MALAYSIAN FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX

I enjoyed the whole 3 days of the Malaysian Grand Prix it was just a bit unlucky that mother nature decided that Malaysia needed some rain . The bus system from the track to the airport needs to be looked at it just confused the hell out of everyone , there is no organization after the race to stand in line to catch the bus i seen people argue , push and shoved out off the way just to get on the bus , expect long delays to get back to KL Central , and don't think about getting a taxi easy at KL Central the Que is a mile long it took me 3 hours and 30 minutes to get back to my hotel room from the circuit .
Next time I would carry a small portable umbrella . Have a good Breakfast before you go the food is to expensive
But overall i had a brilliant time

OK first the plus points. Despite only seeing only 36 laps of the total 2009 race the Malaysian GP has to be one of the best value races to attend.
The panorama of the circuit from the F Platinum seats is fantastic with a great rear view of the start, overlooking turns 7 & 8 (where a lot of cars spun off in the torrential rain) and of the back straight and the hairpin where most of the overtaking happens.
Add to that a free open day on Friday practice where you can roam the main grandstands and you really get a brilliant experience of the event over a race weekend.
Unfortunately the Malaysian Grand Prix is let down by appalling facilities at the circuit.
Food
The catering provided on the outer grandstands is terrible. A few trestle tables re-selling sandwiches from 7/11 stores (yes I checked) and polystyrene containers filled with rice and what looked like curry isn't my idea of event catering.
Sure there was plenty of beer if that's what you're after (the Finns and the Aussies in our stand certainly enjoyed a lot of it) but where are the one handed meals you can eat whilst watching a race? Hotdogs? Hamburgers? Filled Pittas? OK so not typical Malaysian fare but I don't expect a gourmet meal at a race just something that’s easy to eat whilst crammed onto the grandstand seats. I can’t comment on catering at the main grandstand but from my brief experience on free Friday it appeared to be much better serviced.
Access
The real nail in the coffin is the transport provided to access the grandstands via the perimeter road.
Getting to the circuit n race day was a small problem; I took a bus from near to my hotel in Bukit Bintang but was forced to wait as two full busses passed by because the dopey Skybus staff was selling seats on our downstream pickup point for seats that didn't exist due to busses being filled at upstream stops!
When I suggested that they communicate with their colleagues in order to reserve seats for people downstream that had paid in advance they looked at me like I had just asked them to eat their first born!
Luckily my uneaten first-born and I were able to squeeze on the last bus to the circuit, which also took us around the perimeter road and straight to our grandstand.
Sadly this was as good as it got because on both the Saturday and the Sunday we were forced to stand on the road for almost 2 hours waiting for an official Skybus to stop and collect us and take us back to the main entrance.
On the Saturday it poured torrential rain 30 minutes after qualifying and everyone from the F grandstand got soaked waiting for buses that never arrived.
Thankfully on both days some more enterprising/desperate people flagged down private busses that showed pity on us poor sodden F1 fans and took us around to the main entrance.
Again the people from Skybus can’t seem to organise themselves to properly service the event. Here’s my tip Skybus management: Don’t start all the collection busses from the same point – stagger them around the circuit!

Kangaroo TV
No matter which race you attend you simply MUST hire one of these. They are brilliant and even if they charged double the price I would get one. Not only do you receive superb pictures, replays from the host broadcaster (FOM?) and driver audio but you also have access to the timing screens and superb BBC Radio 5 live commentary.
My tip: if you have a curious youngster like I did hire two units as they will never let you near it.
One caveat with the Kangaroo TV is the return point is inside the main grandstand. If you are returning a unit from one of the outer grandstands or hills – which is where most fans will appreciate KTV you must trek all the way back to the main grandstand at the end of the event to return the receiver!
After the debacle of the return transport adding a 15 minute climb from the bus drop off point to the KTV kiosk would have been worth forfeiting the MYR1000 deposit and keeping the thing as a souvenir.
Listen up Kangaroo TV: You need multiple drop off points around the circuits if you are going to see return business on your fantastic gadgets.
Conclusion
Horrendous torrential race stopping downpours aside the Malaysian Grand Prix is still a great race to attend but take my advice; there are a couple of things you simply MUST do if you are to enjoy this event:
1. Hire a car and pay for car park access next to your grandstand. Do NOT use the busses or taxis.
2. Take lots of light, waterproof clothing, a huge umbrella and a few plastic bags to keep your camera dry for when it rains – because it surely will.
3. Bring your own picnic lunch and soft drinks every day if you aren’t in the main grandstand.
4. Hire a Kangaroo TV or two but allow at least 30 minutes at the end of the event to return it.
5. Visit the main grandstand on the free Friday – not the best place to watch the race – and soak up the atmosphere.
Minus 2 stars for the food and access to circuit.
I would have given a zero for access because a 2 hour wait in the pouring rain for a bus after an event is simply unacceptable IMHO.

