High traffic sees Singapore Grand Prix ticketing system crash

Singapore (Singapore) - Asia is set to receive its first city-based Grand Prix race in Formula 1 World Championship. On September 28th, F1 engines will roar through City-state of Singapore during the night, making it the first night race in history of F1.

However, in order for that GP to happen, it is necessary to bring visitors to the track, and expectations are running high. To be more precise, expectation was high enough to crash the ticket distribution system that went online on Valentine’s Day.

Organizers issued a press release apologizing that the ticket distribution system, which combines all three possible methods : online, call centers and booths - could not cope with demand. In fact, it was quite interesting reading apologetic statements from Singapore GP Pte Ltd (event organizer), and The OmniTicket Network, company in charge of ticket distribution.

OmniTicket CEO Paolo Moro issued a statement saying, “Due to the unexpected number of simultaneous requests, the response time of the reservation system got compromised and, for a short time, even stopped responding."

Ticket prices are floating from 118 to 979 USD, and at that time, it might be interesting to take a direct flight on San Francisco-Hong Kong-Singapore (SFO-HKG-SIN) route with the spanking new Airbus A380 (hopefully it will be running by September), and see the first night race in the history of F1. If you want to go all decadent, there is East Coast-Singapore Flight (Newark-Singapore) with a modified Airbus A340-500. Of course, if you’re not shy of expenses, you can shell out $5293 for entrance into VIP section called The Paddock Club. Of course, that’s only worthwhile if you’re able to buy the tickets first.