As most others I agree with the decision taken by the FIA, but it dosen't mask the fact that a contingency plan must be made. Perhaps having the possibility to move the sessions back and forth, upgrade the on-track medical center to handle any injury or hire someone to stand by with a 'half-time' show to entertain the crowd. I'd be pissed if I had spend the ludicrous amount they charge for ticket prices and not seen ANY action at all.
I too think that for the fans a plan-B should be available should cases as yesterday happen.
I could think for example of additional pit walks (the pit walks in Shanghai are a pretty crowded and a rather exclusive thing - you buy yourself a special ticket for that and usually have to wait in a veeeeery long queue for a substantial amount of time before getting squeezed rather quickly through the pitlane.
What Lewis Hamilton and crew members did yesterday was fantastic (break over the pitwall and sign autographs for the fans in grandstand A) - and you see me mentioning this not being a Lewis Hamilton fan ;-)
I think more teams and drivers should have done something similar.
Here he was in 2014:
Shanghai F1 GP 2014 - Lewis Hamilton by
Dirk Steffen, on Flickr
For what it's worth though - everyone who buys a ticket should know that usually it comes with a hell or high water clause that (understandably) protects the event organization from regress should there be no event as of conditions out of control to them. Yesterday was such an event. It is relatively unlikely though that this will happen on all three days.
Today it is still foggy outside but looks to clear up towards midday.
The weather forecast shows partly cloud cover higher temps and lower humidity - it forecasts better conditions then yesterday.
People comment about costs of tickets and the entitlement of getting your money's worth.
Well I usually have to buy several tickets for several areas to get to the many spots I usually shoot from over the weekend. I feel not the slightest bit "betrayed".
Sometimes in life you just have to imagine being in someone else's shoes.
Yesterday you should just imagine you would be in the air controllers shoes who would have green lighted a landing from an emergency helicopter over a densely populated residential compound in very bad visibility.
Lean back, have a drink and … the Dude abides.
Nice! Thanks for the review, man!
You are welcome ;-)
Thanks
@menos | M6 ! Nice photos and a nice "on site" review of the problems and challenges. I don't really know the relation of the track to the city but perhaps F1 should invest in one of the local hospitals to bring it up to the standards necessary for safety, you know, give back to the community. If nothing else, it could be used as an alternate in case of bad flying conditions. Sorry you aren't having a beautiful weekend of photos and hope the race is better weather and you can get in some great shots to share with us! Now go inside and get a hot cup of tea man
Look forward to racing with you again next week.
Thanks Keith ;-)
The track is roughly 40km (as the crow flys) North-North-East of the Huashan hospital.
Road traffic between track and this specific hospital can be a bit haywire depending on time of day and the phase of the moon - you usually need 30min to 1 1/2 h between the two spots but it can also take a lot longer!
Generally the behavior in Chinese traffic is that once a road is completely congested even emergency vehicles cannot get through (this is very different from Germany).
Traffic regulations and punishments for using the emergency lane illegally have been tightened substantially over the last two years and I do expect this behavior to better over the upcoming years.
The choice of that specific hospital really is not as other hospitals are not qualified according to high standards but simply as it is THE BEST choice with it's Neural surgery and trauma station being well above the standard and highly qualified personell.
I am not sure if this choice will be thought over after this weekend - after all we lost "just" two training sessions and not the entire weekend thus far.
Drivers and track personell deserve the absolute best medical treatment in case of an injury. This should have priority over a lost session.
Rescheduling lost sessions though should be considered in the future.
I wasn't aware Imola was cancelled in favor of the Shanghai F1 race.
In any case the Shanghai International Circuit is a very nice circuit - in my opinion the nicest of the "Tilke Dromes" (I am not an outright fan of his creations either). This track though has some flow to it, has a little elevation changes, a very nice, tricky chicane, high speed with a treacherous hairpin and a last corner that can ruin or make your next lap. I really wish we had a good version for Assetto Corsa to race WEC races on it.
Here is Audis last few kilometers in racing it's R19 at the Shanghai International Circuit during last falls WEC race - when this photo was taken during one of the practice sessions before the race the announcement was still very chilling fresh that Audi will leave the WEC :-(
6 hours of Shanghai - the swan song for the Audi R19 Hybrid by
Dirk Steffen, on Flickr
Maybe it's not such a great idea to build an F1 track on a swamp in a Communist dictatorship with (apparently) only a single decent hospital and sharply limited flying skills/equipment.
Our CareFlight can land in any weather short of a tornado here in Dallas.
I am sure none of your stated points above were at all even remotely relevant for yesterdays events ;-)
Here is some shots of the people who live in town:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=52593619@N02&view_all=1&text=shanghai people