Monday 12 September 2011

Monza

Never been to a Grand Prix before, so i figured Monza, since it's only 4 hours away, wouldn't be a bad thing to spend a weekend doing.  This was the view from our seats at Alta Velocita C, right at the first chicane down from the start:

Schumacher and Hamilton battle for 3rd.  Note smoke from Hamilton and the fact that Schumacher is only on 2 wheels.

I don't think there could have been a better place to watch it from - the rest of the circuit is extremely fast and you wouldn't get the time to tell the difference between the cars.  That, and all the action happened here.  The crash at the start, the battle for 3rd between Schumacher and Hamilton, and Schumacher's spin during qualifying.

I'm not sure i'd go to Monza again.  The race organisation was extremely poor, although i've only ever been to this GP, i can't be sure they don't all have this problem.  We had to walk about 7km from where we parked to our seats and the bus service itself was pretty random - if you happened to be on the right line you got (slightly) closer to the track.  On the way out there was a dangerous crowd-crush where the marshals did nothing.  The signage telling you where to go and how to get there was almost non-existent.

I got the impression that if i'd arrived by helicopter i would have been more welcome than just a mere supporter paying a fortune for 20cm of steel bench on a grandstand that wobbled.

So the sport was amazing, the sound of the cars unbelievable, but the full spectator experience offered by Monza could have been a lot better.