The Travelling Life of Silvan Colani
March 2004 - Foster's Australian Grand Prix
Being an incurable motorhead I decided to attend the season-opening Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia. The combination of fast cars, sunny weather and unlimited Fosters seemed irresistible.
I accepted an invitation by my Ama Dablam climbing mate Matt to stay at his humble abode in Spotswood - a rather gritty (sorry, Matt) suburb of Melbourne. Arriving early in the morning on an overnight flight from Hong Kong, Melbourne was shockingly cold. I thought Australia was a hot place and did not pack anything warmer than a t-shirt. Bracing against the crisp fresh morning cold, we dropped our bags off at Matt's place. Matt was actually on his honeymoon but his friendly neighbor Eric ("what's your problem, son?") kindly let us in.
But there was no time to waste in Spotswood, as Friday practice was soon to start at Albert Park, an inner-city lakeside park that is once a year transformed into a high speed F1 circuit. Melbourne is a city of trams and not surprisingly there are free trams running continuously to the circuit. Finding the right tram is not so easy however, and we wasted much of our visit waiting for the wrong trams.
The circuit is great and extremely well organized. We arrived just in time for the first free practice with a Minardi roaring into action. The noise of an F1 car accelerating right in front of you (we were sitting three meters from the track wall) is exhilarating and ear shattering at the same time. This was the first grand prix of the season after most cars were completely re-invented during the winter. Some designs had changed drastically (e.g. Williams BMW's walrus front wing) while other things stayed much the same (Ferrari dominance in particular).
Armed with fresh Fosters, we set out to discover the circuit around Albert Park. One of the great things about this circuit are the large green general admission areas where you simply find a spot on the grass, enjoy the beer and sunshine and sleep out your slight jetlag while F1 cars roar past at 300 km/h (it's called "doing a Roger" for those in the know).
In the evening we decided to take in another Australian tradition, a game of Australian rules football, or "Footy". Melbourne was playing Geelong at Telstra Dome. Footy is one of the weirdest ball games I have ever seen (next to cricket - another Australian specialty). It is the only game I've ever seen played on a round field. It looks a bit like rugby, but the point scoring mechanism is a mystery to the uninitiated. The referees are weird too; there are at least three of them on the pitch, some in bright yellow, others in orange. The crowd uses some of the foulest language on the planet and given the amount of advice they scream to the field you are forgiven to believe they would all know better (but judging from their beer bellies they haven't run after a ball in thirty years, for sure!)
After a quiet night in Spotswood we headed back to Albert Park for the Saturday qualifying. After a hearty breakfast of Fish & Chips and Foster's we watched the various support races unfold, including an exciting V8 supercar competition and a BMW celebrity challenge, which was reminiscent of a similar race in Macao where cars often crash on the straight! The new F1 qualifying format was interesting, but the result not too surprising: an all-red Ferrari front row. Speaking of all red - I was amazed by the overwhelming Ferrari support in the grand stands. For every non-Ferrari supporter there are about ten scarlet fans of the prancing horse. I've decided to go white for Race Day and support BAR Honda!
Saturday night we explored the bar and restaurant scene of St Kilda, on the seashore. Donovan's was highly recommended seafood and steak house - but it was fully booked. Slowly starving and aware of the fact that the nearby Stokehouse - another local favorite - may also be full, I put on a French accent and pretended to be a member of the Renault F1 racing team (I wore the appropriate shirt) which promptly landed us a table! Vive la France!
On Sunday it was cool and wet after some overnight rain: weather which clearly favored the Bridgestone runners and Ferrari in particular. And so it was - Ferrari dominance from start to finish, a relatively unspectacular affair. Fernando Alonso's Renault held its own in third while Jenson Button in my BAR Honda - starting from fourth was eventually overtaken by the two BMWs but finished a very respectable sixth. Takuma Sato in the other BAR was ninth - I'm definitely going to keep the shirt on for the rest of the season! Local hero Mark Webber did not finish the race in his Jaguar to the disappointment of a large contingent of green fans.
The best part of the race was actually soon after the finish when the track was opened to the public and a massive "track invasion" took place. Fans of all colors (but mostly red) ran down the start/finish straight toward the podium where they climbed the security fence like koalas on a eucalyptus tree. A sea of red erupted into wild cheers when Schumacher and Baricello emerged on the podium for the obligatory champagne shower. We opted for a Foster's shower instead and headed for the bars!
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