The AWFUL F1 fan experiences at Grand Prix this year
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- čas přidán 14. 09. 2022
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The organization at Zandvoort was absolutely fantastic; no lines to get into the circuit, you couldn’t get to the circuit by car which was a good thing, short lines for drinks and amazing recycling policies (you got a token when you entered the circuit, than after you bought your first drink, if you didn’t bring back the can or cup, you would have to pay double. This eliminated pretty much all littering)
I think we dutch have had a lot of experience from al of the festivals that have been organised
@@joosttoepoel4715 exactly what I was gonna say
That is simple and brilliant. Unfortunately, I can see this system not making a difference here in the US since most people will just throw their cans and cups on the floor anyways.
Short lines? Those where really rare at zandvoort.
that's a brilliant idea. first drink for free. Buy a next one? pay double if you don't return your first cup/bottle. simply amazing, every single festival/event should do that!
The thing that baffles me is Zandvoort are in their second year with a compact venue where fitting 100,000 people ought to be a nightmare but it was the best organisation of any race I have ever been to when it came to the management of the crowd, transport to the track, the food and water, toilets etc, yet tracks with all this experience such as Monza and Barcelona (the latter I also went to and was actually very lucky not to get the worst of that organisation and still have a good time) we’re simply unable to cope with the larger crowds F1 is seeing this year…
You on crack ? I had to walk 10 minutes to stand in a 20 minute line to get a beer
Exactly, i was at many races in my life but the two times i went to Zandvoort i can remember that i was flabbergasted of how well organized it was
The netherlands is good in 2 things, infrastructure and water management. At the rest we suck
It was such a great experience. Several info points and clear directions on where each grandstand / GA area was located. Overall a great organisation and fantastic atmosphere
my dad who is used to the excellent dutch entertainment industry and how a lot of thing are usually very well thought out. he went to monza this year as a gift and was shocked. he has never been to Zandvoort but Zandvoort is not the only multi hunderts of thousand a weekend/week event that get organized. every event has to follow strict rules to make sure the facilities are up to standard. to hear that queue times are in the hours is mind blowing for me
I went to my first this year at Zandvoordt. I was a bit nervous after seeing all the horror stories of other tracks, especially coming all the way from California. Everything was fantastic including the public transport on Sat and Sun. For anyone still thinking about going to one next year, I'd highly recommend NL.
Zandvoort is the only For Profit event on the calender.
If they can speed up the sales of food it means more results on the bottom line.
If they can rent spots to more different food vendors without getting complains of oversaturation they will get income that way.
Zandvoort uses music and stuff like that to make sure people don't mind arriving early and leaving late
i heard some folks left at like 20.00 while race events ended before 17.00.
@@k1llwizzy Netherlands have great infrastructure in general. They also have a very active festival/event calendar, meaning there are strict protocols, high expectations from local government but most of all a lot of professional experience doing large events. Good organisation is not an outcome of profitability, it is the other way around.
I only went to Malaysian and Japanese GP in 2016 and 2017, both were nice experience. For Sepang it may just because not many people went to the event (and maybe that's why it is not on the calendar anymore), but Suzuka was absolutely packed still well organized. Easy to find ways, many spots on different location to see cars (you even can buy the cheapest ticket and have a seat on 130R!) , and the food quality and price was amazing! Not simply sandwich or hamburger! Tariyaki, Okonomiyaki, fried noodles, quick sushi, you name it. Only one thing I would say could be better, the nearest train station was 20~30 minutes on foot and shuttle bus was limited.
Maybe because not many people can afford a ticket or not as much F1 recognition at that time. It's a shame, I hope they bring it back into the calendar
@@TheNamesArif Totally agree. Malaysian GP was amazing, very affordable tickets, accommodations, and transportations.
after liberty media's takeover of F1 things have changed drastically that's why so much chaos I wonder how they would manage it now when they are back on calendar
if they do it back in sepang now, i wonder if they can cope with the demand surge
Some believed that the nearby Singapore GP might've stolen the thunder from Malaysia GP, though as the former is a street circuit right smack in downtown, logistics can get more complicated e.g. 50-80 public buses have to be diverted away from the area (~20% of the country's total), & so does other road vehicles, increasing congestion along roads near the circuit (so less people want to shop at the malls near the circuit, while circuit ticketholders tend to be wealthier & prefer shopping at the more upmarket Orchard Rd instead, though extending the Circle Line (subway/metro) beneath the circuit in 2010 has improved transport links). (Some of us also find it hypocritical to continue hosting F1 while we're also forcing supermarkets to charge for single-use plastic bags to protect the environment) Taxis charge an extra S$3 too to pick up passengers from the circuit, though some public buses run later into the night on race days, while Paddock Club guests had a shuttle bus service to the circuit from the spacious S'pore Sports Hub on the outskirts of downtown. Guests are banned from bringing their own food & drinks though probably so that more overpriced food can be sold at the circuit
I went to Monza this year. My first Grand Prix. Absolutely terrible experience. The organizers prioritized money over the fan experience, no doubt.
For the swedish speaking people: i made a vlog on my YT-channel showing my experience.
Do silverstone love it every year, and the last several have been better than the last, its a propper event with alot going on outside aswell, its not all about the racing so much. Although, if it rains, its gonna get muddy
I was in Monza last year. It was at 1/3 capacity due to the pandemic. Overall I had a nice experience, can't imagine how crowded it was this year at 100% capacity.
I’ve been to one as well, it’s cool to see the cars but it would be absurd to see multiple races in a year with how expensive and stressful it is. You don’t even see on track action really, you just see cars going fast unless you have $10k seats. So, you really get a much, much better show just watching on the tv. Seeing it in real life is just a once or twice in a lifetime thing. The other cool benefit is seeing a legendary track in real life, especially walking on it. If you’ve played racing games for years, it’s amazing to actually be at the track in person and see how big it really is.
@@AnIdiotAboard_ I found Silverstone this year horribly overcrowded, I’ve been the last 5 years (not 2020 obviously) and found this year way busier than before
Hey, the first f1gp for me was 2021 belgium … xd
I actually work at the company responsible for public transport in and around the Zandvoort circuit and iam always open for fan input about the accessibility of the track. But iam so happy too see so many positive comments about the Zandvoort circuit.
Ontsla die ene -conducteur- machinist die op Centraal een treinlengte te ver doorschoot. Heb een paar seconden langer moeten wachten daardoor. Onacceptabel.
@@theglitch312 Machinist*
Whatever you did this year, do it again, it worked perfectly
Me and my partner had the time of our lives at our first GP at Zandvoort!!
It was an amazing place to visit and the track party experience was amazing. The MC that kept the crowd entertained was incredible, pay him more money!!!
I didn’t STAND in a queue for more than 10 minutes for anything (except toilets on Saturday but I went at same time as everyone else on track, so unavoidable i guess)
The token system was v good 👍
@@RubenTheCartographer Ik blijf mezelf verbazen. Maar niet op een goede manier...
I went to Spa and I have to say it was pretty well organized this year. No ridiculous cues, you can still bring your own food and drinks (accept alcohol). Parking was really well organized this year with big parkings in Malmedy and busses to take you to and from the Circuit. Comparing to other years the fanzone was really nice!
Reaching Spa is hell, once you are there its all very nicely taken care off.
Spa is was never well organized, the road to it is awful and outrageous cues
I was at those parkings at malmedie and was Thérèse om Sunday 5.30 to be Sure i had a great view only to find out There where nog enough busses soms arived 7.00 and coulant Get a great place
The only bad thing about Spa wich I can say was that the infield of the circuit was probably the biggest public toilet in Belgium at that time
@@Redstonemelone I found the forest lavatory to be excellent, what else could you ask for
I was at Silverstone this year. The time to enter was long, but once you are in there - it is a fantastic experience. Great viewing angles, screens all across the major corners, loads of security, no hassles with food or coffee, and very well connected public transport system for people to go anywhere in UK. Definitely recommended.
This comment stopped me spiralling thanks, just sunk a fortune into 2023 Silverstone
@@calebbritannia6283 Have fun at the event. Hope you have a roving pass, with which you should definitely check out the race from Maggotts and Copse
I hope it'll be so next year too, cause I'm going to there
Sunday night where there were crashes in both directions was the biggest bummer.
I found the long queue for the (ladies) toilet annoying this year. I queued for 45 minutes on Sunday at Club corner. Make sure you time the toilet break at the right point!
Hi, I am Italian, and as many of other people, the Monza Grand Prix was my first time ever being in an F1 Gran Prix, and as an Italian i can agree with all of you that Monza was organized terribly, i saw people destroying fences, pushing children in tight spaces, it was a complete disaster. I hope they do better next year :(
Sad to hear that. But helps to understand the booing at the end when they didn't even get a decent finish...
@@TwiceEvery14Days I mean, they specifically booed when Max came on, so... It's just not right to blame a driver for it
Hey Monza has only been hosting races for 92 years so give them some time to figure it out.
