Believe it or not I’ve never been to the F1 in Sepang before. Many a time I was tempted to go to see what the fuss was all about but whenever I heard about the heat and how hot it would be in the outdoors I shied away from it.
Then just this year Heineken offered me an experience of a lifetime: Tickets to watch the F1 from the Paddock Club which is this corporate box right opposite the grandstand, fully air-conditioned, catered and serviced by staff flown in from overseas. It was amazing.
The unfortunate thing is that I’m not going to be able to make it for the race day, but I did make it for the qualifiers’ today and that was all I needed to experience the whole thing.
Here’s how it felt:
- Everyone from the host to the waiters and waitresses in the corporate box had the highest levels of service. I found it hard to finish a glass of water before a waitress would come around and top it off. The food was great too.. the dessert… to die for.
- It was a nice bonus that they served ice-cold Heineken in the box.
- The only other F1 I’ve ever been for was the Singapore F1. The thing about that one though was that I spent a lot of time walking the grounds and while I could often hear the cars go by, I didn’t have a Grandstand kind of view.
- There’s something about the sound of the F1 cars whizzing by that makes your heart get really excited. I saw even my wife who normally would meh about these kind of things… get excited.
- For some reason on TV all the cars look like they’re going super slow but in real life the cars drive past you at such a speed you’d think they were flying.
- There really is much more to the F1 race in Sepang than the race itself. On the grounds we saw little Go-kart type of race tracks for kids to play in, and little game tents as well. The whole thing felt like a carnival. Shorty commented that maybe next time we should bring the kids.
- There is no air conditioning in the F1 cars so I couldn’t help but wonder how hot those drivers must be the whole time. Then again I think about how they probably make more in an hour than I do in a month… so it’s not too bad.
- The Sepang race track is really something. I can’t help but admire the aerial shots of it. I remember when I was growing up how some people were like “Why do we need to spend money on a race track in Malaysia?”. Well now that we have it, I’m really proud to have an F1 race in KL every year.
All in all a great experience. Thanks again to Eileen and Steph from Heineken for the wonderful time!
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space