F1

"There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it." - Shannon L. Alder

This entire post will be dedicated to F1.

I had the pleasure of returning back to work for F1 after a 5-year break. I started working for F1 back in 2013, as a Secretariat crew member, we combined both the VIP and General acts as one at Swissotel The Stamford. In 2014, it was split into 2 Secretariat team - with the VIP team at Swissotel and the General team at Concorde Hotel. I was still a VIP Secretariat Crew member. In 2015, I became the General lead and was based at Concorde Hotel. In 2016, I was again the General lead. Then in 2017 till 2019, I got 'promoted' and was the VIP lead and was parked at JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach. 

7 years working for F1 as part of the Secretariat crew for the Entertainment Team was one of the best experience ever in my working life. I've got to work with like-minded people who are heavily involved in the events industry. I was a fresh graduate with a degree in Arts Management and since I paid for my own studies, I was hell-bent in making a living using my degree. To be honest, it was crazy and exhilarating to work with all these experienced people and just absorb everything from them. There were endless unnecessary dramas but at the same time, it was fast-paced and easily resolved. Seeing all these experienced people working efficiently and being quick on their feet is easily one of the reasons that I keep coming back.

And over the years, it is because of them that I was able to get other event jobs and be more exposed to the industry. I have built friendships and trust with them, making it easy to work with them. And whenever I get an event job and have to work with a few of them, I know their styles and they know mine thus making it easier and fun to deal with them. And it further validates me that even if they have a job that they are not a part of, they still recommend me.

2020 and 2021, F1 was cancelled. Then in 2022, when I got called up for it, I had to reject it since I got converted into a full-time government worker and the hassle behind requesting for an approval to do a side job is too much. Same goes for 2023. In 2024, I got a full-time job in a private sector and did not want to risk it until I know my situation in the company well. 

Now in 2025, I'm back.

So many thoughts and emotions going through me. I'm back as a VIP Secretariat Crew member. I guess the best way to describe my whole experience is that it is the same but it is not the same anymore. I got to see a few familiar faces and if I was to breakdown in numbers, out of the 67 artistes liaison officers there, I only know about 15 of them that I have had the pleasure of working with during my past F1 years. So many new faces, so many fresh and young new faces. Then in the overall group chat for the Entertainment team - which includes everyone from the artistes liaison officer team, the hospitality team, buggy & porter team, and secretariat & transport team - I realized that I only know about 27 people out of almost 150 people. Truth be told, I was really nervous, working with so many new people.

I mean, when you come back year after year, people will consider you as the senior of the group but now that you have been gone for 5 years, your status is stuck between senior and newbie. Senior because of your past experiences while newbie because after 5 years, a lot of things have changed. To be honest, the 15 people that I had to work with again are so experienced and opinionated, it's easy to get things moving forward constantly. I was nervous because I did not want to overstep my boundaries of working with these many fresh faces.

It was tough holding my tongue and trying my best not to take charge. Nothing much has changed over the years, other than the minor procedures, other than that, the problems are all the same as back then. Because you are constantly working with different people, the same problems keep cropping up over and over again as it was their first time experiencing the situation or problems. But when you are working with the experienced ones, they completely have their own style which they are confident of and you got nothing to worry about. Overall, my biggest problem - well, it's not really my problem but more of an overall problem for the entire team - it was that at least 75% of the VIP ALOs are people pleaser and do not know how to lie or be firm towards their artistes. It just irks me so bad seeing how something that is simple and these youngsters are making them overly complicated by giving in to the whims.

One of the many things that I love about working for F1 is that, most of the decisions made by these ALOs have immediate effect to other teams. An example would be how giving in to the artist requesting to change schedule would affect the movement of the transports, the limited holding area meant for other artistes and the movement of other artistes, among other things. You can see the domino effect almost instantly as the hospitality team, the buggy team, the porter team and the transport team scrambling about to accommodate because the ALO decided to say yes. Thus, it was so annoying that I kept seeing it happening over and over again throughout the 3 days.

Now comes the age old question - do I want to come back again next year? If I actually did F1 back in 2022 and continued the momentum, I will honestly consider coming back over and over again. But because I took a paused for 3 years, I have lost that chemistry and that feeling. I did feel like an outsider and was only comfortable when I was able to hang out with my usual group. I know that it will take time but right now, it's a 60% not interested in returning, 30% maybe and 10% outright no. Knowing me, I will change my mind again when the invite comes next year March or April.

In Shaa' Allah, everything will be fine.