Is the Singapore GP Superpit Worth It? A Frank Review from the Final Straight

Oct 13

9 min read

TLDR; I spent Thanksgiving weekend at the home of the original night race of the F1 season. I’m unsure if it was 100% worth it; for $3100ish CAD per person, it is a pricey entry fee for minimal hospitality perks. The race itself was incredible; the 3-day music festival that interleaved the races was awesome; the energy was unmatched, but why do I still feel a little underwhelmed? The easiest solution is that I’m not 100% happy with my videos and photos from the weekend. I was unprepared for the level of complexity shooting on a pit straight through a fence would be.

I checked off a massive item from my bucket list this weekend by attending the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix. This was one of the coolest experiences of my 31 years on this earth. We had fabulous seats from a spectator standpoint, having splurged on Superpit tickets. The weather in Singapore was 31°C, hazy, and humid, as is typical for this time of year now. Especially with slash-and-burn, the forest fires, AND the volcanoes in Indonesia that all coincide with this time of year, sadly, the air quality was the worst I think I’ve ever experienced in Singapore. If you do end up planning on coming to the Singapore GP but have respiratory issues, please seriously consider an N95 Mask.

Superpit Grandstand: $2500 SGD face value, paid $3100 CAD.

Superpit inclusions: All Zones Access, Line bypass at Gates, Superpit beverage pick up, $100 merch credit, $100 food credit, 6 drink tickets per day, higher grandstand seats (row 15 up I think). For $700 extra on ticket face value over the Pit Seats, this is what you receive.

Let me start with the positives of the weekend, of which there are many.

The Pros

First: the MRT staff + the overall organization at the MRT stations were next level. Toronto could never. The map you receive with your tickets will tell you which MRT stop is closest to your gate and which gate you are allowed entry through. The entire process of getting off the MRT and then being pointed in the right direction for the gate was seamless. The whole way from disembarkation to the gate, you are marshalled along by MRT staff, volunteers and police. Truly, the whole thing was very organized.

Second: If you get a premium seat, you get a VIP entry lane at your gate. This is crucial if you were like my dad and me and completely pinched for time… our time management getting onto the grounds needed improvement. The line bypass was excellent. Was it worth the premium seats when I consider all the pros and cons? Unsure, but as a stand-alone perk, it was excellent.

Third: $100 merch credit per ticket. This is enough to buy you a shirt and part of a hat or something else. Merch is always very expensive, and to get $100 back on the ticket price is nominal but something.

Fourth: $100 in food credits for the weekend. The food wasn’t egregiously priced, but we had $200 between the two of us to use at a variety of food vendors. It was actually a challenge to get through all the tickets because we forgot them on day 2. But again, $100 is better than nothing.

Fifth: 6 drink tickets per day. This was a pro because we didn’t need to bring any water onto the grounds with us and/or a bottle to refill (there were refill stations, though a big plus). You could also use the tickets on wine, beer, mixed drinks, Pepsi, Pepsi Zero, or 7Up. A limited selection for the non-alcohol drinkers (me RIP), but at $10+ per mixed drink, you could get really good value if you wanted to. TBH, with the heat, humidity and amount of sweat, I would be scared to drink too much because that hangover would be crazy.

Sixth: The ushers were really lovely. Sometimes it is a bit tricky to get the answer you need from a Singaporean due to cultural differences in context and phrasing. I grew up visiting Singapore and visiting with my extended family here but still find it challenging to always get the answers I need. For example, I asked “where do I queue with my pass?” and then held up my Superpit pass. The answer, “you still need to queue”… truly a moment where I cringed internally because my question was, by my North American sensibilities, a direct “where do the people with the fancy tickets go to not wait in the long general admission line but still go through security” moment, but I was told I still need to queue… as we would say “alamak” (Malay for oh my god, used to express shock, surprise, dismay and frustration). My solution by the way is to just ask another person until I get the answer I’m looking for. I do need to add that the kids that volunteered were always positive, upbeat and even at 11:30 pm were in great moods. They are a testament to Singapore’s work ethic. Even when we didn’t get the answer 100% in line with the question we were asking, they were eager to be helpful and were always polite.

The Cons

Now onto the cons.

The premium: The Superpit and Pit grandstands come at a real premium, but as a racing fan and a photographer, they were not what I expected. With something labelled Superpit and being priced at $2500 SGD to start, I really did go into race weekend expecting clear views of the track and a look into the pit lane. That is not what we got. It was a bit disappointing not to be elevated over the fencing… if it's named Superpit, why no super pit views? A bit of a marketing scheme on that one, unfortunately. If you are just there for the vibes, a few video shots and whatnot, these are excellent seats. You can kind of see the pit crews running around, the top of the cars zooming into the pit, and the starting line. Do these seats offer panoramic views down into Turn 1 or Turn 19? Not really. It was also a bit hard to see much farther down the track. Potentially, if we were right at the top of our grandstand, it would’ve been easier to see. My verdict from the weekend is that the best version of the pit straight view without heading into the sponsor paddock (would LOVE to be invited in there one day; from a marketing standpoint, that experience looks incredible) is that you would need to splurge on a suite, which is the structure you can see on the left side of the Turn 19 view photo.

