Too many lessons can be learnt from yesterday’s first ever F1 night race in Singapore. Here are some of my random thoughts!

- Nothing is impossible.
Sounds cliche, but always true to a certain extent. They said that our lanes were “too narrow to allow overtaking”. Someone obviously did not quite believe that, and showed us how it could be done.

- “When you’ve got nothing; you’ve got nothing to lose”.
Alonso, world champion, showed exactly why he deserved the title when he moved up 14 places to the first spot. It’s interesting that the papers quoted him as having given up (during the qualifying round, he ended up with the 15th place slot), because obviously something inside him had not. I guess this phrase works the other way around too – when you’ve got everything; you’ve got everything to lose. Try starting in first and ending up (almost) last in line. In the same way, I suppose all of us really shouldn’t be so afraid to take some risks so early in our careers, in our lives or what not.

- Talent can only get you so far?
Just a couple of days ago, the commentators were describing Hamilton like he was some kind of driving god. At least that was what it seemed like to me. There was hardly any coverage of him during the finals. I’ve never really followed racing news, so I was under the impression that he was going to win the race effortlessly, from what the gushing commentators had said. So, what happened?

- They make it look so easy.
Still, four laps from the end of the race, we were reminded that a moment of distraction, lost concentration could result in crashing. It takes a lot of practice to get where the drivers are.

- Sometimes, you pay for other people’s mistakes.
Too many incidents and race track drama last night exemplify this. Nothing demonstrates this point more than the Ferrari hose incident that pretty much cost Massa his comfortable lead and championship title.

-Teamwork
It’s just an interesting feature of the world that the one right in front gets all the “glory” for winning, and often times the rewards – same goes in basketball games, politics, etc. But when you watch the famous 5 second pitstop in action, you can’t help but be reminded of the fact that there is a dedicated team behind each and every one of the drivers, the cars on the track. And that they ought to get credit too!

- It’s all in the details
I don’t disagree at all with the newspapers praising Singapore for the flawless execution of the race. I think many people worked together to ensure that safety was not compromised, that the event would be a resounding success. Still, every time the camera switches to the driver’s POV, the last thing I want to see in a machine going at 236km/h is arrows on the roads pointing in the wrong direction. Could someone have painted over them? The roads are going to need resurfacing anyway, right? Those arrows were highly distracting, an unnecessary cognitive load for the drivers too.

Brands
I wonder how brands play out in this entire episode, because if your brand is supposed to be selling top notch race cars, I would be rather perturbed that you don’t feature in the top few rankings in race results… and even more so when your drivers are either smashing your cars up or when mistakes at the pit stop prompt commentators to verbalize the “Not again” sentiment. Not good.

All in all, I’d say that the television is a poor substitute because there is nothing quite like being right next to the fence, feeling (and of course, hearing), the awesome sounds of those engines! We could use a couple more such events in a year.

Tags: f1, racing, cars, singapore, grand prix, engine, marina bay,