4 ms·

The other side of Formula 1: Barcelona residents protest for race-car exhibition

30 points by hggh 2y ago

philip1209 2y ago
Ah, Barcelona. Never change.
TacticalCoder 2y ago
So 38 000 came to watch the event and 500 to 3 000 came to try to ruin the fun for everyone? Instead of being proud of the accomplishments of Carlos Sainz, a spanish F1 driver? For what it's worth, it looks like it was only one street that was closed!? Remember that in the past in Spain there have been actual formula 1 races in the streets, in the Valencia (the 2nd biggest spanish city along the Mediterranean sea, after Barcelona) https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8VToYhi0REs https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8VToYhi0REs These entitled people protesting for everything and anything are just sad.
- squigz 2y ago
  > For what it's worth, it looks like it was only one street that was closed!? Being as familiar with motorsports and events like this as I am, I find it terribly hard to believe that a single street was all that was affected, even if the main event was only on one street. Which says nothing of the fact that, you know, that's irrelevant to the protesters issues. Would you maybe like to address their concerns? > Remember that in the past in Spain there have been actual formula 1 races in the streets, in the Valencia (the 2nd biggest spanish city along the Mediterranean sea, after Barcelona) Relevance? I suspect the same people would have an issue with that too.
  - ClumsyPilot 2y ago
    Relevance is that the window of what it permitted was very large in the past, and now it extremely narrow . It is really hard to do anything culturally new that is not a business
    - squigz 2y ago
      > the window of what it permitted was very large in the past, and now it extremely narrow It's... really not. They still have an F1 race in Spain.
- efortis 2y ago
  and Fernando Alonso
- epolanski 2y ago
  > These entitled people protesting for everything and anything are just sad. Not sure about where do you see the link between entitlement and protesting. Anyway, I'm from Rome, Italy, and I absolutely hate every time there's marathons, Formula E and stuff and they close large parts of the city. Formula E especially creates insane bottlenecks and everybody here hates it, thanks god this year they moved out of Rome. Would've not been surprised in protests if it came back again, but not sure where the entitlement would've been.
  - wslh 2y ago
    Well, Rome is a really transit/space wise difficult city. Barcelona is much different (e.g. and it was just an exhibition). Barcelona is one of the best cities to move by public transportation.
- afavour 2y ago
  > So 38 000 came to watch the event and 500 to 3 000 came to try to ruin the fun for everyone? Even if the rest of what you’re saying is true, the bulk of those 38k watchers will have been visitors to the city. The 500-3k protesting are locals. I think it’s only right that local people have more of a voice in what happens in their city than tourists do, irrespective of how many there are.
anitil 2y ago
While events like these are likely good for the local economy (though I think that's in dispute), I can understand the frustration with the level of disruption. Locally they had the 'Newcastle Street Circuit' [0] and visiting my friends living nearby was a bit of a nightmare for a few weeks either side of the event [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_Street_Circuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_Street_Circuit
- grecy 2y ago
  > likely good for the local economy Keep in mind cities pay tens of millions of dollars per year to host an F1 race, and they're often locked in for many years.
  - anonexpat 2y ago
    I would imagine they do this because it’s a positive ROI.
    - afavour 2y ago
      I’d hope they do it because it’s a positive ROI but I certainly wouldn’t assume so. Often politicians sign up for these kind of things for the prestige, irrespective of economic cost. It reminds me of the realities of being an Olympic host city: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/business/olympics-economics.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/business/olympics-economi...
    - grecy 2y ago
      In theory, sure. In reality? not sure much. Cities compete for the prestige of hosting the Olympics and not so long ago Brisbane "won" the "content" to host the 2032 summer Olympics. Guess how many cities submitted a proposal for the prestige of "winning". One.
  - epolanski 2y ago
    Barcelona has a proper race track, this was only an exhibition.
  - 2y ago
renewiltord 2y ago
At what ratio does it make sense to stop? If 35000 want it and 500 don't, do you just abandon it? If 35000 want it and 1 doesn't? That would make the ultimate veto machine. I would charge to not protest. I can wheel out an old woman in a wheelchair on demand, even.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
sarajevo 2y ago
When I was young, I enjoyed every event the city had to offer. As I age, I have started seeing things differently, and my priorities have changed. I cannot party as much as before; noise and traffic bother me, and tranquil spaces have a lot of allure for me now. So, I understand the division Barcelonans are facing as they are certainly on a spectrum: some want action, while others just do not want to be disrupted. My solution was to move to a quieter place, which was a hard decision as I had to leave my beloved city to the new generations who will enjoy all the energy and craziness that makes it an amazing city.
- incompatible 2y ago
  Personally, I'd be most concerned about pollution, such as toxic dust from tires and brakes and noxious exhaust fumes. Presumably, the roads they are closing would generate a certain amount of this in any case, but would the race make it substantially worse? Has anybody studied it? I also think that perhaps we are well past the point where we should have stopped burning fossil fuels for entertainment.
  - mynameisvlad 2y ago
    This might be a concern if it were 24/7 but it’s a one week event with races only actively happening for a few hours a day. Any impact would be dissipated long before the next. If they were so toxic, race tracks would surely not exist or would be so unsustainable they’d go out of business immediately from having to deal with the cleanup.
    - wkat4242 2y ago
      The actual race isn't in the city. It's miles away, you can't even hear the cars while the race is on (like you can in e.g. downtown Melbourne even on the other side of the city). Nobody here in the city has a problem with it. Perhaps the residents of Montmeló where the actual circuit is do, but I don't know. But this protest was against a demo performance this evening in the city. On a weekday night when people have to work. In a city that prides itself on sustainability and has pedestrianised many streets in recent years. A lot of people like myself consider F1 to be nothing but a toy for big oil and billionaires with too much money to spend. It's hyper commercialised. I don't want them here either though I didn't protest. I just avoided the area. It's much harder to do if you actually live there though.
givemeethekeys 2y ago
In a city of almost 6 million, 500 people protested a show enjoyed by 38000 others. This story has already gained more traction on Hacker News than in Barcelona.
- eddd-ddde 2y ago
  You don't have to attend physically to a protest to agree with it.
  - PakG1 2y ago
    I think the point is that the protests may not be reflective of local opinions. Not whether HN should have an opinion on it.
  - mynameisvlad 2y ago
    Certainly, but the entire point of a protest is to loudly show your support. Supporting quietly from home is pretty much the antithesis of one.
neverrroot 2y ago
38000 enjoyed it. A few hundreds protested it. 500 maybe? That’s less than 2% of the 38K that attended it. Guess we can always get ~2% to protest any event of more than 10K attendees.
dotcoma 2y ago
IMHO Cars — not just F1 race cars, all of these poison-spewing monsters that kill people who move around on foot or on bicycles — should have never been allowed into cities. It’s high time to start kicking them out. P.S. Thanks for downvoting someone who is merely expressing his personal opinion and not offending anyone.
- neverrroot 2y ago
  No.
nemo44x 2y ago
“We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to ride. We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man! ... And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that's what we are gonna do. We are gonna have a good time... We are gonna have a party.”
PakG1 2y ago
This headline is factually incorrect and doesn't match the original article as well. They're protesting against F1, not for it.
jaydeegee 2y ago
Normal NIMBY stuff we see every year at the Melbourne GP too. I'm all for their right to protest but they're not really selling me much on their subject choice.

