By Les Tan
Just pretend it’s Schumacher. After all, you can’t really tell anyway. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports file photo)
So Michael Schumacher is not coming to Singapore after all because his “neck pain”, according to BBC News.
“I am disappointed to the core,” BBC News reports him as saying.
Tickets for this year’s race are being sold at a slower pace than last year because of the economic crisis, with banks and investment firms finding it hard to spend big money this year even if they made profits.
The $7,500 per head Paddock Club, sold in bunches of 50 last year – that’s S$375,000 at one go – because that’s what the organisers demanded, are now being quietly sold in pairs to any takers.
A whole stand of seats at the final turn will not be built this year (compare last year’s map with this year’s below).
So all those who bought tickets in the last two weeks specifically because of Schumacher will feel a different soreness.
For them, their “wallet pain”.
The 2008 map with the seats in red.
The 2009 circuit map with fewer seats in red. Four large areas of seating available in 2008 are now gone. Zone 2 will see the largest block of seats not coming back.
That is a waste for sure but based on BBC report it sounds like he’s not suffering from a regular neck pain but a had past injury that may be aggravated by another F1 race.
Good, maybe some day soon they will do away with this elitist sport that clogs up downtown every Sept just so a bunch of rich folk can pretend to play with sports cars.
aiyah..I was hopping he would come …
what a loss … it would have been great …
Nice comparison of maps, Les. Not surprising that organisers chose to do this. I wonder whether they will leave the now-free spaces open to walkabout ticketholders.
Reminds me of when Robbie Fowler didn’t show…