By Jonathan Downs & Kethan Mokadam
Our day began with a lecture from Dutch journalist Aaron Deckers, who works for the F1 media company Racing News 365. He spoke about the storied history of F1 and the long, tumultuous path it has taken to get to the current racing format. It was interesting to hear about how much F1 has grown since Liberty Media purchased F1 from Bernie Ecclestone in 2016 for $4.6 billion, and how they have increased the value to over $200 billion by focusing on the American market, rather than a European focus. One of their biggest achievements since 2016 was making every F1 race profitable by increasing the marketability of the sport, and working to create a more competitive environment by implementing a spending cap. Additionally, F1 has been making significant strides in attempts to be more sustainable in terms of the racing locations and the order of the races throughout the season.
We had some free time to explore Milan and visited some unique stores, such as the Ferrari store which had clothes, artifacts, and figurines from Ferrari’s historic past. There was also a mini-museum on the lower floor with items specifically related to their F1 team, including a front wing that was broken in the 2010 Belgian Grand Prix by Fernando Alonso, who would finish second in the Drivers World Championship that year.
We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch and got some incredible food as well. I (Jonathan) personally got this pasta dish which was one of the best dishes I’ve ever had.
Tonight we had what was one of the craziest sporting experiences we have ever been a part of as we attended Inter Milan’s game against Sassuolo at the historic San Siro stadium in Milan. The vast difference between this event and any United States sporting event was really mind blowing to see. As soon as you are within range of the stadium you could hear the chanting from what is known as the “Ultras” or the most passionate fan section. Throughout the entire game they were all chanting in unity with flags waving, it was unlike anything I had ever seen in my life. The Sassuolo fan section was stuck in the very top of the stadium, but they had just as much passion as anyone there, chanting throughout even as Inter Milan cruised pretty comfortably to a 4-2 win. After the match walking through the streets of Milan and seeing tens of thousands of Inter Milan supporters chanting together was a feeling like no other.
