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David Coulthard brings Red Bull Formula 1 to streets of Belfast
Saturday, 20 March 2010
David Coulthard may be a Formula One ace, but he'll still get a parking ticket if he leaves his car on double yellow lines
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The streets of Belfast city centre will look more like Silverstone tonight.
The City Hall and the surrounding streets will be temporarily transformed into a Formula One fan’s fantasy.
Former racing star David Coulthard could hit speeds of up to 190mph on the BT1 roads as he demonstrates the power of a new Formula One car. Thousands are expected in the closed-off streets to witness the one-off event.
Starting at the Black Man monument, the former F1 favourite will zoom through Wellington Place, Donegall Square North, Chichester Street and Donegall Square East. The hair-raising half-hour spectacle will finish at the law courts.
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Belfast is one of only two cities worldwide hosting the Red Bull City Limits challenge. The Northern Ireland capital and Caracas in Venezuela were chosen for the international launch of Red Bull’s new Formula One car, the RB6.
The 13-times grand prix |winner is set to put on a thrilling |performance, which will be the |finale of a packed day celebrating the high-octane sport.
Before he gets behind the wheel, enthusiasts can have a look at the RB6 up close. It will be on display at Stormont this morning between 9am and 10.30am.
Later in the day there will be a chance for a rare glimpse behind the scenes of Formula One. The Red Bull garage will be open to the public between 12pm and 4pm at the City Hall, where the car will once again be on display.
Visitors will be able to see what goes on at the F1 paddocks before races and during pit-stops to get a car ready.
Red Bull’s chief technical officer promised the evening’s event would be a memorable spectacle. Adrian Newey said the talented driver was on a mission “to show you exactly what these machines are made of!”
The setting will be unusual for the Scot, who spent 14 years as an F1 driver whizzing round world-famous tracks like Monaco, Silverstone and the Nürburgring. He raced for Williams, McClaren and Red Bull Racing and has claimed 62 podium finishes in his career.
Mr Newey said Coulthard will put on “an unforgettable display of speed, power and control when he brings the car, literally, for a spin along the streets of Belfast.”
Streets will be closed off for the daring display, with traffic and pedestrians redirected around the site between 6.15pm and 9pm.
Disability access will be available via Wellington Street, leading to a dedicated viewing area at the north side of Wellington Place.
Late car parking will be available at Dublin Road (NCP), Grosvenor Road (McCausland), Hope Street (Days Hotel), Montgomery Street (NCP) and Victoria Square (Q-Park).
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davmar - wise up - stop showing your ignorance and complete lack of Knowledge about what you’re talking about.
Saying what you have about the Saturdays even is the equivalent of blaming Frank.Bruno for encouraging fighting if you were in court for assault - go spread your kill-joy pessimism else where.
Have to agree with other comments, the event on sat was great, well done to Red Bull and everyone involved for putting on such a good show!
Posted by p smith | 22.03.10, 13:37 GMT
Went to see this event on Saturday night.....WOW. What noise, fabulous!! Had a brilliant time. It was brill to be given the opportunity to see F1 up close. David Coulthard is an absolute gentleman. I had the priviledge of meeting him on Saturday at Parliament Buildings. He just seems to be a lovely guy. Gorgeous too!!
Well done Belfast City Council and NI Assembly for hosting this event. Thank you to Red Bull for making it so memorable.
DAVMAR - Wise up!! If that is all you have to say, you would be better saying nothing at all.
Posted by Janice | 22.03.10, 11:21 GMT
A.Mawhinney-if you are a 'big f1' fan then you'd know that F1 cars have their tyres kept in warming blankets until the last seconds before they race, very often tyres are not fitted to cars until the last minute. If the tyres had been fitted then I suspect a lot of people would have complained that they could not see the brakes and suspension - so RBR couldn't win no matter what they did! I do agree with you about being rushed through when trying to view/photograph the car though - EventSec need to understand that the primary reason that the car was there was for the PUBLIC to see, not for the media and their mates!
The evening was enjoyable with speeds of 122 and 148MPH which is less than expected, thanks to the disgraceful state of the road surface which has a ridiculous number of patches and bumps in it. Quality control DOE?
Red Bull are to be thanked enormously and I for one hope that the event can be repeated (maybe even annually/bi-annually - how about it Belfast City Council?)
Posted by Keefs | 21.03.10, 23:54 GMT
Went to see the F1 car in action in front of the City Hall last night, took the wife and kids along under the explanation "you'll not see this every Saturday". No-one dissapointed, big crowds but well worth it, even just for the sheer noise of the F1 car ripping up Belfast. Great that Red Bull came to Belfast, thanks for making me feel 10 again and for the sore shoulders due to my 8 year old! Brill !
Posted by Mr M Young | 21.03.10, 21:26 GMT
Brilliant example set. The next time a young person is killed 'speeding', a police officer is confronted by a doughnut performing car thief or you are stopped for speeding 3 mph over the limit, ask the Roads Minister and Chief Constable, how the police are 'dealing' with these matters. If I was attending Court, I may call David Coulthard as an expert witness to assist me getting off a fine. If he can do, why can't I. SPEED KILLS-SLOW DOWN. Now where have I seen that before ?
Posted by davmar | 21.03.10, 19:55 GMT
I was at this event on Saturday night and it was absolutely fantastic. What a noise and what a spectacle. Well done to everybody involved in organising it.
Posted by SJ | 21.03.10, 18:44 GMT
I went to the event last night, and all I can say is WOW!!
David is a great showman and seeing the Redbull speeding past city hall at 140mph was great!
Im sure the noise deafened a few spectators also.
Posted by MrDizzla | 21.03.10, 17:45 GMT
So I mixed up the weekend for this demo, thought it was last week and posted my comments. Glad to see that you now have the speed about right, last week it was 270mph - I think someone got confused between mph and kph.
Unfortunately I won't be there to witness this spectacle so I'll have to rely on tomorrows paper to give me the full story, so don't pull any punches just go for it and don't forget to cover the pit crew with, hopefully, a tire change in less than ten seconds.
Great stuff for the old gray city, hope it doesn't rain, and congratulations on being paired with Caracas - two more unlikely candidates is hard to imagine.
Posted by Alan Freeman | 21.03.10, 10:09 GMT
there will be some amount of people, trying to get into belfast tonight to see this free event. where will everyone stand, on top of each other. tomorrow they will say we never expected that many people to turn up.
Posted by belfast4 | 20.03.10, 17:03 GMT
Went to see f1 redbull in belfast today with my children and was very disapointed that there was nothing but the f1 car tried to take photos and was hurried to leave got less than a minute.To beat it all the car had no wheels on it so spoiling the photos.Like when is the next time we in northern ireland are likely to ever see another f1 car here again.A big f1 fan who was very disapointed.
Posted by A Mawhinney | 20.03.10, 16:44 GMT
Wow! Wish I could be there to see it!
Posted by david wayne osedach | 20.03.10, 15:52 GMT