The owners of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez were weeks late in having the circuit ready for the final FIA inspection. It now seems the organisers of the race weekend are also badly prepared. Having sold out for each day of the weekend, fans were locked out of the circuit until just minutes before Friday’s free practice 1 began.
Queues at various entrances were over a Kilometre long and the grandstands were almost empty as the cars took to the track for the 90 minute session. The last of the fans were still waiting to be admitted as FP1 came to an end. Many of the concession stands also remained unopen until late in FP1.
Other fans reported shuttle buses from various points in the city, simply failed to arrive at pre-arranged collection points and nobody was available to provide information as to alternative transport to the circuit.
By the end of the session, the stadium section was almost completely full, though fans contacting TJ13 were angry at the way they had been treated. The redesigned Tilke circuit has also come in for some criticism. Safety concerns about the run off outside of the iconic peraltada corner meant this has been neutered as the cars now run through the old baseball stadium.
However, Bruno Senna believes the biggest Tilke sin was altering the famous Esses section unnecessarily – ruining the flow of the track for the cars.
Yup… part of the Mexican Folklore. I predicted that work would be ongoing all the way to race day. don’t ask me why, it’s just the way things happen here. It’s even possible that some things will be finished post-race, for next year, wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
ESPN reports they got the license only yesterday after Jean Todt met Mexican president Pena Nieto.
Any bulky brown paper envelopes in sight?? 🙂
Suspect the real reason Jean wanted to shift HQ to Switzerland was to maximize learning from Sep….
Test
Test
Prueba
Thanks for letting this through, I got some unexpected behaviour from wordpress lately
You’re not the only one. It won’t remember my name nor email…
Same here, makes it a real ball-ache to post comments.
I’m surprised NBC broadcast FP1 usually we only get FP2 here in the US. The track looks extremely slick.
It had everything. Apart from the already reported: duplicated tickets; non-existing seats -people had to seat in the stairs-; credit card terminals that didn’t work and empty ATMs; the most absurd system to buy food and drinks, one hour line to pay followed by another one hour line to pick up the food; unisex bathrooms because they didn’t place signs on them; speakers that didn’t work in the grandstands; a complete grandstand missing; re-sellers at the gates; bus drivers that didn’t know the route and left people in the wrong gate -when they actually reached a gate-. There is already a concrete patch in the entrance to the pits -some people said the asphalt broke yesterday, but I’m not sure-. Totally third world stuff.
Wow. That’s just horrible. I was a moto gp race in brno this year which had 160.000 people attending on sunday alone and entire organization was silky smooth. Ok, you had to wait 30 minutes for drinks in rush hours after the training sessions ended but that’s about it. 5 minutes entry gate waiting time, entire surrounding roads and traffic managed by hundreds of police officers, signs everywhere. Top notch. I’d probably lose my shit if I found myself in a situation like people are facing in mexico right now.
Kind of an unfair comparison I’d say. Brno has been on the MotoGP calendar for years now, so they’ve had enough time to iron out all the issues that’s currently being faced by the organisers of this race.
“the most absurd system to buy food and drinks, one hour line to pay followed by another one hour line to pick up the food;” That must have been learned from Moscow’s G.U.M. store.