Every now and then it happens that you are somewhere else when you should be at home watching F1. I always plan ahead situations like this so I don't miss anything.
First I have a F1 live streaming-software on my phone that I use in situations where I am sitting on a bus or working etc. Live streaming is good for free practice sessions or saturday qualifying but I could not watch a GP from a stream! I must see the whole thing. I could pay a lot of money just so I wouldn't miss anything.
It's possible to watch GP's from the internet by paying about 5 euros. But this works only if you are carrying a laptop and you have access to the internet. There are also sites that show the GP's for free but there are usually commercial breaks and signing in etc. I would rather pay the 5 euros to see everything without interrupting and with my favorite commentators.
I don't usually have a laptop with me so I try to find bars that show Formula 1 or check if my hotel has channels that show it. For example I saw the last GP in Hong Kong at a bar. First I went a few days earlier to a british pub and asked them if they would show the Grand Prix. The girl at the bar said that she didn't know and asked a guy named Adrian if they did. He said absolutely and I thanked them for the information.
Later I got worried because it has happened before that when I am abroad people always say that they are showing it and then they realize that they don't even have the channels for it. So I found a backup bar for watching F1 just in case the first one didn't show it for some reason.
Sometimes they just say anything to get customers. At Cyprus last year I changed bars twice and the third didn't bullshit me about actually showing the GP. In Turkey they said sorry we don't have the channels anymore and when people started to leave suddenly they said that they had the channels. Why would they do that?! Maybe they wanted to watch something else them selves?
In Hong Kong at the british pub it was a bit different. I went there early to get good seats in front of the big screen TV. But then the bartender asked me if I was there to see "the game". I said that I was waiting for the GP and that they had promised me that it would be possible to see it at that bar.
The bartender looked at me and asked "what GP?" THIS WAS A DISASTER AGAIN! But he offered to show the Grand Prix from another smaller TV without sound next to the front door.
I was not ready to sit there and try to ignore 50 crazy football fans scream next to me while I watch F1 from a smaller TV without sound!
Then I remembered the other smaller bar and ran over there like Carl Lewis! And then I saw a big screen TV showing F1 preview shows. What a sweet sight! The second I walked in to the bar the bartender turned the music off and turned up the volume on the TV. Thank God!
Sometimes they show F1 at hotels or even in your room. In London they showed the GP at our hotel restaurant and in Dubai I could have watched it in my room. Instead I jumped in a taxi and went to Abu Dhabi (taxi's are really cheep in Dubai).
It took me an hour with the taxi and it cost me less than what I paid from my apartment to the airport back at home. The tickets to the GP were about 340 euros. Damn! And I got the cheapest tickets there was!
The tickets allowed you to see the qualifying, the GP2 race (not a part of the GP2 series) and the F1 race. After all of this there was a concert with various artists including Paul McCartney. I just went to see the F1 race cause I didn't have time to go to Abu Dhabi 2 days in a row. The race was the main thing anyway..
The feeling when I saw my first F1 race live was incredible. I felt like a teenage girl at a Justin Bieber concert (only I am a man who likes racing and hates Justin Bieber). "There's Schumi! that's Button! hey Hamilton! Alonso and Vettel!" Unfortunately Räikkönen was not at that race cause it was the 2011 season. But anyways I highly recommend it to all of you F1 fans out there.