Yeah I saw some videos of Ferrari fans forcing other (specifically redbull) to take of their merchandise. They were verbally abusing reb bull fans as well. It was all very silly
Remind me again, for how many DECADES have they been hosting races? There really is ZERO excuse.
F1 Growth is good but The FIA isn’t catching up
The race organizers are to blame for the shitshow in Monza!
it’s not the FIA that aren’t catching up, the FIA don’t have anything to do with the management, it’s down the circuit boss’s, management teams and F1 themselves. But unfortunately a lot of the historic circuits like Monza, Spa, Silverstone, imola, Barcelona and Suzuka are private owned and aren’t bankrolled by a government, funded by the state or funded through oil money like a lot of the newer circuits in the Middle East so they either can’t afford to compete with the facilities of tracks like Jeddah, Qatar and Miami, or are flat out struggling to afford to stay on the calendar because of the rising prices demanded by F1 to stay on the calendar, if anything it’s a shitty way of them phasing out the tracks that the fans love by just raising the prices so much that the circuits are purposely made to look shit, old and outdated so that F1 have a reason to drop them. The historic tracks funded through categories and championships using the circuits as well as people using them day to day, so if anything they don’t actually rely on F1 to stay afloat, they rely on Moto Gp, WEC, ELMS, GTWC and every day track days
@Wrath 🅥 It's also down to the fact that you don't have government regulations or regulators either able to consistently maintain competition so race organizers have actual choices on the merits of how well they actually do with the experience,. And you've had a lot of things become financialized (or innovated in terms of more clever ways of extracting money and provide kickbacks for investors, while hurting all the fundamentals of the business.
By the way, much of F1 is run by a private equity firm. At least the FIA is a governing body but I'd rather go to a WEC race. I'd like to see comments from people about their WEC experiences because it seems a lot better than the F1 "made for TV and Netflix" experience.
I went to Monza this year and had a mixed feelings experience. Friday and Saturday were Ok, it's normal to take some time entering on the event and queue to something, but on Sunday was an absolute nightmare. Arrived at the track at 7:20, just to get into a 1.5km long line into the circuit... Then inside, there was no place to see anything. At last, on Curva Grande, there was a screen among Aramco banners, showing ONLY an Aramco logo in different colors.... Not even a live timing for the race. Thankfully, there was a cellphone tower nearby from where I could catch 5G and live stream the race for some people around me. But I'll never ever go again to GA in Monza, even though I think that could be one of the best in the calendar given the fact that you can watch from almost every corner, but the GA tickets were clearly over sold for this event by the thousands.
Monza is a state sponsored event (unlike Miami, Silverstone and Zandvoort)
Any event that doesn't need to make an effort to break even will ignore guests requests.
Any event that requires guests to pay for services will make sure those guests are happy to do so for 3 days in a row.
Zandvoort hired the company that organizes massive 80.000+ guest music festivals for advice on what type of food/drinks to provide, howmuch stock to have, what kind of gateway and ticketing system to use and all that stuff, the music festival organizer also helped with the program for all music acts so people actually like showing up early and want to hang around.
Monza everybody arrives in 2 hours before the race, they all want tokens, food and drinks, and once the race is over they all want to leave at the same time.
As most F1 reporters stated last year and this year again, Zandvoort feels like a festival that happens to host a few car races in between, while other tracks hope the racing is enough.
@@k1llwizzy which festival organizer? There's tons in BE/NL/GER.
Fan experience at the Australian GP this year was actually fantastic imo, with it being the biggest year to date for us bringing in close to 500k people across the weekend. Only downside being the public transport situation with trams being the only options so hopefully we can fix that somewhat next year and be good to go!
Most likely because of the new upgrades
Me and my mates also went to the Melbourne GP, we found it faster to use the public electric scooters than it was to catch the tram.
Highly recommend the scooters, also, HEAPS of fun!
Just walk down a side street 10 minutes from the track and you’ll get a tram with no one on it, wasy
@@henryprom2648those scooters fly
God, I was at Monza this year and honestly, the worst organized sporting event I’ve ever been to. Even aside the spots where you could buy food and drink (with the tokens it took us 1,5h to queue for on FRIDAY) the water bottle filling stations had massive lines too. Personally decided not to waste time there since we had to buy food too and that took more than enough time, but my parents did wait to fill theirs and then didn’t have the opportunity to get any food if they wanted to see qualifying on Saturday. And in that heat? At least people should be given the opportunity to keep themselves properly hydrated
I think it is a no go to take away peoples water. With soda or likewise it is a different story but just water should be allowed to take into track. However If you were a bit smart it was really easy to "smuggle" loads of liquids in with you. I never bought a bootle on the weekend :D
-and one wonders why Ferrari's strategy is so crap...
Was at Monza as well!! I have been youth baseball tournaments that were more efficient. Our only event but from talking to those around us who have been to other events this was the worst. I do not blame the crowd size i blame the added organizations.
1) the distance from the shuttle to the gates (it was an hr walk in)
2) the removal of water bottle lids (only to buy bottled drinks inside)
3) the tokens….wth was that purpose!!! The line was over an hr for the tokens so we bought way more than needed. This deprived the vendors of money being spent with them. Frankly I would have had more drinks and food but no way.
4) there were food trucks and beer stands but we were behind the two large grandstands at the pit straight with two beer tents. It doesnt help that most of the crowd had no sense of to make a line.
There are literally easy fixes for these issues…..and i bet a few consultants who work for major theme parks that F1 could hire to help out.
Loved monza…it was very beautiful and so much fun. We flew from the US and met so many wonderful people. Felt bad for the couple beside us who flew from Australia and missed a day due to a train workers strike and the lines.
The train system wasn’t the worst thing but adding a couple trains may have helped. The map of the track listed shuttle stops and there was literally one which again was an hr from the entrance.
Easy fixes so that made it way more frustrating.
i was at monza too and at the saturday the tokens was outsold so it was no way to buy food and drinks in that heat. it was horrible.
@@kristieolson6045 I was at Monza back in 2017 with my friend and it seems that five years later it's a clusterfuck multiplied by five. Even back then overall coordination was really bad and the token system was already in place, so I can imagine what it must have been with a LOT of more people this year.
The organizers of Zandvoort deserve a round of applause. I have been to many F1 GPs and this one was by far the best organized
Went to Zandvoort this year by public transport, and let's put it this way, from Amsterdam Central station everything was organised to take tens of thousands of people there. There were amazingly long trains going every 4 minutes!
Once in Zandvoort it was a short walk from station to track, and although crowded, it walked in decent pace. There were 3 entrances to come in through, all very wide and constantly stacked with staff to ensure a smooth entry. Taking in water or whatnot was not an issue.
Once on the circuit grounds there were food stands and toilets, regualry cleaned, everywhere. And these stands weren't like just one or two people in a truck, they were full blown shops, for example like 6 drinks stands in a row, with every stand having 3 counters, meaning they could serve up to 18 people at once. There were virtually no queues whatsoever. Also for food, even warm food was almost immidiatly done as they were cooking it in the back and keeping it heated after.
Over all, I had a great expierince and this video just somewhat confused me, because it seems that one of the most recent tracks to be added and it greatly over populated (fitting over 100K people on a 1950's circuit), yet somehow getting the fan expierince absolutely right.
Wat at Spa this year, thankfully had the opposite experience to Monza. Yes you had to buy tokens but there were almost no queues for any stall. Plus there were screens everywhere to see the action and there were people camping out behind tyre barriers all over the place as well. Great atmosphere !
Yes I agree, It was my first Grand Prix and it was good organised. The queues weren’t to long, everywhere screens and everyone respecting each other. No booing. We (Max Verstappen fans) became friends with lando Norris fans behind us.
@@alazurek2516 They were probably afraid. Too many Max Verstappen fans receive tickets.
Agree, same experience at Spa this year. Minor lines, good viewing, great atmosphere.
@@MaFd0n there where a lot of other fans. Ferrari and Mercedes had a lot of supporters.
I remember seeing something on Twitter where the Monza experience was pretty horrible for people with disabilities
I remember seeing rumblings about someone with leg braces being stranded on one of the walkways for a long time with no help. Is this true?
@@chefcc90 Yeah I saw some images on Twitter
To be honest mate if you're on crutches that's every sporting event in my experience, they never give a shit.
@T S Yeah and that's the sad truth, because then it robs opportunities for people with genuine issues. As a wheelchair-user myself, I was really pissed at that buffoon for faking it just to gain sympathy. He has no idea what its like to live with a disability
@@ThePerks2010 actually in zandvoort they hax a special place for people with disabilities. It was closed of for other people and they made a room if someone overwhelmed with all the noice and stuff. They even placed a tv in there so they could still watch the race but then silent. I myself have autism and i was so surprised. They didn't need to do that but they still did which i think is amazing
I'm glad to hear Matt didn't have any issues getting into the circuit at the British Grand Prix. Those protestors who invaded the track didn't any have issues getting into the circuit either 😃
@@JustinPeters unless it's the Tories. Then they are more than fair game
Let’s be honest. Matt probably has VIP tickets or what not.
