The 3rd day in Dubai

In my last post I said that I was planning to visit the Dubai Autodrome in Dubai's Motorcity.

It's a track that hosts an A1 Grand Prix every year. The Autodrome was also going to host winter testings for Formula One in 2014 but at the end Yas Marina got the honours.

I went there yesterday but it was closed and looked kind of spooky if you ask me.

So that plan kind of failed but anyways I took these pictures from the outside:

On the other side of the road I saw another track where people were driving go-karts.

I took several pictures but I can post those some other time when I get back to Europe.

After all of this I was a bit disapointed that I couldn't get inside the Autodrome area. So I jumped in a cab and went to Dubai Mall (the biggest shopping mall in the world).

At the mall I saw a big screen saying that Romain Grosjean is going to be there at 6:00PM.

The time was 6:45. Just my luck! So I couldn't visit the Autodrome and now this..

I continued to walk through the mall and stopped when I saw a small stage. There was a guard all by himself clearly waiting for something to happen. I asked him if there was anything going on and he told me that Lewis Hamilton is coming to the mall in 30 minutes.

It was going to be a short interview and then they had this Blackberry thing where people could send their questions to Lewis with their mobilephones.

Of course I waited the 30 minutes and I was standing almost at the front. Here's a picture:

Lewis also took a couple of pictures of the crowd, so if you see a picture like that on his twitter it is possible that I am in that picture.

I filmed the whole thing with my Canon 600D in FullHD. The footage is quite long so I can't post it right now from the hotel. I will do that later when I get back home and maybe edit it a little as well.

So that was it for today and I'll get back to you tomorrow with new updates from Dubai.

The status in Dubai less than a week before the GP

I'm about 50 miles from the Yas Marina track right now so I thought there would be some kind of billboards or commercials regarding F1, but I haven't seen anything yet. It's almost like nobody even cares about the GP.

The only thing I saw at the hotel was a group of Russians that had Ferrari caps on and they were talking something about Formula One. OK so I'm not the only one looking forward to the GP weekend.

At the supermarket there was a big cardboard Kimi Räikkönen behind the Burn energy drinks which was kind of funny.

At the mall I saw a miniature of Alonso and his Ferrari. A girl asked me if I needed any assistance so I asked if they had a Ferrari with Felipe Massa as well? She looked at me with big eyes and didn't know what I was talking about. I asked if they had a driver with a different helmet or just this one type? She continued to look at me like I was some kind of an idiot.

Later I went to another store and when I was paying for my shoppings I saw somebody familiar. At first I just looked at the guy and thought "Where have I seen this man before? Oh yes.. on TV with a Lotus shirt on. It's Gerard Lopez!" My wife was not impressed at all but I sure as hell was!

Gerard Lopez at a press conference (not from Dubai).

If I have time I will later visit the Dubai Autodrome. The Formula One management were planning to use the track for winter testing in 2014 but they desided to use the Yas Marina track instead.

I'll post some pictures here on the blog if I ever get there.

The Dubai Autodrome

The 2013 Abu Dhabi GP preview

I am now in Dubai waiting for the next GP in Abu Dhabi. It's about 50 miles away so I can take a bus or maybe a taxi cause it's so cheap here. Well at least cheaper than Finland or Scandinavia where almost everything is expensive.

The weather is very hot over here so the Abu Dhabi GP is again going to be driven in hot conditions until the sun sets. The last time I was there it got a bit cold in the evening because of the wind.

The Yas Marina track has hosted the Abu Dhabi GP 3 times in it's history so it's quite new. The facilities are one of the best in the world at least for me as a spectator. It is the only GP that has daylight and dark in the same race.

In 2010 Sebastian Vettel won his first world championship when Alonso couldn't get pass Vitaly Petrov. It was one of the most moving moments of Vettel's career when he cried on the podium.

After winning his first championship in 2010.

In 2011 he had already won the championship when the Formula One circus returned to Abu Dhabi. That race he retired right after the start and the whole crowd in Abu Dhabi cheered. The sound was quite loud, trust me, I was there.

