The IT systems not being able to handle a demand from buyers is the last thing one would expect to happen in Singapore out of all the places on this planet. Well, after yesterday nothing will ever surprise me any more …

After some delays the tickets for the Singapore GP, the first Formula 1 night race finally went for sale yesterday morning. They are not that many when compared to other tracks - only 70,000 pcs. And there are not that many available with really good views. At the end, it is a city street track and the space for grandstands is limited. So everybody planning to buy expected a rush for the good (and extremely expensive even in F1 standards to be honest) tickets the moment the sales channels go live.

Well everybody except the ticketing company, one called Omniticket …

I am lucky to be living in the same timezone as Singapore, although some 3000 km away. So 9am I was ready to go online, make a quick purchase and get on with my day. It was not to be …

The Singapore GP official site worked perfect until you clicked on the Buy Ticket link. Then all sorts of error messages begun showing up (click on picture to enlarge):

The most common sight was however this:

If you managed to get as far as actually selecting the tickets, a feast that took good 10 minutes if you got that far, a check out page came up counting down the time you have to finalize the transaction. You are too slow and the tickets reserved will be released back. It should have been 10 minutes, but before the countdown even appeard the time was down to about 7 minutes. At the speed the site worked yesterday, 7 minutes was an impossible timeframe. Absolutelly hopeless …

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F1Wolf

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