@@MrRono19 Even General Admission was fine, the queue to get in was fairly short at the gate I used, and I easily found a decent spot. Even during the red flag after Zhou's crash, the queues for food/drinks and toilets were very short.
@@JustinPeters tbf, I totally believe the British GP is extremely well organized. It’s a prestigious historic race, and it’s not organized by Italians.
@@theglitch312 Or Hungarians
I was at Monza this year and can confirm that it was absolute hell. Paid over $2k for one of the nicer tickets but it got me nothing on Saturday+ Sunday. Adding to the terrible coin system, there was ONE coin exchange system for everyone sitting on the main straight. There was also a grand total of : One cold water tap(free), Two beers tents with 8 taps between them, three choices of food vendor(food truck style), and a measly eight portable toilets.....for EVERYONE sitting on the main straight.
I'll also add that for the water+battery thing it seemed to be a difference depending on wherever you went in. South entrance didn't give a shit as long as your cap was off. North cared unless they noticed you had one of the experience passes (we did ...sorry ) in which you got to skip the line all together.
And just remember this, you know it was a shit show getting in...think about leaving.
Wonderful. Now I've got two tickets for 2023 GP, my Post Purchase Reseach Syndrome sets in, looking at seven months of bad sleep and nightmares :)
@@mrKoncpom you can quickly go to a restaurant outside of the track. That‘s what we did as the token/coin system was horrible…
It is also 100 times cheaper and even faster to go to a restaurant outside the track than waiting in a line for tokens
I was in Belgium in 2019 and now in Monza just now.
I was wondering if this was gonna get social media attention cause that was absolutely the worst managed event i have ever been to:
The tokens were even worse cause they didn't have enough tokens and had to constantly wait for the food stands to bring some back
Also there was apparently a digital token system with a NFC wristband you could get, which flat out did not work at most places
So not only were there insane queues everywhere, most of the time they'd be out of whatever you were queueing for!
But worst of all on Sunday if you took a shuttle bus back to the train station, theyd funnel you into a line into the station directly from the bus, which you WERENT ALLOWED TO LEAVE. They literally had police to stop people from leaving that line, you couldn't even say fuck it and walk home or into Monza, you had to stay in that line and one woman apparently had a panic attack.
When we got in most trains were cancelled.
Absolutely unacceptable and probably borderline criminal.
I love Italy but I'll never attend a Italian GP again.
The biggest problem is that too many people are crowded in an area around the circuit which is way to small
Dont even want to think what would happen if there is a panic outbreak there.
@@Pandatoofu It’s terrifying to think about it because I heard a story about a different sport when people broke in and lots of people got crushed to death. This is why sporting events need to have stricter rules for management.
@@paulie19651 Wasnt there this one concert from a rapper recently where something like that happened?
@@Pandatoofu Travis Scott
I mean tere was PLENTY of space for more toilets, food trucks, water stations and all those things at monza, they just chose not to utalize the space to its full potential😔
Zandvoort is so well managed. Even if you don't support Verstappen just go for the great experience
Zandvoort was great! I didn't have the full experience normal fans would have but it was great nonetheless
The Dutch just know how to host a festival-type multi day event! They've done it for years;)
I went for al three days in Zandvoort. Friday was easy no lines nothing. Saturday was busy only in the afternoon but still of the circuit in 15 minutes. Sunday the most busy, but no wait for toilets little wait maybe 10 minutes for food and drinks. Super entertainment on podiums around the track with DJ`s and music.
The thing that still upsets the hell out of me is I was supposed to go to my first Grand Prix this year (Miami GP), so I saved up and set aside about $1000 to make it happen, only for the ticket prices to be in excess of 2 grand just to get in.
Just as a comparison note, I ended up using that money to buy tickets for me and my dad to go to the Daytona 500, with pre race pit passes and still had $400 left after.
As a worker at the Miami Grand Prix, good spend and I'm sure by the time you'll eventually come to the Miami Grand Prix (we hope you do), we won't run low on food and the Turn 13-15 chicane will be fixed enough for you to enjoy Miami's grand prix at its best!
Well done
I’ve been going to the 🇦🇺GP for about 20 years in Melbourne and despite not running the previous 2 years, they handled the record crowds really well. I ran into a lot of first time race goers and the ratio of female to male fans has evened out dramatically over that time. I’ve not been to any other races but hearing some of these stories makes me thankful for the event that is run down here.
The fact that we have to ask for more security on tracks is disheartening really... F1 didn't need the kind of tribalism we see in football. Disgraceful.
Those makeshift log stands at Monza were half hilarious half sad.
For some reason I've been seeing the same thing happen with festivals here in the Netherlands.
As a light engineer I'm beginning to see more and more aggression ever since the COVID bans were lifted.
this year was the first time i went to an f1 event i was at Zandvoort on the friday and it was an incredible experience it didnt matter who you were chearing for everyone was getting allong (for what i saw). and i heard it was organised really well which i cant really join in on since it was my first time and dont know the norm. but there were trains every 5 min. the very clear markings already started before you got of the train station and they even made entire bridges so it would be safer and quicker for everyone. the only dissapointing thing was the scammers who were selling stuff like sunscreen, earplugs and capes outside the circuit for diabolical prices whereas on the circuit you got those things for free! but i cant really blame that on the organisers and i wont. it was an incredible experience and its sad to hear that apparently is getting more rare these days
My one friend just got back from Monza and said how amazing Friday practice and Saturday qualifying was, but the Sunday race was a nightmare. They paid extra to have a dedicated seat on Sunday, but Italians jumped the fence and sat on their seats, they were forced to go watch elsewhere and didn't even get to watch more than 10mins of the actual race. People got aggressive also. Needles to say, I don't think they will ever be going back to Monza...
I’m a paraplegic, and I just gave up on traveling to and attending live events like races and even a lot of concerts. The venues are generally horrible if you can’t walk and even climb in some instances. You wind up looking at people’s backsides instead of the race. I do miss being there live, but streaming channels have become very good at covering the races, practices, and all.
Australia was as good as every other year, the long line for things moved pretty quick. Can see how in the future if more fans were allowed in that facilities would need to be increased but for sure Melbourne is an incredible experience everytime on and off track
Did we go to the same GP? There were nowhere near enough food stores, lines were ridiculous and leaving the track after the race took me 2hrs just to a public road. It wasn't as bad as what Monza apparently was but Albert Park clearly isn't adaptable enough to allow more and more people
Not sure which Melbourne GP you went to Simon..
General admission ticket holders couldn't see much and even grandstand had a prime view of fences. Perhaps Melbourne has to have only grandstands to give everyone a chance to see something. If it wasn't for the large screens, I would have been better off with my eyes shut.
I agree Simon, had a great experience at AusGP. But that's probably because I had a very heavy breakfast before entering Albert Park. Took me barely 15 minutes to enter and I took a nice hill for a picnic spot. I had my own food and drinks, so I didn't have to queue. I did use the toilets, it was a 15 minutes queue. And while I was gone, no one touched, moved, trampled on my picnic mat and viewing spot. I was next to a screen, plus had my kayo running. I fantastic day. And yeah, free trams. I loved Melbourne
@@timsiragusa9096 nothing has changed since the last time I was there in 2010 i see. They even make sure to block the fences with panels so you couldn't view anything directly unless you're on the stands. In and out of Albert park wasn't bad but the food n beverage lines inside were ridiculous.
I went to Silverstone for the first time and the quality was amazing and little queues. And I do feel for these fans because going to a face is definitely expensive
Like you say though Silverstone is organised, and if you're clever you miss massive traffic jams 👍
@@mclarenF1race Oh I forgot about that! Even though we went the wrong way my experience wasn't to bad but some people's may have as my one of my family members got sent around again!
@@paulie19651 last time I went was 2015 unfortunately, did look into going with my son this year but bloody hell it's 600 quid + camping for weekend lol... that's a week in Spain living it up 🤣
Yeah I went as well and it was amazing although our tickets were really expensive
Yeah I went as well and it was amazing although our tickets were really expensive
I had a great experience at Spa, save for one thing - it looked like there was no cleaning happening throughout the entire weekend.
My friends and I were seated in the newly built Eau Rouge grandstand, which was a wonderful experience. However, on Saturday, a man in the top row fell ill and was vomiting all over his seat, as well as the three rows below him. It was unfortunate for him, we were seated a few rows down so we didn't have too bad of an experience, we managed to clean up and carry on. However, there had been no cleaning done overnight, and the man's vomit was still stuck to those top few rows come Sunday morning.
Imagine arriving on race day, to your expensive Gold seats in the fancy new grandstand, only to face that mess.
The people who were supposed to sit there ultimately resorted to sitting on the stairs adjecent to their seats, which I'm sure must not have been great for them.
At Barcelona, I had my sun cream confiscated at the entrance. It was over 35 degrees on the day. They quickly ran out of essentials such as umbrellas and water on the Friday. Water situation improved by race day but warm bottles. For transportation we left the circuit at around 6, by 11 we finally managed to get on one of the few trains back to Barcelona with many still behind us.