In 2012 Sebastian started from the back of the grid but managed to get 3rd place. Alonso was second and Kimi Räikkönen took the maiden victory for the new Team Lotus. Everybody remembers the classic radio conversations between Kimi and Alan Permane? (the same man who cursed at him in India).

Here is a video with those radio conversations:

They made t-shirts of Kimi's comments. Damn! I should have bought a shirt like that.. I don't think they sell those anymore.

This year Vettel has secured the championship again but I don't think it will hurt his motivation.

Now it's time for my guesses:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Race:

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus
3. Romain Grosjean, Lotus

Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

Surprise: I don't know why I again got a feeling that Valtteri Bottas is about to do something fantastic. If he let's me down this time I will shut my mouth about him until he really accomplishes something.

I'll try to get as many pictures as possible from the GP weekend. I'll keep you all posted ;)

Dubai & Abu Dhabi

Last time I was in Abu Dhabi I got these.

I already wrote this on the F1-4-Life Facebook-page but just in case here it is again:

In July I was in Macau and Hong Kong. After that I started working in Espoo, Finland (Räikkönen's home town). This TV production I am working on should be done in the middle of October and then I should come up with something else to do. 

Today I decided that I will go to Dubai and then to Abu Dhabi from there. I have been to the United Arab Emirates before but I love the country so much that I must go back there. I have a chance to go and see the Abu Dhabi GP again and maybe visit Ferrari World. I am bringing my favorite cameras with me and I am planing to write my blog every day. So the question is:

What would you like me to film/take pictures of in Abu Dhabi?
There is a lot of F1 related stuff going on so please make suggestions. Let's just hope they let me take my cameras to the circuit.

If I could make a totally new race calendar

I posted earlier a realistic race calendar with actual race tracks that has been used before.
I also said that I will post another race calendar later with new places where it would be cool to have F1 races.
These will mostly be street circuits but also regular ones. I must explain a bit as well on the side of the suggestion so you would understand a bit better. Some of these might be a bit radical.

I may not choose any existing F1 tracks that have already been used in Formula one. So here we go again...

1. Abu Dhabi - Street circuit. Not the Yas Marina track but the actual streets.
2. Dubai - Autodrome. Check out the circuit HERE
3. Qatar GP - The MotoGP series already uses this track. You can see the track HERE
4. Hong Kong - Street circuit
5. Macau - Street circuit (This is the most legendary circuit in the F3 series just like Monaco in F1)
6. Sahara - African GP in the desert. Almost like Bahrain but with a new track.
7. Canary Islands - Spanish island group next to Africa. European people go there on vacations. They have several circuits mostly meant for go-carts but with a little money you could modify them into F1 tracks.
8. Scandinavia - Each Scandinavian country could take turns. Finns and Swedes love Formula One.
9. Chernobyl street race - This could never be possible because of the radioactivity but still.. it would be pretty cool though if it were possible.
10. Paris - Street circuit
11. Europe - Different countries could try hosting a GP. If it's a success they could stay in the calendar in the future as their own GP (not as the European GP anymore).
12. London - Street circuit. See track suggestion HERE
13. Mugello - They have done testing there so why not a whole GP weekend? See the track HERE
14. Berlin - Street circuit
15. Daytona 500 - One track where the drivers could just put the pedal to the medal and overtake each other for 500 miles in a circle. I think it's time for F1 to try only one track like this.
16. New York - street circuit
17. Hawaii - Actual circuit or in the streets. It doesn't matter.
18. Alaska / Siberia - We could see how the cars would last in really cold weather! The teams would need "ice tires" depending on the weather. Sometimes it's really cold but if it's before winter then it's not that bad.
19. Forest GP - This could never happen but I would love it if F1 could be entirely held on a forest track.
20. Sydney - The season would end in the streets of Sydney, Australia.

This got a bit crazy like I thought but now it's ready! What more can you add to this?