30 points by hggh 2y ago

Ah, Barcelona. Never change.

So 38 000 came to watch the event and 500 to 3 000 came to try to ruin the fun for everyone? Instead of being proud of the accomplishments of Carlos Sainz, a spanish F1 driver? For what it's worth, it looks like it was only one street that was closed!? Remember that in the past in Spain there have been actual formula 1 races in the streets, in the Valencia (the 2nd biggest spanish city along the Mediterranean sea, after Barcelona) https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8VToYhi0REs https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8VToYhi0REs These entitled people protesting for everything and anything are just sad.

squigz 2y ago
> For what it's worth, it looks like it was only one street that was closed!? Being as familiar with motorsports and events like this as I am, I find it terribly hard to believe that a single street was all that was affected, even if the main event was only on one street. Which says nothing of the fact that, you know, that's irrelevant to the protesters issues. Would you maybe like to address their concerns? > Remember that in the past in Spain there have been actual formula 1 races in the streets, in the Valencia (the 2nd biggest spanish city along the Mediterranean sea, after Barcelona) Relevance? I suspect the same people would have an issue with that too.
- ClumsyPilot 2y ago
  Relevance is that the window of what it permitted was very large in the past, and now it extremely narrow . It is really hard to do anything culturally new that is not a business
  - squigz 2y ago
    > the window of what it permitted was very large in the past, and now it extremely narrow It's... really not. They still have an F1 race in Spain.
efortis 2y ago
and Fernando Alonso
epolanski 2y ago
> These entitled people protesting for everything and anything are just sad. Not sure about where do you see the link between entitlement and protesting. Anyway, I'm from Rome, Italy, and I absolutely hate every time there's marathons, Formula E and stuff and they close large parts of the city. Formula E especially creates insane bottlenecks and everybody here hates it, thanks god this year they moved out of Rome. Would've not been surprised in protests if it came back again, but not sure where the entitlement would've been.
- wslh 2y ago
  Well, Rome is a really transit/space wise difficult city. Barcelona is much different (e.g. and it was just an exhibition). Barcelona is one of the best cities to move by public transportation.
afavour 2y ago
> So 38 000 came to watch the event and 500 to 3 000 came to try to ruin the fun for everyone? Even if the rest of what you’re saying is true, the bulk of those 38k watchers will have been visitors to the city. The 500-3k protesting are locals. I think it’s only right that local people have more of a voice in what happens in their city than tourists do, irrespective of how many there are.

