Did anyone go to the F1 live show yesterday in london?
Yes, I got to Trafalgar Square about 5:45pm when Bastille were playing, but it was absolutely rammed, must have been about 8-9 people deep up to the barriers. I figured the crowds might be slightly less along Whitehall, but it was impossible to get down the road due to the sheer number of people. Most of the side roads were closed with security walls up, so I had to walk down Embankement until I found a way around. I ended up taking a spot at the turnaround point in front of Horse Guards. However, there were still a lot of people in front of me and when everyone lifted up their phones, it was difficult to see.
I don't know whether it was something that was shown in the live coverage, but there was an incident in the crowd which caused the car demo to be halted. Whatever it was that happened was near to where Bottas stalled his car and got out; an ambulance came onto the course, they removed some of the barriers and paramedics went into the crowd with a spine board.
Myself and others theorised that somebody had either collapsed, or it might have been that they fell from something, as a lot of people were climbing up buildings and traffic furniture, which Police were telling people to get down from.
It's a bit of a shame really, as I'd finally managed to work my way to the front of the crowd by that stage. The TV operators, marshals etc all looked to be waiting for it to resume, however I guess because of how long it took to get the person away in the ambulance, they had to call it a day on the cars.
Went back up to Trafalgar Square afterwards where they had all the cars on display, live music and the drivers on stage, again this was really difficult to move around in because of the number of people. I can echo the news reports that when Nico Rosberg was on stage, Jake Humphrey asked him about Hamilton and Vettel... Vettel got a lot of cheers, where as Hamilton had a mix of cheering and booing. I would also say that majority of people who were there were F1 fans, as there was a lot wearing merchandise, this was intermixed with tourists and those who worked nearby.
It was a nice free event to have, but I think it also demonstrated how ridiculous the logistics of putting on a race in Central London are, which is why I doubt it will ever happen.
Video I took here: