Not Just a Race for the Rich: Welcome to the F1 FanZone

ABU DHABI - To my complete surprise in downtown Abu Dhabi Friday night I found myself reminded - in the middle of the most grueling travel and racing schedule in Formula One history - exactly why drivers do the job they do: Fun.

Formula One is the pinnacle of auto racing, and as with the pinnacle of any sport and the seriousness that goes with it all, it is easy to forget that it is all about fun. Especially with the drivers in Formula One. They may be paid millions of dollars, and live in a cut-throat competitive world, and they may appear aloof and have little to say about their work in press conferences or other interviews; they may talk about all the physical workouts they have to do and they look like warriors on the path to battle; they and their teams may do all they can to get there. But they, and by extension, all other sports people and athletes around the world perform, engage in their sport because it is a thrill. It lifts them to a higher plane of existe nce outside the mundane day-to-day world they live in.

I was reminded of this when I was invited to take a look at the F1 FanZone on the beach in downtown Abu Dhabi, about a half-hour drive from the race track where the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix takes place this weekend.

The F1 FanZone is sanctioned by Formula One, but it is not run by Formula One. It is the brainchild of Carlo Boutagy, a Canadian-born man of Lebanese origin, who came up with the idea while studying economics at Concordia University in Montreal.

There he had a friend who ran part of the downtown street festival for the Canadian Grand Prix, and Boutagy remarked that they should be showing the race on giant screens in the streets of Montreal as well as running a little theme park around Formula One. But to get the rights to show the races requires a lot of money, as well as time and planning.

Boutagy then came up with the idea to do it himself, to bring Formula One into the streets for the p opulace at large; and showing the practice sessions, qualifying and the race itself on giant screens was only part of it. Today, five years later, F1 FanZone has been run in Abu Dhabi, Melbourne and Monaco, and plans to expand even to countries where the race is not taking place - Milan for next year's race in Monza. Boutagy was close to signing a deal to run F1 FanZone in Venezuela during the Brazilian Grand Prix. (Pastor Maldonado, a driver for the Williams team, is from Venezuela.)

Part carnival, part fair, the F1 FanZone also invites drivers to speak to the public occasionally, and try the rides themselves. There are contests for the public, including a clever Facebook competition in which members of the public are asked to get as many friends as possible to “like” their entry on the F1 FanZone page, and the winner gets a trip to a race.

The two elements of the FanZone that really fired my excitement were the activities themselves and the business model. The business model is, in a word, brilliant.

“A lot of the people in this part of the world cannot afford to buy tickets for the race, especially for a family,” said Boutagy in an interview. (Tickets for good seats can run 400 euros, or more than $500, though some venues, like the Canadian Grand Prix, are cheaper.) “It all started with the fact that people here weren't really educated in Formula One. Now people know what it is.

“It is really a family oriented event, and it's all free,” he said of the FanZone. “Any other sport has this: FIFA Fan Fest, NFL, NHL.”

Indeed. For a sport that is often criticized as elite, costly, not for the average family's enjoyment - and not fan-friendly - the F1 FanZone operates entirely on sponsorship. The gates are open to anyone, and all the attractions are free. Boutagy's company consists only of four people, and when he runs an event, he hires local staff - more than 30 of them - to run the rides and deal with the public. He makes his money and runs the event entirely with money from Formula One sponsors, such as Pirelli Tires or Vodafone, and with local sponsors.

The Abu Dhabi F1 FanZone will have run for 15 days and had 300,000 visitors, although some may be repeat visits. The event took advantage of the fact that the Indian Grand Prix ran the previous Sunday, and showed that race on the giant screens in Abu Dhabi.

But the “rides” - of which there are 10 to 12 - are the heart of the F1 FanZone, and what make this approach so interesting and fun. My two favorite were the Batak pro reaction test and the racing simulator. I was also interested in the car that turns upside down while you sit in it wearing seatbelts in order to understand just how important seatbelts are when you are upside down in a car….

It was in using the Batak pro - the first thing that I tried - that I suddenly realized how much fun Formula One drivers have, even in training! It is an extremely simple device of alternately flashing lights that you must put out in 60 seconds. The purpose is to measure and improve reaction times. I am sure that I was handicapped by my progressive eyeglass lenses, but my score on my second try was a respectable 72 hits in 60 seconds. (The official record is that of Jenson Button, the driver for the McLaren Mercedes team, at 114 hits in 60 seconds. But apparently there is another, unofficial, record of 155 hits!)

I immediately started thinking about professional sports and the fun the athletes have in preparing and performing. And that led me to thinking about the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, and how the competition can go too far and overshadow the purpose of the activity.

But what was really interesting in this F1 FanZone is how Formula One is used not only to entertain and to try to hook children on the sport, but above all, how to teach them about road safety. One of the events, sponsored by the Abu Dh abi police, featured kid-sized cars children drive around a track to learn driving rules. At the end, they are awarded a drivers' license with their photo on it.

The simulator was pure fun, of course, as I drove around the track and felt the bumps of the curbs and the brutal crashes into the walls as I lost control â€" driving too fast.

And the whole experience and “insight” came back to me again as I watched the qualifying session for Sunday's race and saw Lewis Hamilton score pole position in his McLaren Mercedes. It was pure delight for the driver as was visible in the way he ran gingerly towards the weigh scales after the session to carry out the driver weighing process done after every qualifying session.

“Very, very excited,” said Hamilton of his pole position and looking forward to the race on Sunday.