Awaiting the F1 season

Was at Borders over the weekend and I spotted a book by Murray Walker, the grand guru of Formula 1 racing. Somehow, the face of Murray Walker brought back all the memories of watching Formula 1 on ITV every alternate Sundays from March to November. I used to curse the Formula 1 qualifying rounds as CD:TV would be shortened to about half an hour. Stuck in my cold room and tele, Formula 1 racing was really one of the weekly habits on top of watching all the other shows.

The voice of Murray Walker shouting "Go, go, go!" when the green lights are turned on was really one of the main reasons of watching F1 on ITV. Was particularly interested in watching the engineering aspect of racing (coming from UCL where some of our more famous alumnis have gone on to become engineers in F1) Those days, Mika Hakkinen were ruling the circuit with Schumacher just finding his mark in Ferrari. Those were also the days when the tour was still limited to the same few cities before circuits in KL, Bahrain, Shanghai, Turkey burst into the scene.

When Murray Walker finall retired in 2002, he was given a momentus farewell after being in the industry for more than 30 years. His voice was sadly missed and somehow I felt that the excitment of the race were not there anymore. Those Sunday afternoons when grocery shopping had to wait till F1 was over were sadly missed. Had a torrid time in the US when I had to wake up at 8 am to catch the races in Europe and even more disappointed when I came back to Singapore. Somehow, no one can replace good old Murray.