Some of our ‘friends’ in the media have been having a torrid time this week. Journalists hate change almost as much as they hate paying for lunch, so when the Valencian race organisers decided to move the press accreditation centre to a new location, a mile or so away from the track, chaos inevitably followed in their wake.

The address on the form had only the most cursory relationship with reality, and the distinct lack of signage for the accreditation centre was also a problem (except on the building itself, which has a sign so large it can be seen from space) and so the press pack spent most of Thursday morning wandering around the city like MacBook-toting mendicants, begging for help from the many policeman on duty. The police were all surprisingly helpful, just not terribly accurate and so many of the media got an impromptu tour of Valencia’s wonderful civic architecture without even asking.

Showcasing the city was the reason for F1 and the America’s Cup coming here in the first place, however the language used by the hacks after finally locating their passes were not quite the enthusiastic tones of awe and wonder the City Fathers had in mind.

But that’s what you get with street racing. Just a couple of years ago Monte Carlo was F1’s only urban venue, but the funny thing about the Monaco Grand Prix is that it’s been around for so long, you forget it exists for 11 months of the year without the barricades. It’s entirely normal to have the roads closed and the town turned upside down; in fact for race regulars, the sight of Rascasse, Ste. Devote et al. without the barricades is frankly rather unnerving. These new street races, here and in Singapore, are much better illustrations of the massive effort that goes into dropping a racing circuit into a space where it really isn’t supposed to be. Everything still has that makeshift look about it and you can appreciate the ingenuity involved in closing a big chunk of the city to traffic, then funnelling 100,000 spectators into it; all of whom expect to be entertained, refreshed and, um… relieved. So far Valencia is doing a marvellous job.

Somebody should take a moment to explain all of this in the media centre, but having walked directly into the circuit ourselves, following the same route as last year without the least bit of fuss, they probably wouldn’t appreciate it coming from us.

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