I've never been to a race before and I'm thinking I never will (unless I can fork out for really premium seats or get the VIP experience). And I ask myself, what's the point of even going to races? I can either stay home, get expert coverage with the vision mixer cutting to the action constantly, or I can be there on the day and see the cars wizzing by once every minute or so. "Well, there they go....... erm.... how can I kill a minute?"
That's not to mention that most fans don't get to even see the podium, and the cost of tickets is outrageous.
True, the races have an exciting ambience an' all that, but those crowd numbers sound incredibly daunting to me. Top that off with the horror stories like these you hear and the increasingly dickish behaviour of the crowd (flares and booing comes to mind); yeah, sounds like hell.
I get your point but one day you should see it in real life to gasp the speed.
I'm in exactly the same boat. I live in eastern Canada so going to Montreal isn't difficult, but as time goes on it just feels less and less worth it. I looked through the twitter thread that Matt got these stories off of, and to Montreal's credit I could only find one negative experience, which wasn't even the fault of F1 or the event organizers. The problem was that because there was so many people trying to stream the race to get the commentary that they could only get one bar of service. Even so I'm still not sure it would be worth it, maybe F1 is one of those sports that's best viewed on tv.
@@noahd.4551 In my opinion, you should go. Canda was the first race I went to and the experience was great. Just seeing the cars flash by getting to my seat was enough to put a smile on my face.
@@noahd.4551 You have to go at least once, I was there this year and it’s 100% worth it. I watched from the Grandstand 1 in front of the pitlane and it was one hell of an experience. I will definitely be going back next year.
I went to my first live race this year (London e-prix) and yeah, I'm pretty much with you. The live experience just wasn't as good as watching on TV. The stadium commentary and pre-race presentation was poor compared to the TV stuff (I've no idea why they didn't just use the TV feed given it's in English) and the race was kinda hard to follow. The crowd atmosphere was good during quali (but I couldn't see half the session because literally no-one seemed to be in the right seat and kept getting displaced by new arrivals), but smothered in the race by the loud music they played over the whole thing, which also completely neutered the sensation of seeing the cars live because they were totally drowned out. The best bit of the day was walking in from the DLR station while Free Practice was on and hearing the cars going under the overpass. Nothing in the rest of the day matched that. And the podium was pretty much only aimed at people in the Hugo Boss premium section of the grandstand. Everyone else had to watch on screens.
It wasn't nearly as horrific as Monza sounds, but it was a pretty lousy experience and I don't think I'd bother with it again.
Situation at the Hungaroring was pretty much the same as in Monza. Long queues, no screens around the track,( or you couldn’t see them because of the seats) security guards sent us away from good spots because it was ,,dangerous”. It was a great experience, but I’m not sure I’ll go next year.
There were screens and it was no where near as bad as monza
The shuttle buses to kerepes were also useless
It was my first time at Hungaroring this year but i found it quite decent, apart from the transport back to Budapest after the race. I waited 1.5 hours to a 20 minute bus ride, but i figured out the best route back to the city by sunday. The view was ok i was able to see 1/3 of the track, along with a screen at the last corner. In short, i think i would go back but with a silver 3-4 ticket, general admission for 3 days it's just too tiring, waking up at 5:30 to be the first at the gate at 7, cause the view from the first row at general admission is almost like silver 3-4.
@@sindreholen yes, we decided to get off one stop later, and walk to the track. It took 25-30 minutes, but at least it was comfortable than being pushed into each other in the bus
I was at the Hungaroring this year it wasnt as bad as you say the only thing thay need to improve on is louder speakers and better transportation
I was at Monza this year at turn 1, absolute disgrace in terms of organization. There were no water stations at our grand stand, so if you wanted water you either had to queue for 2 hours to get tokens so you could buy water, or leave the whole area, exit the track, re-enter the track at the main gate (another hour queue) just to refill. 2 water stations for the whole circuit. To make matters worse as the race started a bunch of general admission ticket holders managed to get onto the grandstand and just stood in the stairways stood up, making it so alot of people who'd paid atleast £500 per ticket couldn't even see. The staff there were mostly good and friendly, but it was such a badly organized event I wouldn't even feel that bad if Monza wasn't on the calendar anymore as it doesn't deserve to be there if it's organized so terribly in a fashion that puts fan experience at the bottom of their priority list.
Lol those fans really hit the bag. Imagine paying £500😂
I went to Austria, Zandvoort and Spa. Had good expierences at all circuits. I was amazed by the Zandvoort organisation though, It really looked like they thought EVERYTHING through, plenty of toilets, the entire area was clean there was barely any litter at the end of the day. Constant entertainment for example: when the session was red flagged there was a DJ playing music and keeping the crowd entertained. There were volunteers to help with anything every few meters, alongside the track and outside the track. Transport was great, you could park your car outside Zandvoort and go to the track by bicycle, wich seemed so fun! cycling with thousands F1 Fans to the circuit hahah. We went by train wich ran smoothly as well. It was a 20 minute walk to the circuit but it felt like 5. Cause even towards the circuit there was enough that entertained you. At the entrance there was no waiting line at all.
And Zandvoort also listened to previous situations of people feeling unsafe at the circuit. They showed a phone number on the screens, you could text SOS to that phonenumber if you felt unsafe for any reason and they would help you.
I went to Barcelona this year, and while not near as bad as Monza, it was pretty shocking how they were missing basic stuff.
Absolutely no public transit other than one train station that was a 30-45 min walk, and it ran 2 trains each direction per hour. Barcelona taxis also aren’t legally allowed to pick people up in the province where the track technically is, so that’s a no go too. We had to wait for 3 hours at the train station to take it back to the main city about 45 mins away in an absolutely packed train.
Long lines to get in, but I think all of the gates were open, so not sure how they fix that.
I will say, they let you bring in any bottles (non alcoholic) 1.5L or less which was great. Not having to buy water was a blessing knowing how Monza went.
Also, no alcohol?? Cmon Barca, have some fun!
I had a very good experience a few years ago at the Nurburgring. Took me 10 minutes walking from my car and another few minutes to get in and I could walk or sit completely free... everywhere I had a great view. Would do it again if we still had that GP and if it wasn't an 8 hour drive for one way lol
Wasnt that the COVID year with few fans at the race?
@@seshadhri_s No it was 2013 or 14... can't remember actually.
@@MudvayneS10 It would've been 2013 cause that was the last year they raced there before covid.
I have been to Spa this year (3 weeks ago). This year me and my 5 friends decided to buy bronze tickets for the whole weekend.
What a big mistake....
We planed to arrive at 10 am so we could have time to set up our tents for camping and then see the FP 1 at arround 1 or 2 pm .... but we actually arrived at at 2 pm due to the big traffic on the highway exit ramps, so we had no time to see it.
On Saturday we were the whole day at the track begining at 9 am. We had our camping chairs on the long straight where all over takes happen in the 1 and 2 sector. We took the spot because it was the only big screen we could see the race on. 100 meters further in the breaking zone, was no screen at all ... Very poor coverage. It was very crowded that day on the steep hill for a saturday. Long waiting for food or the coins. I medium french frise was 6.50€ and a beer 0.5 L was 6.50€ too. Way to expensive for the long waiting.
But then came Sunday.... The race day.
We were at the track at 6.30 am in the morning, because we knew if we would be there at 8.00 am, we would not find a spot to place 6 camping chairs next to each other ( at 9.00 was the F3 race).
At 7.00 am there were more people than at the qualifing on Saturday.
At 08.00 you could not walk up and down the hill. There was 0 space. No walkways. You had to step over so much stuff, chairs, blankets, drinks... You could not walk at all. Basically you where forced to stay seated until the race was over (5pm). If you would go to the restroom, you need +45 min.
All in all there were 3x the people, the place could handle. Way to expensive food and drinks. Coin system is used to confuse you how much you actually pay. And enterences took +30 minutes....
Leaving on sunday ended up in a total traffic jam (we stood on the street and did not move at all) for 4 1/2 hours and entered the highway at 00.30 am on monday....
Only thing good where the positiv camping people and the camping in general.
I have been camping at Hockenheim'19 and Nürburgring'20, it was way cheaper, way better organised, only small traffic jams but nothing compared to Spa this year.
For the future I will not take free seating (bronze), cause you have to be early at the event in order to get good seats for the whole day. I like to have my own seat in a grand stand and not standing in a bronze category with 3x the people that could normaly fit.
I was at Spa this year also and saw lots of good spots at Blanchimont and other areas, even on race day. Of course, kemmel was totally packed, but there were other options. Overall my impression was that the event was pretty well organized. I had a gold stand ticket, but enjoyed walking the trails inside the circuit, no long queues for food and drinks (I didn't spend more than 10 minutes in any queue), plenty of toilets (not talking about kemmel, because that is a real nightmare - too many people). I am considering buying bronze tickets next year. Another divergence I have with your comment is that the shuttle bus that took me to the track didn't spend much time in traffic at all. I wonder if the bus' route is different than the ones for private cars... Anyway, I'm not trying to dismiss your comments, which I'm sure are based on your experience, but I find it important to provide another POV.
Yeah you chose the wrong seating places my guy... was at spa as well had the best time ever. No queues nor for the catering nor the toilets, ... Had a big screen in front of me with about 15 sec of view per car. Best thing there was almost no one there. People tend to go to popular corners like eau rouge, pouhon, les combes, ... but if you go away from those beautifull corners you can actually enjoy more then most of the people. I was sat just at the braking zone for the busstop chicane. (By the way the corner with the most action). Try moving away from the pack and go exploring other parts is my advise
Really sad to hear that about monza. I've been twice (pre covid) and they were by far the best races I've attended. Only complaint about monza was the long queue for a bus to the train station after the race. Presumably its much worse now because of increased attendance. Was hoping to go to the Austrian grand prix this year but couldn't get tickets 3 months before the event
I went Monza this year for my first GP, we queued for 1.5hrs at the track to get to the station (we left early as well) and then had a 2hr wait to even get on the train...this was saturday and the Friday wasn't as bad. My god though, Sunday was awful, queues to/from the track could be tripled easily
The amount of booing towards max during his interview and on the podium was disgusting
Even the Verstappen fans cheered when Lewis got interviewed last year at Zandvoort
even as a massive charles fan, i was disgusted by that
I was surprised. Should boo their team. They're a joke. Need to Stop inventing
as an italian i felt very ashamed of seeing all of that shit
Yeah we sure saw how mature the whingestappen fans were in Austria and zandvoort right.
Funny how all of these fan problems have started as soon as they come into the sport. Shows who’s the problem
Max handled it like a champ to be fair to him. The temptation to do a Jim Richards and call all the fans booing "a pack of arseholes" would be too strong for me.
(Seriously look that one up it's glorious)
The Austrian Grand Prix was very cool this year. It took forever to get to the standing room but you saw a lot of the race no matter where you were. The only negative thing was that some drunk fans discriminated against others and there was far too little security. Transportation to the track was good although the shuttle buses were way overcrowded.
I was at Monza this year. I got crushed into a chain link fence from the sheer volume of people and honestly thought I was going to pass out (or worse). My whole side is bruised from it.
The queuing and viewing was almost unbearable that I considered not going back on the Sunday and just watching from a bar in Milan. It took HOURS to travel a 20 minute journey home. People were obviously frustrated and started shoving, again making me feel like I was going to suffocate.
On my way to the circuit on Sunday I spoke to a girl who had passed out the day before from sun exposure and not enough water. She woke up in the medic tent and they told her she needed water and a fizzy drink, but DIDN’T GOVE HER THIS, so she had to go out into the sun and queue for >an hour to get fluids.
Agree that the signage and viewing was abysmal. I saw nothing on the Saturday because people were standing on logs, bins, seating, just to see over the fence. People were hanging out of trees everywhere too.
Overall the worse GP I’ve attended and hugely disappointing considering it’s been on my bucket list for years. I almost took my dad with me but so glad I went alone as he would have absolutely hated it.
Would not go back to Monza.
I am still in shock. I have been to GPs before and Monza was a bucket list GP for me and it was the worst thing ever. Missed the entire Prosche Race on Sunday because security blocked a small gate (entrance to inside parabollica, General Admission, Bridge to paddock club) the only satisfying thing about this was that for 1-2 hours everyone GA all the way up to VIPs were treated exactly the same because not even the VIPs were allowed to get through. But after that no one wanted to leave their seat to get water and everyone around me including myself drank as little water as possible to avoid goining to the toilet (the reason I left my seat in the first place) and it was hot we were sitting in the sun no shadow... People fainted and Saturday we ended up watching quali from the fanzone because speakers were not turned on. And after the race the only place to get water was the fanzone because everything else was abandoned, No water refill stations in the upper half of the circuit, didnt manage to open the track on time (not +10 min more like plus 1.5-2.5 hrs later) no powerbanks allowed but not electricity to charge phones (and if i wait for hours in line i atleast want to hear some music)... on the bright side I only got yelled at on saturday for wearing RBR and Sunday i was sitting in a small bubble of really friendly people who did not only leave me alone but shilded me from others at the grandstand and I had a screen and the speakeres were sort of working for the F1 race :) still SPA is usually my go to and I have to keep looking for alternatives Austria and Hungary are the only tracks left in my region so I will go there next year and hope it will be better
I went to Monza this year, it was my third time going since 2019 and was by far the worse. The token system was implemented last year and was a complete shambles same long ques for both getting the token and food, the same as this year. We thought they would have gotten rid of the system or increased the amount of places to purchase the tokens but was exactly the same. As we had been to Monza before we knew what to expect bring your own food, hat sunscreen, water ect as many of these things aren't provided by the track. The amount of toilets available were severely lacking, no places to fill your bottle once inside, and also no shade for many of the grand stands. The amount of stewards was also in need of more numbers, 20 minutes before the race we went to our seats only to find that someone was sitting in them and wouldn't move as they said they had been there for 3 hours so were intituled, we also saw many arguments between people who had general admission tickets and people sat on the grandstand as they were stood in front of them by the fence blocking the view of people sat on the lower levels of the seats. There were no where near enough stewards to control the crowds and the ones that were there looked to be no older than 23/24 (I don't blame them for not having control as they were probably getting paid minimum plus with very little training before hand getting shouted at multiple people) by the end of the race with 3/4 laps to go we had watched many arguments between fans for blocking the view of the track, there was even a fight between two Ferrari fans which got broken up the crowd no stewards or police in sight. Overall the experience was terrible and definitely won't be going back. It was such a shame as the 1st year I went on 2019 seeing Leclerc win as a Ferrari fan was something very special. The organisation was alot better and the whole weekend was amazing.
It's such a shame that some fans had terrible experiences it's simply not good enough and things need to change otherwise it's going to put people off going to races. I was fortunate to have a really good experience when I went to Silverstone earlier this year
For viewing experience with general admission ticket I can recommend the Hungaroring because of its geographics. The circuit is like a huge basin where the edges are higher than the inside. So you can stand almost anywhere and still have a nice view.
But you get stranded in the Hungarian countryside after the race.
I went to Hungary in 2022. We had to wait 3 hours in queue every day for a taxi from the track back to the city. I don't think I will go again to a grand Prix.
Also, for the seats in Bronze the screen is so far away that you can't see anything
In Spa it is the same. Spa admission is better in my opinion than the stands there
I had a great time at the Mexico GP last year. It was as well organized as could reasonably be expected and you could take the metro to and from the track. The metro was crowded but they had the most efficient trains I have ever seen. The crowd was great and there was a big tv screen right across the track from us. Also the tickets were pretty cheap so that made everything better. Hopefully it's as good this year!
Belgium was quite similar, same token system, it worked a bit better but the queues for almost everything is incredible...oh my gosh were the parking sport packed, you had to settle for a 3 to 4 hour period just to get out of the parking. the bronze area places were so full you couldnt stand up and go to the toilet...the camel straight/pouhon were a NIGHTMARE you couldnt even get past people to go to your seats if you were able to somehow get out of your sitting position....and I want to adress the toilet problem for women, us men had it easy we went next to a tree but women had to wait 2 hours just to be able to access a toilet.
I feel really bad for these experiences, I went to my first ever GP this year in Australia and sure the lines were long for some things, but imo it was a wholey positive experience and I'll definitely be going back
Yeah, I had lots of fun at Albert Park this year as well pretty good event
same, the only bad thing was the massive queue to get over the track
Went to Hungary this year, GA views weren’t terrible, you could see a lot of the track, it was difficult to get a spot with a view of a screen, and if you got a view of a screen, it was near impossible to hear any commentary. There was not that long of a queue to get into the track. Security at the gate I entered on the Sunday was taking bottles of water off people, no matter the size, luckily it wasn’t anywhere near as warm the Friday and Saturday (might I add they were not confiscating anything on the Friday or Saturday) then security was a shambles abusing fans on the Sunday (didn’t see anything the other days). Transport to and from the track was woeful, you were waiting in a queue for 3-4 hours for a taxi or 1-2 hours for a shuttle bus to the nearest train station which also took another 1-2 hours between waiting for the train and getting back to Budapest. Most taxis bar the company that was set up at the track were scamming fans by costing them upwards of €100 to make a 25-30 minute journey from the track back to the city. The taxi company that was set up at the track were doing it for €15-€20. Luckily it wasn’t my first time at a Grand Prix so I know it can be so much better organised
I went to both Hungary and Monza GPs this year.
I had a grandstand ticket at Hungaroring and a GA at Monza.
I can say that my experience was 100 times better at Hungaroring.
Okay the queue to leave the track was massive, and I had to wait 2 hours to leave the track after the race.
Everything else was great! I already got my tickets to next year's one!
Monza was absolute mess, I'm not returning any time soon.
I don't ubderstand. Other than sunday, the Bus works great. On sunday, just walk to the Mogyoród station, and hop on the Hév. I was in Budapest like 1 hour 15 minutes from leaving the track. I think it's pretty well organised, but on Sunday, the cars just block the road, so busses just can't function well.
I was at the Barcelona GP, 3 day tickets for the main grandstand with seats on the finish line.
Friday was great, had no issues with transport or food/drink as had brought everything with us, but did see large queues for the food stands. Managed to get straight into the station at Montmelo no issues and on the first train back into the city. A great day, managed to see all of the sessions. Only thing that was weird was that a lot of people were sitting in the grandstand with general admission tickets, I now know that this is fine on Friday but at the time there were a lot of people being asked to move.
Saturday was also great to begin with, was a lot hotter though so when the shade dissapeared from the grandstand it was unbearably hot (not much the organisers could do about that). It was also noticably bussier on the way into the track and the signage was really poor. Lots of people getting lost etc... The on track action was great, lots to see as there were many sessions to watch, I did think it was a shame that a large number of people were only watching the F1 sessions and not the numerous other formulas on display.
Then it came to the end of the day and that was the worst experience I have ever had. The number of people trying to get into the station at Montmelo was unbelievable. There was 1 person in a high-vis vest there to "control" the queue and he only spoke Spanish, I did feel sorry for him. The queue was not a queue but just a mass of people, there must have been 10s of thousands of people trying to get in at one time. At this time the temperature was nearly 40c, we had no water left. There were numerous ambulances coming to pick up people that had fainted. Taxi drivers were charging people upwards of 4-500 euros to take them to the edge of Barcelona and refusing to take people with their meter on.
We stood in the mass of people for over 1 hour and moved forward maybe 10-15 feet, at this point my girlfriend was beginning to be ill so I looked up where the nearest other town was that had a station - roughly a 45 minute walk away. We had no choice but to walk there, some others had the same idea, so when we got to the other town the platform was packed but we managed to get on the train, and eventually got back to our hotel.
A journey that on Friday took just over an hour took nearly 5 hours on Saturday, and this was purely down to the organisers selling way too many tickets.
We had such a bad time getting back on Saturday that we decided it was not worth it to go to the race.
Went to the zoo instead
edit: forgot to mention the outrageous prices for merch, 90 euros for a hat?! Available on the F1 store website for £30
Our experience from 2021 Hungarian GP was mainly good. Enough of toilets, around 15min long waiting lines for food and drinks. With General Admission you where capable of seeing the cars (you just had to practise to find good viewing spot at Friday and Saturday). There was one annoying thing tough... and it was that Taxi from Budapest city center took around 4 hours to take us to the track site (Distance was around 24km to Hungaroring). Traffic controllers where treating unequally the arriving cars that some where allowed to take faster route and some had to take longer route. And no, it was not the case that in some cars would have workers as passengers and therefore having the right to use the shorter route. The workers had their own separate fast track. So it was literally 50/50 chance will you wait 1h30min longer or not. There where some trains and busses going to Hungaroring but it was quite hard to figure out how it works since we where there for the first time. Some locals then helped us how to use the train.
Another monza visitor this year here, was genuinely scared on the Sunday prior to the race as I went from food area to food area just trying to find a bottle of water to buy, took me 1 and a half hours. In 30c weather when your running around, gets scary very quickly
The organisation and experience at the Australian gp is absolutely fantastic. I’ve gone to the aus gp every year since 2016 excluding 2021 and I’ve only every had one bad experience which was the infamous cancelling of the 2020 gp. While crowds have been growing in the recent past to the point that the number surpassed the record set at the first gp in Melbourne to reach 420,000, the organisers have dealt with the situation excellently, providing many entrances to the track, many food and drink stands and viewing areas. Just to add on, in all of my years of going to the Australian gp, I’ve never had or seen anyone having a bad experience with another fan. Maybe it’s just our Australian way that we don’t do things like that 😂
I was there in Monza this year.
Long queues everywhere. Drinks larger than 500ml could not be brought into the complex. Plus, they took the caps at entry: I guess because the bottles with caps on were deemed to be hazardous to be thrown on the circuit.
Also, I had cooling bags, shaped in a rigid plastic brick form, weighing more than 0.5kg. I could bring those in, and they would have been much easier to be thrown on the track.
No accessible screens for general admission tickets. On Friday and Saturday, we tried to find the best spot to have a glimpse of idea what is going on in the track. But there was none such spot (or was already taken by 9am). So on Sunday, we ended up being next to Curve Grande, watching that one corner when the cars got there, then watching a stream on a mobile phone.
And the thing that the whole complex is flat (not like Spa, Hungaroring or Red Bull Ring), there is no elevation. So you could either be on your toes to look over the fences, or - as many did - you could ransack the forest to bring fallen branches next to the fence, and build makeshift podiums. The whole area looked like a refugee camp by Sunday.
There were smaller podiums to climb on for general adm. fans, but there weren't enough.
This was my first on-track F1 experience: overall I enjoyed it but no chance I will ever go back to Monza. It was its 100-year jubilee this year: the whole complex cannot sustain 350k+ people in a race weekend.
Another *funny* experience I had in Portugal last year, in the covid period, remember it was one of the first venues that allowed public. I paid to have a nice seat at the top of the hill where you can see over the whole track, but because of the media -- which was outraged that so many people could be together without protection in training-- on race day they closed my stand. I forgot to tell you that on race day, I almost missed the race because the cops where suddenly blocking all roads to the track, even I had payed for a parking next to the track. I showed the cop my parking ticket but he send me back. After a few miles I turned around pissed off, and just passed the cops road block, hoping they would not shoot me. So then arriving I found out that my seat was void because of covid, I decided to go to ask my money back at the ticket office. They offered me a place in the grand stand, nice, but no thanks because they pass there with over 300 km/h. After refusing this they offered me a place at turn 1, where you have basically the best experience. So thanks to the organisation of Portimão for taking care of me finally. For every race they should give a FIA official a normal ticket and a renting car to go to the track, and report back with a report, that is just my thought, I hope you F1 fans and friends have better experiences than me. But overal I must say that if F1 comes ever back here it it probably still one of the best places to see the race.
When to monza myself this year with the general admission ticket.
I went in the main gate (Gate A) Saturday and Sunday and while there was a queue, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for a event of this size. I got to the track at about 11 on Sunday and had to wait about 15-25 minutes for bag check and ticket scan.
It was really difficult to know what was happening on track. We stood near the end of the main straight by the pit exit and I couldn’t see anything for the first about 15 laps. After a while, someone gave me a chair to stand on and a family member was texting me the grid position every few laps. Without those 2 things, I would have had a terrible experience.
Overall there is somewhat of a lack of signing posting and info on the track. There is a fair amount of stewards, but they are all quite young. The average age was probably 17-21. Everyone I talked to was very nice and tried to help, but there was definitely a language barrier at times.
One thing i’m not seeing mentioned that surprised me a lot was the back search. Our bags were barely looked at. We could have very easily brought in flares or sometimes even worst. There was no body pat downs either, which worked out for us cause we snuck in bottles caps so we could refill a few bottles at a time.
Also the ticket checkers broke at gate A on Saturday so you could get in for free. It could have very easily cause a capacity issue.
Also, another thing I forgot to mention, the general admission points were not labelled on any map. Made it very hard to find where you were allowed to stand. We spent about 3 hours before qualifying just walking around and finding spots we where allowed to go Into.
Great video, I would love to see a longer video or better yet a special edition podcast on this subject. Been a fan for 15+ years and finally attended my first F1 race this year in Montréal. Really enjoyed the event and feel it was well organized, only negative things I could say is on the Sunday waited 40+ min to get into the circuit and lineups were pretty damn long for food and drink but I expected it to be busy.
This makes me glad my first in-person race experience was at the Laguna Seca track for this year’s INDYCAR finale. Was a wonderful time- yes, it was hot, but you could choose your own seat, you had great views of the action, and you knew what was going on thanks to screens and audio commentary from the sound system. And no flares choking the air with smoke.
Sad to hear about Monza, though. It was on my bucket list after the 2020 and 2021 races.
Can agree with this! I was there and had a great view of the entire pit lane/start line.
Indy car viewing is awesome! The GA ticket is actually worth it. The detroit Indy car GP >> Canadian formula 1 Gp
I was at Zandvoort and the organization was amazing, very little lines anywhere
I can partially agree. I’ve been to Imola this year and sat at the Rivazza sequence, which wasn’t bad at all, although the dirt in front was more mud than dirt, as it had rained beforehand. That plus with the slight lack of markets to buy food, it was very fine! That might be unusual though ngl…
I've been to Barcelona in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017. All those times, the entrance was very easy (albeit being on a coach trip) public transport is very scarce since the track is about an hour away from the city, and its also on top of a mountain. Walking from the station up to it is indeed around 45 minutes, having made the Treck myself on occasion. There were however many gates open and sometimes it even recommends you to use a specific gate on your ticket (if you have a seat). The longest it's taken me to get through was like 10 minutes.
I know this is a few years ago now, and before the DTS boom and also covid, but even then they were sell outs to record crowds. There's also great viewing all around the circuit for people to just sit on a blanket or a folding chair, or even standing.
We were in Monza last year, where around half the attendance was sold due to covid regulations.
Already there the place was crowded and some lines for their stupid tokens took over 20-30 minutes. You are checked going inside the grandstands, but also exiting them - why?double standing in line.
Also, you could not take powerbanks in with you, but you also could not rent any. all warer bottles were opened, even if you had bought them at one of their own food/drink stands. So you could not even get 3-4 watter bottles at once, because they all were opened at the entrance to the grandstand. We smuggled in bottle caps to be able to close the water bottles again, but seriously, what the hell?
With the prices you pay these days (we paid 500 each, grandstand at turn 1/2), these things are absolutely a no-go. Last year already we decided never to go to Monza again. Can only imagine how it must have been this year with the attendance more than double comparing to last year.
Maybe Binotto is also in charge of the organization there, that would explain things.
Nearly 7h spent on a tree on Sunday at Monza😆 What a memory that is. The atmosphere was great though
Was at the Australian GP this year and it was pretty good considering that the weekend attendance was nearly half a million people. Only complaint is that viewing areas were pretty wack as there was nearly no elevation at most points and food cost $27
We ended up filling a backpack full of snacks and drinks for race day because we realised no one checked our bags/removed food or drinks when we went on Saturday for Quali
Yeah no bag checking so we did that too, no way we were going near the lines for food
the only hill was that one with the red bull thing, and there were those concrete bleacher things
I was at Monza and the chaos was overwhelming. Did not buy food/drinks so I could make it to the race in time. The thing with the queues was that they were not only massive, but there was no defined line formed, only a tremendous crowd of people pushing into each other trying to get to the token counters.
I loved the race itself, got a relatively nice spot on the straight before the parabolica. Even as a Red Bull fan I had a great experience with all the Tifosi and all interactions were light-hearted.
I hope Monza does better in the future, given the history of the circuit.
My GP experience was SPA 2021 so not a lot of good feedback from my side but I also think that was impacted by the bad weather. Still FIA & the circuites should invest more so that you would actually enjoy the full experience since the prices are growing year over year.
The bottle cap one is quite understandable bc people can easily throw them in track. A tip is to just bring an extra cap with you. Not in your posckets tho they might check, put it in your shoe works every time 😂
Bottles being thrown on to the track? I think fans prefer when a flare gets thrown on to the race track (this message is supposed to be lighthearted). I don’t see the logic about taking a bottle top from someone.
Mmm then your water can taste like a DR3 shoey all day 😅
Except that you could buy bottles with caps on inside the track at Monza, so it makes 0 sense
I snuck inside 3L of beer, you just have to hide it good, the cap thing is a joke because they sell you closed bottles inside for a very high price
What they didn't mention tho is that you got bottles WITH cap at the food & drink stands. So that didn't made any sense at all.
for anyone who is saying Monza was a bad experience this year, i can say it's because It Is in Italy. I'm Italian and I know How things work here, and of you want an advise, don't come to Italy otherwise of a vacation to visit it, because the management in here Is awful in everything.
Apparently Imola was fine, so it's just a Monza thing.
Exactly this. People used to sleep in the Monza circuit grounds to not pay the tickets back in the day. anyway the root problem is the abundance of new fans. Due to Drive to Survive becoming popular, especially in America, many people now want to watch the races live. This causes circuits such as monza be over top capacity. Monza is supposed to have a capacity of around 250,000, not 337,000.
Sad how such a beautiful country is so mismanaged. You guys deserve the best, but have to make do with some of the worst.
We know the Italians are notorious for bad organisation. But actually I was impressed by the Buses from the train station to the track at Monza. That was the only part that they got right. Everything else was total carnage.
I've been at Imola this year and even though some of the problems found at Monza were present there (queues for food, no power banks) it wasn't nearly as bad as Monza, probably due to the far less amount of people. Visibility was generally good and it seemed to me fans were far more respectful. The only issue was the mud, but it was normal given it's a park and it rained for 2 days
My experience at my first ever F1 race in person at Austin last year was mostly good. Me and my sister got to see the cars from the GA area next to the main grandstand and there was a giant TV screen where I could also see what was going on in the race. The only criticisms I had was that it was a bit overcrowded (since Austin 2021 broke the record for attendance), and that my sister took like 1-2 hours to get food due to the long lines while I was in charge of our spots. Fortunately my sister came back with pizza just in time before the formation lap began.
Although my parents picked us up after race ended, I did hear that the parking situation was mayhem and COTA should make improvements to accommodate crowds like Austin 2021. The same should be said for the lines at the concessions and attractions
I’ll be going this year and I was searching for a comment about COTA, good to see it wasn’t/hopefully isn’t organized awfully
They should just bring the USGP up to IMS 😝
The infrastructure is there, the track can accommodate 400k+ people, and the surrounding areas are easy to traverse.
@@NathanielMiller94 only if they put the 500 back on the schedule ;)
I have been to Austin for the F1 race each year, and 2021 was by far the worst. Even on Friday and Saturday it was far more overcrowded than the infrastructure could handle. On Saturday it took me 2 hours to get in and 2 hours to get out. The food lines were all 45 minutes to 1 hour, and when you reach the food stand most of the selection was sold out . At least there was no lines for the bathroom or the free water at turn one. The shuttle buses we're so crowded and the road so crowded that it took 2 hours just to get from one side of the track to the other . It was slower than walking . The general admission areas were massively overcrowded and they took much of the viewing area away for more Hospitality Suites. And this was on Saturday! Since I couldn't hear any PA system and could not get any radio or live streaming on saturday, and I knew it would be even worse on Sunday, I went home to Houston and watched the race on Sunday. I was very glad, but sad, that I did.
Their plans for this year at Austin include adding more grandstands and Hospitality areas and reducing the general admission areas even more. It's completely sold out, but you can buy resale tickets on the racetrack website. It just said this week that a general admission ticket for Sunday only was $440, and the cheapest grandstand ticket for Sunday was over $600, and that is at one of the new grandstands with bad views of the track
This year I went to Monza with the general admission ticket and the organization was simply a scandal. Even asking to the people that were there to help you they just said that they didn’t know anything about it. The queues were eternal and the view of the track was a shame, we didn’t understand anything about the race and the most fortunate used the phone to see the race on sky with the few internet we had. Before I went to a Imola with the grandstand’s ticket and the organization was a completely different. Even if I’m Italian, my opinion is that a Monza shouldn’t have a Formula One Grand Prix because it doesn’t deserve it.
@@maurodebaets yeah and the worst part was the tifosi booing max and singing the Italian anthem during the Dutch one
I mean if they prioritized money over everything, why not make a huge grandstand where they certainly will get a huge payoff
@@ammarisrar2005 but asking people there, in Monza the organization was always been a shame, nothing changed and going this way they will loose the gp as Domenicali said because in not only history but also giving a good experience to fans
How much it cost??
I am talking about low prices and high prices
@@Vanchinchelo so the general admission was a bit less than €90 while the groundstands started from 150 to 700 and more
I loved my time at the Spanish GP, however it was so awfully organised, long queues which is even worse considering we were caught in the middle of heatwave and we had to wait for at least 40 minutes to pay 4€ for a 330ml bottle of water. In order to get back to the city using the train there was an absolutely huge queue at the entrance of the train station, therefore me and my friends had to hitchhike back to barcelona. Another friend of ours decided to wait and after 5 HOURS OF WAITING got tired and had to pay 70€ for a taxi to get back to the city. The organisers and the ones responsible for Barcelona’s public transport should be ashamed of themselves
I was a Barcelona as well. It definitely doesn’t sound as bad as Monza but they were at their limit. Lines were really bad. General admission areas were really full.
The transit was the biggest issue. We had to pay 200 euro to get back to Barcelona from the track and the lines to get in were hours long. Apparently there is some sort of political affiliation muddying the transit there.
i was at Australia this year and it was so well managed in comparison. the queue's to leave out of some gates were ridiculous and the tram from the city to Albert Park queue was long but at least it moved relatively quick. it's shocking to see how badly organised other venues are in comparison.
Barcelona earlier this year was exactly what people described; No directions or signage made it so people would easily get lost, restrooms were outright abysmal, and getting to and from the track in scorching heat was terrible. Public transportation was a nightmare as only one train station in or out meant people waited hours in line. Taxis and rideshare apps stranded us, we waited over 4 hours on Friday to finally hitch a ride back to our hotel and the only reason we had rides for the rest of the weekend was because we begged for our taxi driver to do us a favor (Shout out to Omar, hands down the nicest human being I have ever encountered). Austin the year before was a very similar experience, with only a few single lane roads leading in and out of COTA meant most people walked 30-50 minutes in dirt and heat just to find out their rides had canceled the trip. Once again, we had to rely on the kindness of one Uber driver who we begged to help us. Traveled to both from California and although both GPs were overall a good experience, it is clear that more must be done from an infrastructure and organization point of view. F1 cannot allow poor planning to sour fans’ experiences, especially since so many fans travel from different corners of the world and pay a good amount of money to watch “the pinnacle of motorsport.”
