The word on the street in Singapore is that the city is studying alternative venues for the Grand Prix, because the disruption caused in the downtown area has not gone down well with the locals. The plan is to incorporate the race into a new “Sports Hub”, which is being developed at Kallang, not far from the track, slightly further out of town. This would reduce the traffic disruption considerably while still allowing large crowds to be delivered by the MRT underground network, as there will be a new Stadium station built.
The Sports Hub is designed to draw international events to the world-class facilities and generate sports spectator tourism, while also encouraging Singaporeans to be a more sporting nation (and therefore to become fitter). The aim is for the facilities to be ready by 2014, including a new 55,000-seater National Stadium, with a retractable and air conditioning, an indoor Stadium with 12,000 seats, an Aquatic Centre, a multi-purpose indoor area, a commercial space for leisure, shopping and dining activities, plus a water sports centre, which will use the Kallang Basin. Plus a library, a museum and an exhibition centre.
The plan seems to be to run a track on the roads around the various stadiums. One presumes that this will continue to happen at night and that sections of the track will be by the river, so that the backdrop of downtown Singapore can still be used.
This is a view of what the new development will look like. You can see the Marina Bay facilities and the Casino with its distinctive roof garden in the distance on the left.
Let’s hope they come up with a decent layout this time!
Since when did the Singapore government care about traffic disruption to locals? The national day parade and associated practices cause almost as much disruption for a longer period of time. Sounds like an excuse to justifying spending lots of money to replace the old national stadium.
This looks as if it could be great news. From your reports the GP sounds as if it is a marvellous event, but on TV it’s about as exciting as indoor karting. If they build a decent circuit out there in the ‘Sports Hub’, it should be possible to maintain the atmosphere you tell us about – and the armchair spectators could have something really spectacular as well.
“a new 55,000-seater National Stadium, with a retractable and air conditioning”
You’re missing a roof.
Interesting to hear about this new development – and I’m in Singapore! Just a little note, though: Stadium MRT Station has already been in operation for some time, as has a shopping centre next to it. I just popped by the other week. Looking forward to seeing the new facilities!
This move came at the right time since the Government is trying to promote sports in the community. This new Sports Hub will surely bring in all the big time events which will push Singapore up the sports ranking. With such good security in Singapore, sporting events can be organised here without much fuss and fear.
Part of the attraction is the city centre! Don’t see it changing myself. We shall see… I live in Singapore and the disruption is pretty well managed and is not so bad. Hey, with all the construction of mrt etc in the city what’s another week of road closures.
As the previous poster says, stadium mrt has been open a while now, serving the indoor stadium and kallang lesiure park/mall; the new national stadium can’t come soon enough!
.. plus the new Changi facility (if it ever gets built) is only supposed to be for levels below F1; might struggle to get much good views of the CBD/MBS skyline from Kallang, though …
Really hope they don’t, the street circuit is a great track on the calendar, challenging for the drivers and has produced great racing at every race. It would be a great shame to see it moved away from the current track. It is also unique, being the only (and hopefully always only, to make it unique) night race.
singapore is the most exciting race and venue.What ever they do you can bet it will be world class. Thanks for info Joe. Say hi to fw. Gordon
Would be a bit of a risk given the success of the event so far. Though I suppose that means they will do there best at a new venue too.
There was talk a while ago that Singapore was considering a slight route change (going around the War Memorial for one, and cutting out all thsoe fiddly chicanes across the waterfront), but I’ve been told it’s impossible. A friend of mine was in the Singaporean Army, and he reckons that a lot of the open space in the city-state is owned by the Army. It appears to be the government’s way of controlling growth.
If they are seriously considering a new layout near the stadium, then here’s my suggestion:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5073398
I was looking for this since Joe’s entry was published . . .
the thing is i think that all these architectural renderings are cookie cutter bland, dull, nothing which attracts, let alone excites me. As if they got some interns to press the buttons on Autodesk (actually it looks a bit autodesky, but not knowing such things day to day, can’t be certain)
I did not find the particular link i was after, but this blog is chock full of absolutely enticing renders, most of which are built up with painter’s skills tools and palettes, as much as a “straight” render.
Doesn’t F1 deserve the best presentation? I get no sense of scale or humanity out of the picture above, it lacks environmental granularity, anything which hooks me, entices me into the scene, the little cues you get in real life all the time, but with which you can salt and sparkle a presentation. (if you overdo them, you get “Uncanny Valley”, too much geometric perfection, and humans immediately know it’s suspect)
Here’s where i found lots of work which just plain impressed me: http://www.ronenbekerman.com/
. .
Prisoner,
thanks for that link! Neat.
Have you seen the Google Road Trip website? It was a mashup / hackathon for a Yahoo event, i forget the link sorry.
all best to all,
– j
Actually, a slight modification to my circuit design:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5075909
The start line is on the lower part of Mountbatten Road. The first corner is a double-apex right into a quick left and another right; it’s a harder, faster version of Tamburello. Then the circuit follows the natural contours of the road up around Stadium Drive. It weaves around under the Nicoll Highway, where the curves are exaggerated so the whole section is like a tighter version of Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel or the Ascari chicane; it’s fast, but it’s not flat out. The the circuit heads back towards Mountbatten Road with a purpose-built bend that goes under the circuit like the Suzuka fly-over. The readon why I made this change was because the original design left no run-off on the outside and no space for the pits and paddock. We then have a kilometre-long straight to the heaviest braking point on the lap, before looping back around with a right-hand sweeper, a medium left and then a quick flick left onto the main straight. It’s 6.41km long, so the race would be run over 46 laps.
Prisoner,
that looks . . awesome!
Mountbatten Road is insane . . Mulsanne. Let them suss the aero setup for the rest, my God . .
so need to have the time to dig into this. GIS / mapping wise.
thanks!
– john
F1 is coming to Singapore next week, I’m pretty sure it will be an awesome one, considering the past few F1s were so successful! It’s said that Vettel might just seal up the title here in Singapore, so all the pressure’s gonna be on him. The traffic around the area’s gonna be packed so movement will be restricted, thats the downside of a big event..
Anyway, there are some tips for a better F1 experience.
http://www.singapore-attractions-guide.com/f1-singapore.html