Also, on the note of the premium: if we account for the $200 in credits + 6 drink tickets and the line skip, that is pretty solid, but (please Singapore GP if you are reading this, take this as constructive criticism, not hate) there isn’t too much “premium” you get for $2500 SGD starting. The seats (which an online blog said were bucket seats… no babe, they are not) are standard grandstand-issue plastic stadium seats; the view is partially obstructed by the fence, the pitwall and various other poles, covered mechanical areas, etc. And beyond line-skip at the beginning, you get a superpit line for water and beer ONLY.

The crowd and concrete: From where we were sitting, the cars were frequently very close to the concrete barrier on our side, so they were cut off at the midpoint by the barrier or the crowd. Not the biggest deal, but with all events now, people are not the most respectful of others, and I did spend a lot of time trying to dodge the people in the row in front of me as they stood up or raised their cellphones to film. Part and parcel with crowd culture now, but obviously, being on the roof of a suite or at the front of a more elevated grandstand, this could be avoided.

The food: I’m saying this as a half-Singaporean… WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? We Singaporeans are KNOWN for our incredible, delish food. Food that makes my mouth water just thinking about it. OMG, our food is so delicious… please, someone explain to me why the 22 Michelin stars were advertised so heavily but then only available to the Paddock Club? The food at the venue was truly mid. Also, I had a crazy allergic reaction to the fried chicken… FRIED CHICKEN PEOPLE. Ok so because of that I’m a little extra annoyed. But truly, the food was a disappointment. The best F&B offering of the weekend was the watermelon juice. Singapore has hawker culture, which is affordable and relatively quick food. Many dishes are easy to batch and serve en masse, so why was it absent from the food stalls? If anything needed improvement beyond the slightly ridiculous upcharge for very little benefit, seating-wise, for Superpit, it was the food.

The lack of VIP treatment for the most expensive grandstand ticket: this is where I might lose people, but hear me out… Superpit tickets are the most expensive grandstand tickets you can purchase, but after entry, you are treated almost identically to the rest of the attendees. No dedicated food stalls, beverage areas or bathrooms. For an event STEEPED in hierarchy, status and prestige, the prestige of the Superpit when moving through the event spaces and zones does feel hollow. I will not deny the thrill of the starting line, the awe of the cars zooming down the pit straight and the intrigue of watching the pit crews hustle in and out of their garages. I will ask what Superpit could bring to the table for future F1 races to make the experience as luxe as the price point indicates it will be.

There is a very obvious hospitality jump between the grandstand and the suites. You do tack on $7500 extra for the suites, but you end up with a jetty gate (water taxi that delivers you right to the door of your suite), air conditioning, covered seating, the higher vantage point etc.

My final con: Lana Del Rey. I like the occasional Lana song; I missed West Coast because I walked from Zone 1 to the Padang and then left early due to the fried chicken making me viscerally ill, so I missed Young and Beautiful and Summertime Sadness…. HOWEVER. Closing F1 weekend with an artist who performs mostly ballads is diabolical. Truly diabolical. Die-hard Lana fans were rightfully obsessed, but after Zara Larsson and the Killers the day before, it was a jarring change of pace for me. I also suffer from the syndrome where all her songs sound somewhat the same, which probably adds to my feelings of meh with her setlist. I also think, given the fact that F1 is a very mixed crowd with all ages and many international attendees, the artists performing would be best served by hitting on their greatest hits. Dropping unreleased tracks or a niche favourite that they love to sing works great in a concert where fans are paying to see them, but in a mixed crowd does not have the same resonance. Treating F1 like a headliner concert is a recipe for disaster.

The photography of it all

First and foremost, action photography is HARD! Action photography of a car moving at 300km per hour is HARD!

From where I was sitting to where the car was, I was over-lensed. I really didn’t need 300mm, but for the concerts and the podium, 300mm was honestly not enough! I could’ve had 400mm!

I also needed a way faster lens. I bought the best that was realistically in budget and available at the time of purchase, but next time I will bring a faster lens that has less zoom and rely on the 40mp to help me crop in post.

To be brutally honest, I probably picked the most challenging race and most challenging location as my first attempt at F1 photography. Being at one of the fastest sectors of the circuit, and it being a nice race, was a real challenge. My JPEGs are practically unusable with the noise. Thank goodness for Lightroom, RAW files and denoising.

The Fence: My hypothesis from the footage I’ve seen shared on socials so far from the race and the SkySuites is that they are elevated enough and angled correctly that the fence wasn’t as much of a factor. The fence was a real challenge for me. I had a difficult time getting the fence to melt into the foreground enough for my camera to focus on the car, and because we were at the final straight of the course, this was where the cars were going the fastest. From pure adrenaline and perspective on just how quickly these cars go, it was incredible. From a photography standpoint, it was a nightmare.

What I would do differently

If I’m going strictly for the photography, I am sitting in a braking zone with more time to properly set up the shot.

I would also take a little bit more time to invest in some gear that is better suited for the photography style required and/or really educate myself on what to do settings-wise. I can take beautiful travel photos, but action photography is a completely different animal, especially when we factor in the night race of it all. I was frankly ill-prepared.