The Circus is Back in Town

In 2 weeks time, the Formula 1 circus will be back in Singapore and I think it’s fair to say most Singaporeans are NOT looking forward to it.

Why should we? Heavy traffic jams due to the road closure, can’t get to the waterfront side due to the race, heavy police presence in the area and high-sky prices for the race itself; it’s no wonder most Singaporeans find the race an inconvenience.

However don’t expect to read this in the Singapore papers. The Strait Times will probably say what a great success the race is, just like last year when they said the race was a great success. This is even though retailers situated around the F 1 track reported a 40% drop in business during the F1 period last year and hotels were reported to be fully booked when they were not.

And that’s not even including the terrible F1 season this year. Even the most die-hard F1 fan will have to say that this season has been nothing short of disastrous.

The list of disasters this season is long and between ‘Liegate’ (when defending champion Lewis Hamilton lied to race stewards (twice) in Australia), the loophole in the rules found by 3 of the teams which allow them to modify their cars, and (the latest) Renault begin accused by their former driver of ordering him to crash; it’s hard to remember a worse F1 season.

Yes, the F1 circus is back in town and it is a circus in more ways than one.