slowed the data flow so much that it was impossible to upload the photos from our daily picture gallery in one go.

At first I had no idea why the line was suddenly so slow. I had no choice but to put each picture individually in the system, the last of them in the subway with the laptop on my lap. It wasn't until the next day that I tracked down the problem and was able to eliminate the VPN nuisance after a short conversation with the base in Stuttgart.

Burgers instead of Asian noodles

From Friday it is in Singapore it doesn't really matter whether the technology works. The program on the route extends so late into the night that the only option for dinner is the outdoor cookshops in the “Newton Food Court”. Half the paddock gathers here every evening for rice, fish, satay skewers and a cool tiger after-work beer.

But Force India team boss Otmar Szafnauer had a special surprise in store for Saturday. His old buddy Nic, a former hedge fund manager from America, had opened a hamburger shop in Singapore a few years ago. It was an offshoot of the famous New York 'burger joint'.

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A burger shop only for Formula 1 night owls.

As a condition for this They demanded that Nic could give his restaurant the familiar nameCompany founder that he had to offer the same quality as in New York. That means that he has to import all ingredients from the USA - from the meat to the sauces to the cheese from Wisconsin. And thanks to Szafnauer's good relationships, Nic opened his shop at 1 a.m. for a small, closed group of refugees in the paddock.

Otmar knew that I would leave almost anything for a good burger. That's why we were also allowed to participate in the small private party after midnight, which probably none of those present will forget that quickly. And because, like every year, I had a weight loss bet with Otmar, which of course he lost like every year, the burgers were also on his account.

Unfortunately we got to our late night a little late -Dinner. Qualifying produced more good stories than expected. Lewis Hamilton had conjured up a true miracle round out of his hat in the decisive section, which hardly an expert had expected. Ferrari and Red Bull shared the best times in the free practice sessions. And suddenly Hamilton was on pole position.

Hamilton victory on Ferrari track

The Ferrari tacticians had once again thrown clubs between the legs of their drivers. Vettel and Räikkönen could not get their tires up to temperature as desired for the fast laps because they were constantly in traffic. And the strategists from Maranello weren't in a good mood on Sunday either. Vettel had already grabbed Verstappen, who started on rank 2. But with the better strategy, Red Bull turned the tables again.

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Vettel got bad reviews in the local newspapers.

Nobody could endanger the Hamilton victory. With the success on the Ferrari track in Singapore and the expansion of his lead to 40 points, the world champion made a big step towards defending his title. The second driver to make headlines was Sergio Perez. The Mexican first crashed into his teammate Esteban Ocon and later also into Sergey Sirotkin's Williams. I still remember well that Otmar Szafnauer's mood after the race was not as good as it was the night before.

In contrast, the mood for me was splendid. When the last analysis found its way onto the Internet on Monday evening, I rappelled down from Singapore to Malaysia. On a small island, I took another week's beach vacation - far away from technical problems and colleagues who got up early.

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