Over the weekend I attended the Formula One Grand Prix of Canada in Montreal. I went with Hollie’s brother and his friends who have been going annually for ten years. Ten years of experience resulted in a well-honed fun machine of a weekend. Virtually no decisions to be made and lots of “stay to right through the turnstyles” and “this bartender pours the best drinks” etc.
Like many venues, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve gives out the good seats to loyal fans and our seats were fantastic. This picture is on the cool down lap after the race. (I could only take pictures of the slow down laps with my point-and-shoot digital camera) ((also, what is it about pictures that we feel we must take them from our own cameras? There are hundreds of pictures from the race that are so much better than mine, shot by professionals, but still I post this crappy one just because *I* took it.)) We were at a 180 degree hairpin turn which means the cars go from around 180 mph, down to around 40 (in around 70 feet!) through the extremely tight turn then hard on the gas and back up to near 200 in a flash.
It is pretty difficult to describe the controlled violence of a modern F1 car. When you see it on TV you only get to hear the high end whine of an engine turning at 19,250 rpms, what you miss is the chest rattling thunder-like low end. The other major difference from on TV is the sense of speed. You simply can not imagine how late a driver can brake for a turn in these cars, how fast they can accelerate out of the turn and how quickly they can change direction.
Update: more pictures from my camera here