anitil 2y ago

While events like these are likely good for the local economy (though I think that's in dispute), I can understand the frustration with the level of disruption. Locally they had the 'Newcastle Street Circuit' [0] and visiting my friends living nearby was a bit of a nightmare for a few weeks either side of the event [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_Street_Circuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_Street_Circuit

grecy 2y ago
> likely good for the local economy Keep in mind cities pay tens of millions of dollars per year to host an F1 race, and they're often locked in for many years.
- anonexpat 2y ago
  I would imagine they do this because it’s a positive ROI.
  - afavour 2y ago
    I’d hope they do it because it’s a positive ROI but I certainly wouldn’t assume so. Often politicians sign up for these kind of things for the prestige, irrespective of economic cost. It reminds me of the realities of being an Olympic host city: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/business/olympics-economics.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/business/olympics-economi...
  - grecy 2y ago
    In theory, sure. In reality? not sure much. Cities compete for the prestige of hosting the Olympics and not so long ago Brisbane "won" the "content" to host the 2032 summer Olympics. Guess how many cities submitted a proposal for the prestige of "winning". One.
- epolanski 2y ago
  Barcelona has a proper race track, this was only an exhibition.
- 2y ago

renewiltord 2y ago

At what ratio does it make sense to stop? If 35000 want it and 500 don't, do you just abandon it? If 35000 want it and 1 doesn't? That would make the ultimate veto machine. I would charge to not protest. I can wheel out an old woman in a wheelchair on demand, even.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

sarajevo 2y ago

When I was young, I enjoyed every event the city had to offer. As I age, I have started seeing things differently, and my priorities have changed. I cannot party as much as before; noise and traffic bother me, and tranquil spaces have a lot of allure for me now. So, I understand the division Barcelonans are facing as they are certainly on a spectrum: some want action, while others just do not want to be disrupted. My solution was to move to a quieter place, which was a hard decision as I had to leave my beloved city to the new generations who will enjoy all the energy and craziness that makes it an amazing city.

incompatible 2y ago
Personally, I'd be most concerned about pollution, such as toxic dust from tires and brakes and noxious exhaust fumes. Presumably, the roads they are closing would generate a certain amount of this in any case, but would the race make it substantially worse? Has anybody studied it? I also think that perhaps we are well past the point where we should have stopped burning fossil fuels for entertainment.
- mynameisvlad 2y ago
  This might be a concern if it were 24/7 but it’s a one week event with races only actively happening for a few hours a day. Any impact would be dissipated long before the next. If they were so toxic, race tracks would surely not exist or would be so unsustainable they’d go out of business immediately from having to deal with the cleanup.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    The actual race isn't in the city. It's miles away, you can't even hear the cars while the race is on (like you can in e.g. downtown Melbourne even on the other side of the city). Nobody here in the city has a problem with it. Perhaps the residents of Montmeló where the actual circuit is do, but I don't know. But this protest was against a demo performance this evening in the city. On a weekday night when people have to work. In a city that prides itself on sustainability and has pedestrianised many streets in recent years. A lot of people like myself consider F1 to be nothing but a toy for big oil and billionaires with too much money to spend. It's hyper commercialised. I don't want them here either though I didn't protest. I just avoided the area. It's much harder to do if you actually live there though.

givemeethekeys 2y ago

In a city of almost 6 million, 500 people protested a show enjoyed by 38000 others. This story has already gained more traction on Hacker News than in Barcelona.

eddd-ddde 2y ago
You don't have to attend physically to a protest to agree with it.
- PakG1 2y ago
  I think the point is that the protests may not be reflective of local opinions. Not whether HN should have an opinion on it.
- mynameisvlad 2y ago
  Certainly, but the entire point of a protest is to loudly show your support. Supporting quietly from home is pretty much the antithesis of one.

neverrroot 2y ago

38000 enjoyed it. A few hundreds protested it. 500 maybe? That’s less than 2% of the 38K that attended it. Guess we can always get ~2% to protest any event of more than 10K attendees.

dotcoma 2y ago

IMHO Cars — not just F1 race cars, all of these poison-spewing monsters that kill people who move around on foot or on bicycles — should have never been allowed into cities. It’s high time to start kicking them out. P.S. Thanks for downvoting someone who is merely expressing his personal opinion and not offending anyone.

neverrroot 2y ago
No.

nemo44x 2y ago

“We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to ride. We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man! ... And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that's what we are gonna do. We are gonna have a good time... We are gonna have a party.”

PakG1 2y ago

This headline is factually incorrect and doesn't match the original article as well. They're protesting against F1, not for it.

jaydeegee 2y ago

Normal NIMBY stuff we see every year at the Melbourne GP too. I'm all for their right to protest but they're not really selling me much on their subject choice.