CS

Just incase you hadn’t guessed yet, we’re now in Melbourne! We’ve travelled from Christchurch over to Sydney, up the east coast then back down to Victoria. But a post will be added on that trip soon!

I’ve been looking forward to the Formula One in Melbourne for months, and last weekend it finally arrived. It’s definitely a different track to others I’ve visited, mainly due to the fact that it’s built using the roads in Albert Park. This makes it known for tight corners, bumpy track conditions and less overtaking than a traditional track. But saying all this, the race was good and the atmosphere was amazing. Pretty good for a nation where the races are normally on in the middle of the night!!

Vicki was also excited in the build up to the Grand Prix. We found a shop in Melbourne selling cheap previous year team merchandise so we bought ourselves some Kimi Raikkonen Lotus caps and some t-shirts for the occasion. Not quite the full team kit that you see some fans wearing but we were supporters all the same. The city was gearing up for the race with merch stands and transport information starting to pop up everywhere, so I was enjoying being able to walk up the street to the sight of F1 all over the place!

Just before they closed the roads to the public to put the finishing touches to the circuit, we went for a bike ride around the track. Riding down the pit straight, standing on pole position, jumping into the pit lane; it kept me entertained for ages. We rode around the whole track, but trying to take the apex on each corner became difficult when faced with oncoming traffic – weird seeing road cars on the track going the opposite way to what I’ve seen on TV. There were piles of gravel waiting to be raked out and I also didn’t expect to see car parking spaces on the pit straight! But it still looked and felt like the track, one that I never thought I’d see never mind ride around..

For Friday practice we had a great view from the outside of the first corner where we’d managed to get into a grandstand. My first impression of the new 2018 cars was how much better they sounded than last year. The new aero designs also look really cool this year, the cars actually looking wider with sleek, gliding front and rear wings. McLaren have done a great job with their new paintwork and the car really stands out on the track.

I was excited for qualifying on Saturday so we got to the gates when they opened, still expecting a queue, but not expecting as much rain as there was. The moment we entered the line the heavens opened and we were drenched within a few minutes, even with ponchos. Determined not to let the weather get us down we entered Albert Park and went straight to the Melbourne Walk, where drivers can walk down on their way into the pit lane. We saw a few, Daniel Ricciardo the main star, who was looking unusually down due to his three place grid penalty for not slowing enough under a red flag during practice. He carried on all the same, fulfilling his duties to the fans who were going crazy for the Australian at his home race. After we’d got a bit more wet we explored the fan zone and watched some of the support races, looking for good vantage points to watch qualifying from. We settled on turns 9 and 10 on the opposite side of the lake, which had great viewing of the cars for longer than most other places on the circuit. Qualifying was dry at this point, which was a shame as it would have spiced things up a bit. But Lewis Hamilton put in a stunning lap to take the pole, with the Ferraris behind and Bottas crashing out putting himself way down the grid. It set up an interesting race on Sunday if Lewis didn’t run away with it.

We woke up early on Sunday to head down to the Melbourne Walk again, which was much more successful this time as the weather had improved! We saw most of the drivers except for the top three, who almost seemed too good to see their fans. A shame as the new owners are trying to make the sport more fan-orientated. We were pretty thrilled with the famous faces we saw in the couple of hours we were there, one of my favourites actually being ex-driver and commentator Martin Brundle who stopped for a photo and a quick laugh about Vicki calling him Brundle rather than Martin. A nice guy who talks a lot of sense.

We then scoped out some more vantage points for the race, deciding on the outside of turn two where Bottas had binned it into the wall the day before. This wasn’t a main factor in choosing the spot; it’s also a notorious couple of corners for action, with the very first turn of the season happening right in front of us. It didn’t disappoint in a race that was pretty good, not thrilling, but with some unexpected turns and a great atmosphere from the crowd. We saw Max Verstappen spin in his Red Bull and the two Haas drivers break down in front of us after problems in the pit lane. The latter of these incidents determined the outcome of the race with Sebastian Vettel leapfrogging Lewis Hamilton by gaining time under a safety car. Not a fantastic way to see a race won but for the first few laps it looked like Lewis had it all under control, although Ferrari were somewhat keeping up the pace. Despite being British and waving my Union Jack flag I did cheer for Vettel to make it a race, and he is still the underdog in this year’s championship.

During the weekend I had just missed meeting Lewis by about five metres as he had to run off to the pit lane after signing a few autographs in the area I was in, pretty gutting. I do like him as a driver but not so much as a person, his ego is definitely getting the better of him. It was also a real shame for the fans that Lewis, Sebastian and Kimi didn’t make an appearance on the Melbourne Walk, maybe next time guys. We did wait around after the race and saw them all leaving the circuit in their cars, but they were making an exit pretty quickly. This is where we also managed to see a few more drivers leaving and I got Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert to sign my flag – that was bloody amazing!

Overall, the experience in Melbourne is the best I have had at an F1 race so far, but let’s see where the new owners take the sport in the next few years. Kudos to the organisers of the event here, it seems to be one of the best races on the calendar for the fans. I can’t wait to go to the next race somewhere new and see these amazing cars and their drivers put everything into being the fastest in the world.