OK - so we picked the first race for a zillion years to get stopped mid way - but aside from that it was a great experience. Due to problems with ticketing we had to collect our tickets from the box office, rather than having them delivered to us - but that was very straightforward. Our seats were excellet - thank you Book F1. We went for K1 Gold - and were just a few seats separated from the platinum section. Could see a fair chunk of the track - the start line, the end of the pit lane, corner one and some of the top of the circuit. Good view of the big screen. The roof kept us cool when it was dry and dry when it was wet. The general admitance would have been excellent value if it didn't rain - great if you're on a budget. A few things to note - transport from KL comes in several forms, the Komuter train, and bus service, the KLIC (fast) train & bus service, bus services from KLCC and I'm sure many more. We went the Komuter root because it was the first one we found at the station. It was cheap but slow - took nearly two hours to get there and about three to get back - but it was well organised and convenient. There is no PA system at the circuit - but you can listen to commentry on an FM radio - take one with you - or buy headphones at the circuit from £10 upwards (I was listening to the BBC TV feed!). Unlike Silverstone where you have access to all circuit areas once you are in, in Sepang each grandstand is in it's own little bit - and whilst you can go into the other bits you have to be checked in and out. There were food and drink stands in our area, two large toilet blocks (although the ground around them was sodden, very muddy the toilets themselves were very clean), and a merchandise stand. There were other merchandise stands at the main entrance, but nothing like as many as on the pit straight at Silverstone. Becuase the circuit is so big the atmosphere was also less buzzy than Silverstone on raceday. The ticket says that you can't take food or drink into the circuit - no one even checked! It is very very hot so be sure to take something to cover up with and stick on sunblock and keep drinking the water. Overall it was a fantastic experience - shame that the race was stopped, but glad JB won. I would definitely go again. And another big thanks to Book F1 for making this a simple and enjoyable experience.

The race weekend ticket I had was fabulous, it was an experience I will never forget. The only gripe I had was the transport away from the circuit at the end of the race. Trying to get on a bus was like a stampede, once on a bus it took over two and a half hours to reach KLIA airport ( a short didtance away of a few miles). The journey took so long in fact that I missed my flight that evening to join my wife in Kota Kina Balu, so had to purchase another at a much much higher price. I did feel that the 2.5 hours I aloud would have been enough to travel the short distance to the airport but obviously wasn't. Apart from that the weekend was superb and as I say memories I will never forget. Maybe next time arrange a more efficient and smoother running transport service after the race.

Great seats. Not a lot going on around the circuit. The head phones with commentary were fantastic. The food available was dreadful. Uncooked satays and horrible hot dogs. Very dissapointing. The Jamiroquai concert was excellent although the area was very waterlogged. Again - catering was very poor.

Staff at bookF1 were really helpful, especially Marie. Would definately use their services again.

The owners of the Sepang International Circuit should not have introduced a new ticketing system at the time of the grand prix. The introduction of such a new system should have taken place at one of the "lesser" races at the circuit.
The decision to put back the race start was ill foounded.
The event overall was quite poor. The supporting events and facilities at the Australian GP and the Clipsal 500 event (in Adelaide) which I had visited over the previous fortnight were far superior. I appreciate you have little or no control over the contents of the race package but the fact that less than 53,000 people turned up on Sunday indicates that the Grand prix "package" was not as "feverish" as suggested in the advertising around Kuala Lumpur.

