My Formula One Abu Dhabi Experience 2012

Well, what can I say, I had the privilege of being able to attend this year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. 

Proud Moment with my Departure for Friday Practice, 2nd November 2012

My Wonderful wife, Donna with her lucky touch, won the Johnny Walker 'Famous for a Weekend' competition on Facebook.The competition was posted by McLaren sponsor, Johnny Walker. The price included VIP tickets for the race, seats in the main grandstand and a tour of the McLaren Garage.Also, our names were displayed on Jenson's and Lewis's Helmets as part of the Johnny walker 'Famous for a weekend' prize. For those who don't believe me, Look at the Pictures below of Jenson and Lewis's Helmets!

My Name, almost in Full on Lewis's Helmet

And My Wonderful Wife's Name on Jenson's Helmet

Unfortunately, my wife fell ill with a bad tummy bug, and I had to take her to our local clinic on the Friday morning. We then got a call from Chris, one of the marketing persons from McLaren, to let us know that a tour of the garage and motor home has been arranged for us, but with my wife being so sick, I initially did not want to leave her side. But after she persuaded me to go and experience a once in a lifetime opportunity, I decided to go. I decided to invite one of my friends, Abdi, who is also a race fan, to come with me on the Friday.

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes hospitality home entrance

Needless to say, I just made it to Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit to meat Chris, the marketing person from McLaren to show me around. I was then taken through to the motor homes, or in the case of Abu Dhabi, the permanently built hospitality houses area. I saw quite a few of the most important people in F1, including Monisha Kalternborn, the CEO of Sauber Motorsport AG, Jenson Button and his trainer, John Button, Jenson's dad, Fernando Alondo and of course Lewis Hamilton.

I then moved into the back of the pit garage, where I was given strict instructions not to take any pictures of the garage area itself as McLaren is very secretive about there cars, but I was able to snap a few pictures of the front of the garage area.

The McLaren Pit garage back entrance, underneath the Paddock Club Building

Am I dreaming? No! This is it!

I was then able to have a good look at the cars and I must say that I was a bit surprised on how small the cars appeared to me, as the last F1 car I saw up and personal was the first Toyota F1 Car in my home town of Durban, at the Toyota factory in 2002. Then the cars were pretty big as back then the cars had the infamous 3litre V10 Engines [Still My Favorite Sound!]

Anyway, as I said I had a good look around the car, and I was able to take this picture of Jenson's car.

Jenson Button's McLaren MP4-27

Notice how clean the floors are? They're spotlessly clean, the mechanics keep this floor super clean.

Then, I sat right in the back of the garage in a booth reserved for guests, as I waited for the second practice session to start. As I sat down, I was handed a pair of headphones and I was told that I would be able to hear the drivers and the pit-wall people speak to each other. A few moments later, Jenson made an appearance in the garage, ready to go out. He put on his helmet, with my wife's name on it, the mechanics fastened his seat-belts  He then gave an indication to turn over the engine  and what sounded like a blast of air, the 2.4litre V8 engine came to life.

All I can say is Holy Crap! I almost literally crapped my pants as the noise was so loud that it startled me for a second. And then just like that, Jenson left the garage to go and set a lap-time  A few moments later, Lewis then appeared and after the same sort of procedure, left the pit garage to go and set a lap-time.

As both drivers were out on track I could hear constant feedback from the drivers on how the cars were behaving on the track. This I found really interesting as they were relaying information in real-time to the pit-wall and mechanics while they were driving absolutely on the limit, to give them enough and important information on how to adjust the cars for optimal performance.

As the rest of the cars came driving by the McLaren garage, I could hear subtle differences between the engine notes of the different cars. The Caterham and Lotus Renault's were particularly loud as well as the Red Bulls. The McLarens, were almost equally as loud, but the engine and exhaust note on the McLarens sounded a bit more refined and not as rough as the Renault engine'd cars.

The noise from these cars are unbelievably loud, even at idle engine speeds, the cars are loud. A bit later, Jenson came back into the garage, and I could immediately feel how much heat was being radiated from the car. The mechanics then lifted his car up onto special hydraulic jacks in the front and the back of the car, whilst Jenson remained seated in the car.

I then stayed in the garage for a few more minutes as I could still not believe that I was there, as I witnessed the mechanics remove the tires from Jenson's car, with, yes you guessed it, loud air guns!

I then later left the pit garage to go and join my friend Abdi on the main grand stand. He kept complaining about how loud the cars were and that is was hurting his ears. I believed him as I had first hand experience in the pit garage, but I was unaware of the onslaught of noise as I entered the grand stands. One car is loud on it's own, but six or seven cars gunning it past the pit garages on the main start finish straight is no joke, it's properly loud! I wish I had a decibel app on my phone as the decibel levels were off the charts!

McLarens's Pit Lane Lights for the pitstops. All the teams develop their own systems.

View of the marina from the roof of the hospitality home of the McLaren team

Is this.... Lewis? Close...but Naahh. This is my friend Abdi. Lewis Hamilton alter ego!

See what I mean about the cars being a blur!

The cars were literally a blur when they came past, but it took a bit of practice to get used to the quick movement of the cars. 

So, that pretty much wrapped up my Friday practice experience of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. I was seriously wishing that my wife, Donna would be well enough to at least attend the race on the Sunday.

More to follow, on my race day experience!

Marius van Vuuren.