I became a Formula 1 fan for a long time ago. Back in 1994 I sat down to watch the San Marino GP on TV, the GP with tradic consequences. Everyone who has ever followed F1 knows that the F1 legend Ayrton Senna got killed in that race... But since that I´ve followed every F1 season. The level of my passion for the sports has varied during the years but now it has finally reached the point where I feel the very need to write a blog on the topic ;)
This time last weekend (from Feb 17th to Feb 20th) I was at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain watching the winter tests! In spite of my passion for the sports, I´ve only once before had the opportunity to see the Formula 1 cars driving live. It was at Silverstone back in 1995 and all I can remember about the race is that Schumacher collided with Damon Hill and it was Johnny Herbert who finally won the race!
How could I describe my feelings during the one and a half days that I spent at the circuit watching the tests... I feel kind of speechless and unable to describe my emotions with any reasonable words... First of all, the weather at Circuit de Catalunya on Friday Feb 18th was just perfect! It was +18 degrees and the sun was shining in the light blue sky, which was awesome because at the same time in my home country Finland there had been colder than ever before during this winter, temperature being somewhere even -40 degrees...! But hearing the engines of the F1 cars starting and seeing the cars live on the track... If there could be heaven on Earth, for me it was there on that day! Not to mention when the reigning world champion appeared on the track with his brand new RB7... My sister joked that she could see it on my face when Vettel was on the track ;) Probably very true.It´s on one hand kind of funny and on the other hand kind of contradictory to think that for all the Formula 1 drivers those two testing days were normal working days with no extraordinary emotions but for a fan like me they were a dream come true! Since I got married and my three sons were born, those two days at Circuit de Catalunya under the Spanish sun have been the best days of my life! It´s kind of funny what makes you happy... No matter how loud and ear-hurting the noise at the main straight was it was the most perfect place to be on that day. Watching the Red Bull crew working at their box through a video camera lense gave me a glimpse of the very real Formula 1 world and I felt very privileged to be a part of it :)
