Kate Walker lifts the lid on F1's party lifestyle in Shanghai
Formula One's reputation for luxury and glamour far exceeds the sport's capacity to be glamorous. While Sundays see champagne-spraying on the podium, for the bulk of the F1 circus the sport is more sweaty tee-shirts and engine oil than it is designer glad-rags and top-shelf cocktails.
For every oyster eaten in the Paddock Club, hundreds of bacon sarnies are scarfed down in the garages below.
But the sport has a work-hard, play-hard reputation for a reason. The luxe nights out may be few and far between these days, but that only makes these rarefied events more of a treat. Four or five times a year, happy hour beers and bargainous street food are put aside for an evening of champagne and canapes.
As the F1 calendar has shifted ever eastward it is Singapore and Shanghai that have claimed the 'hot ticket' territory once the domain of the Monaco Grand Prix. Canada and Austin are party cities with their own charms, but the spit and sawdust saloons of East 3rd Street and the strip clubs of St Catherine offer a rather different sort of night out. Abu Dhabi seeks out glamour, but cultural restrictions on drinking give that event a very different vibe.
A former colonial outpost, Singapore has retained a certain refined elegance helped in part by a police system operating on the 'broken window' principle. Through being hardline on minor crimes such as littering, they have created a climate in which more serious ones are hardly thought of.
Shanghai, on the other hand, has had a Wild West vibe since long before the first '49ers headed west across the United States. A city with a permanent fin de siecle feel, the much-contested metropolis on the edge of the Huangpu River is where the world comes to party, and has done for centuries.
The most legendary of Shanghai's F1 events - and far better known in town than the race itself - is Code20, this year celebrating its fifth anniversary with a return to the notorious M1NT club. What sets their parties apart from the endless round of cocktail hour sponsorship events that normally make up F1's hot tickets at the less glamorous rounds on the calendar is the astounding attention to detail that goes into putting on visual spectacles and performances relating to each host city.
This year's party will be no exception, said Code20 founder Elena Chatzikonstantinou: "We work hard all year round to bring unique shows and create an edgy event that all guests will enjoy by celebrating in style the end of a busy weekend at the track. The show this year will be a series of 'laser light' performances inspired by the neon lights of the city of Shanghai that will leave you enchanted."
Having enjoyed previous parties and endured the ensuing hangovers, The Inside Line can heartily recommend that any fan lucky enough to be in Shanghai for the race reserve a table and observe the paddock letting its hair down behind the fanciest closed doors in town...