I had a fabulous Grand prix weekend,booking the tickets through book f1.com was really worth a million,they were in touch with us to ensure whatz happpening in the circuit,even thou they were not able to deliver our tickets home, i had no fuss in collecting the same at the collection centre of the circuit,they have made my dream come true ,will definetly think of booking my tickets through book f1.com next time too,i was very comfortable talking to them about my happenings with my ticket before it could reach me.They have done a great job.I would personally thank MR Paul Deason with whom i was in touch with hey, thanx man.

The only bad review which would like to give u all is ,after the race the circuit was damn bothered about picking us back to the welcome area where they picked us from, we had to drench in the rain , waiting for a long time for the bus to pick us up , and each and every bus which passed by would happily see us getting wet n the rain, this was really the worst part of the grand prix.

A good weekend other than the rain. Circuit easy to access, however catering and toilet facilities limited . Toilet facilities became a quadmire after the rain.
We also had to cross a 4 lane motorway to access the circuit bus, the traffic was stopped by officials however still was not comfortable with that facility. We were also expected to queue in a very muddy area for the bus which could easily have been altered.

all good

April is the second wettest month in Malaysia, the most likely time for it to rain is late afternoon/early evening. This year to satisfy the European TV viewers the race started at 5 pm - it gets dark just after 7!

The race was terminated early due to a downpour, the seats in rows A-G were soaked by the wind blowing the rain in. F4 was not a good place to be. However, since the K1 Gold was sparsely attended a quick move worked well, there was even a much better view of the TV screen!

The less said about getting back to the bus to KLIA the better. Sea and mud are two words which spring to mind.

Overall the weekend was enjoyable, the service from bookF1 was immaculate.

3rd time there and i'll be back next year. Seats @ 1st corner looking down starting straight (k1 plat). I think these seats are best in track. poor weather + race cut short didn't dampen atmosphere. train to track still best way to get to track from kl . KL is awesome city. many thanks to book f1 team.....

Generally the whole weekend in Sepang was great. I enjoyed the Practise sessions and Qualify more than race because of the shorter race thanks to the weather conditions.
I have been happy that I could see the circuit from different places during the Friday practise and I would recommend to have the seat in Tower.
There were the two weak points only:
- the available food was quite poor and you could not choose too much
- the screens should be bigger and there should be more of them against the main tribune because if you do not sit against the screen directly, you can not read the results, what is quite important mainly during the qualify.

exellent weekend at sepang. booking process and ticket collection 5 star

Race was held to late in the day 5pm to late in Malaysia race was stopped when just over half way due to heavy rain, Good choice of grand stand F but due to high wind and rain was coming in from behind stand and everybody including me got soaking wet! next time choose cheaper seats nearer the front and take wet proofs and umbreller

Gr8 race. How much extra are we expected to pay? K1 Gold tickets gave limited access only!!

Why bernie more it forward an hour???? The bloke has money on the brain (to attract the european veiwers).... I thought the whole point the F1 is world wide different time zones etc etc.

I had requested a good view of a screen, but it was too far away to see and imposible to read the positions written. (There was only one screen in sight unlike Singapore that had good screens) I bought head sets at the race they were lousy, and picked up music most of the time, so with the car noises, imposible to hear the tanoy system as everone had to have ear plugs.
So reading from the screen is assential. Frustrating.!!!!

I hopped over to Malaysia from bangkok, where I stay from December to April, so I thought it would be a great idea, being only 3 hours away from Malaysia by plane, to go to my first grand prix.
Book F1 were excellent, as the race tickets were only issued by the organiser 2 weeks before the race, they sent, via Fedex, my tickets to my apartment in Thailand. The seats were good, the atmosphere was great, and I had a little look around Kuala Lumpar, and what a clean, wonderful city it is. When i leave for my 3 months on 27th Dec 2008 I will probably go to Langkawi in Malaysia, its meant to be beautiful, but I would definitely combine a holiday with a Malaysian Grand Prix attendance, its a wonderful place!
Good work to Book F1!

Disappointed at the facilities provided, choice of food, lack of any commentary on track and support races. Better watched on TV