As a serious football fan, I sometimes get caught off-guard by how some people in my family and even in my circle of friends just cannot seem to understand why those of us who love football and sports in general do. “I just don’t get how you can dedicate your free time to watching 22 overpaid softies chasing a bag of wind,” is what I often hear, but I guess it’s just one of those things – either you get it or you don’t and either of those is absolutely fine really.
The tables sort of got turned on one occasion when a bunch of passengers were all excited about their trip to Monaco to catch the Grand Prix. I too could not really understand how you can sit or stand in one location and then catch a slight glimpse of some stupidly fast cars which occasionally make their way around your vantage point as part of the main pack of the participating racers.
Fortunately, though, unlike those who criticise mine and others’ love for football, I at the very least try to learn more about something, anything, before just classifying it as something to be criticised. I’ll tell you I’ve since been to quite a few Formula One events and as I’d suspected before, it’s actually about a lot more than just the cars. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to get invites and just to be in some of those famous locations where the Formula One is held with the most recent one I’ve been to being the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2015 and yeah, I learned quite a lot about what goes into what many people will argue against being a “real sport”. Add to that the fact that it’s in Bahrain makes it that little bit more special.
One of the most interesting aspects of any Grand Prix event is each of the roles of the team members which form part of all the racing teams. It’s about more than just the driver, spilling over into some of the smallest of details like why some racing teams prefer a specific make of Pirelli Tyres over others and when the best time to take a pit-stop will be. Naturally, a lot of money is pumped into the sport as a whole so any F1 event carries with it a lot of entertainment value, some of which is really hard to explain and has to be experienced first-hand to be understood.
Above all else however, I personally truly believe that the heart and soul of a Formula One event is the sightseeing it offers. Think about it — even if you’re just watching it on the telly, you get some good shots of some of the beautiful surroundings of the city it’s being held in. If you’re attending the event live, things go a bit further with ample opportunity to meet up with other fellow attendees who are as much travellers as they are Grand Prix enthusiasts.