F1 fever has swept over Singapore and at last we have a winner. If you don’t already know, Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (who we met earlier on Thurs) has taken first place in this year’s Singapore GP. He was followed by Toyota’s Timo Glock and Renault’s Fernando Alonso. Jenson Button has also extended his drivers’ championship lead. We couldn’t be happier.

Having covered F1 the last week prior to the race, I was naturally thrilled (and Alvin as well) when we got the call inviting us to tour the Ferrari F1 team’s garage last Sat to witness firsthand their preparations before the big race. It doesn’t even bother us that the two Ferrari drivers, Kimi Räikkönen and Giancarlo Fisichella, finished 10th and 13th respectively.

Wielding our VIP passes (which we were sadly not allowed to keep), we entered the Paddock area excited and ready to go. Our tour was to be short, but neither of us had done anything like this before so it hardly mattered.

Stepping into the garage, first things we noticed were the stacks of car tyres lining each wall. It was especially interesting to note that the optimum temperature for the tyres to work well is 110 degrees Celsius, which is why they are all wrapped up until just before they are used so as to keep them in perfect working condition.

Soon enough though, we moved to the front of the garage to watch the race engineers prepping their cars. On the way there, we were told specifically to only take pictures from the front of the garage as the team’s very secretive about their technologies. With that in mind, we snapped responsibly (for fear of our cameras being taken away).

Unfortunately, our tour soon came to an end and we were escorted back to the Bridgestone Paddock suite to cool off (you wouldn’t believe how warm it was that day). But we weren’t done yet, for any trip to the Paddock area wouldn’t be complete without some star spotting.

I have to say I’m definitely looking forward to next year’s race and hopefully somebody provides the tickets this time. But if not, TV’s good too.

PHOTOS: ALVIN TEO AND JOSHUA TAN
VIEW MORE PHOTOS HERE

Technorati Tags: Singapore GP 2009, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Paddock Club, Ferrari Garage

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