Considering how expensive it is to go to a race that’s really disturbing to hear how bad the experience is for some folks
I was at Monza last weekend and I had the same experience as mentioned here. The Ques…..don’t get me started. We had grandstand seats so that was fine, but getting in and out of the track was a mess, the token system was a complete fail and we made it all the way to our seats on the Sunday without having to show a ticket once….no bay check, no ticket, got right in. It is clear some of these circuits are not prepared for the massive influx of fans now attending races. That being said, still one of the top sporting event experiences I have ever attended.
I went to Spa this year and especially for the bronze tickets which were around €150,- it took us around 3-4 hours to get there by car because there was a massive traffic jam and with bronze tickets it is basically goodluck finding a spot between the stands to watch the race where at eau rouge there was a line of + - 4 hours. eventually we found a nieche spot to watch the race but quite a lot of people had no way to properly watch the race which is a shame. You either need to get a silver (€300,-+) or gold (€500,-+) to watch the race properly.
I was in queue at 3 am outside the track, slept there while waiting, got in and ran to the nearest viewing point with a screen, you have to expect this at monza
On a positive note I went to the Hungarian GP this year and the organization was great. Most wait times were less than 15min and food was always available for semi reasonable prices. Traveling to the track is probably the worst part but honestly not bad as long as you are willing to walk for about 40min and take trains. Or you could take a taxi
I think it was shit personally, the Hungarian gp in other years were so so so much better
I have pretty much the same experience. The public transport was a nightmare lol, the rest was really good
I went to Hungary in 2022. We had to wait 3 hours in queue every day for a taxi from the track back to the city. I don't think I will go again to a grand Prix.
Also, for the seats in Bronze the screen is so far away that you can't see anything
We went to Zandvoort last year (2021) and I thought they were pretty well organised. The only issue (which was a returning one this year at Zandvoort) were the flares. My mom and I got light burns from sitting under one. This year we decided to take a gamble and go to Spa (one of my favorite circuits) and I have to say that the majority of the weekend was great. It wasn't really that accessable for people with an handicap (like my dad) because of all the climbing - but that is nothing on the organisation. We sat at kemmel straight in GA and it was packed. Too little space for a huge amount of people. Lines at the food stands (there were 2 in total) and toilets were crazy, especially on the Sunday.
I went to COTA last year and I'm planning to go again this year. I can say the organization was great there. The gates took a bit to get through, but that's because I was at circuit opening early in the morning. I had no issues with food or other fans, and there were maps and signs everywhere for directions. Great spots for GA and I'd recommend the turn 9 grandstands if you want grandstand seats, as you can essentially see from the end of sector 1 to the long righthander of T16-18.
The fan level and behavior can be blamed partly on a certain streaming show. THERE, I said it!!! I've never been to a GP but I do have an example of something that needs to change. A few years ago I went to the WEC race at Silverstone for the whole weekend. I went for 3 or 4 years in a row and the ticket price increased each year but the most I paid for a weekend ticket was about £75-85. This got you access to both the ELMS and WEC paddock area, any grandstand that was open, a pit walk/autograph session and you could even go in the wing and watch from the balcony about the pitlane!! To get that sort of access for the British Grand Prix you would need to pay hundreds if not thousands. I don't blame Silverstone for this.....I blame F1.
Even though Zandvoort is so small and I felt like a human sandwich at some points, at least the crowd was always moving and I even got my food extremely fast! And everyone was very friendly and in a great mood.
I know Dutch fans get a bad rep but I had a great experience!
(I am a woman, if that is relevant)
The Dutch only harass women at other circuits
@@andrecha1ye
I was at the Austrian GP this year and it was fantastic! I was lucky (as a female and a hardcore Lewis fan, fully decked out in gear every day!) not to experience any of the harassment that some fans reported (the sector I was in was not one of the orange army sectors, though). The organisation was seamless, there were no long toilet lines and even the food lines weren't too bad. You could also take all your own food and water into the area (in quantities for self consumption); also if you wanted to buy food/drinks there, you could either pay with a prepaid card available for purchase there or with your ATM/debit card. I was there by car and arrived early enough to avoid all the queues and the traffic and it only took me about 45mins to get away after the race, I expected 2+hrs. I already booked my tickets for next year and hope for a similarly great experience.
Edited to add: the screen were pretty well placed, too.
@Lena Katharina Would you please give me some advice? I plan to go to Austrian GP 2023. If I stay in the city of Vienna, what would be the best transport to get to the track. Is there any public bus or shuttle bus from organizer? Thanks
@@jacquesboon9153 sure thing! I am from Vienna but always opt to stay in Graz because Graz is only 60-70mins away (by car) while Vienna is at least a 2hr drive, depending on where you stay/live in Vienna. There are some ways to get there by public transport (train and then shuttle bus) and this year they had new shuttle busses that you could take from lots of different locations, including a lot of pick-up spots in Vienna and most major towns somewhat "close" to Spielberg. Just keep in mind that time-wise, you won't be there in time for some events, like the drivers' meet and greet on Saturday morning (if I recall correctly that was at 09.30 but you need to be there in advance to secure a good spot) or the Styrian Red Carpet on Sunday before the race if you're on the hunt for autographs. Unfortunately, hotels right at the venue are far and few between and very expensive (if you can even book a room anywhere). Do you have your tickets yet? The shuttle busses were announced a month before the race, roughly, and spots could be bought online quite easily. Additional information for the shuttle busses in 2023 will be published here: www.redbullring.com/en/events-tickets/formula-1/formula-1-arrival/formula-1-arrival-bus/
Monza was my first GP and boy was it a nightmare. Apart from all the long queues, grandstand only screens and token mess, General public tickets worth 90€ were a total rip-off as it bought you no race viewing at all. After walking the whole circuit, I found a “good spot” at variante Ascari where the guardrails were not as high as the cars, but my window to the track was some guys underarm and I could barely make up which car just drove by. I was in the second row from the fence but I had to use my phone to watch the race and a crowd grew around me. I later managed to watch the last rounds (with the safety car) by standing on a freaking crane. Never again!!
How they decided to convert general viewing to grandstands and still sold general tickets is beyond me. I felt robbed
Refreshing note, Spa was very busy but the worst thing we experienced was a 15min qeue for the toilets, ridiculous food prices and after the race we had about an hour of delays. In conclusion, not bad at all and what a weekend to remember!
I was at spa on Friday. If you ignore the long walk from some parking areas, it really was a great day with no complaints
It was busy but in general totally worth it. Amazing experience. Only downside parking for some was so bad. Luckily we got out in reasonable time but still had to wait quite a bit. I readed some waited hours in parking to get out. That would have been solved with park guiding people.
I was at Spa on Sunday it was amazing the only down Side was that I had to wait 2,5 hours te get out of the parking and Another Hour before we could leave to the High way.
But apart from that it was amazing and I would definitely go again.
@@passsie169 Like dream come true. I really liked how much you could walk around the track. I think it was some what magical walk trough forest to fanzone area and hear motors singing and echoing in forest while cars and formulas going flat out from Eau-Rogue to kemmel straight.
I’m looking forward to the Singapore GP and it’s my first time watching a race irl. Good to know that things like this exist at every race and I really hope things go well for me!
Enjoy it!
You'll be fine! Singapore is an efficient nation from top to bottom. I can't imagine it running as anything but perfectly smoothly. They don't mess around, it's a very wealthy nation with a government which considers it's international image as everything. Have fun and let's hope it's an exciting race for you!
It's great. Just wear comfortable shoes
Australia was fantastic! Some areas had long lines to get drinks and food but it wasn't too crazy when you factor in there was half a million people in attendance . Great viewing experience, great food, public transport to and from albert park was pretty good. They were giving out rehydration tablets for free. Definitely going again next year
Not sure where you were sitting, but near turn 11 was absolutely garbage in general admin. There is one screen at turn 9 and if you didn't get there at 9.30am and stay you were out of luck. The queue for drinks before the race took a mate and I 2 hours and 15 mins to get served. Sure considering crowd sizes it might have been okay but that's exactly the point they need smaller crowds or more facilities including seats.
I had a great experience for my first ever in person race at Albert Park, only issue I had is that most grandstands have no shade. It's Australia! This race was in a cooler part of the year and it was still hot enough that we left the grandstands whenever we could to sit in the shade underneath it.
I know what you mean, and who wants to sit up like a cricket ball, have to nearly stand up if someone wanted to get past, and have to have a ass made of steel. Iol
I went to Zandvoort this years. And honestly it was amazing. However, security at the entrance wasn't that great. Small bags didn't get checked when you entered, which means you could basically bring in anything without trouble. Flares ofc are an obvious one everyone knows about, but think of weapons that could have easily gotten in if one crazy fan thought of it.
THANK YOU for sharing this. I wasn't sure if I just was used to german organisation (I was at Hockenheim 2019) or if Monza was really that awful.
This was really the worst event experience I've ever had. In Germany we would call it "under all canons" ^^.
My experiences:
- Thursday: No Events - Hockenheim provided a little bit of an trackwalk, Fanzone stuff but not the worst problem.
- Parking at the parking lot not for free (Friday 20€, random price increase at Saturday 30€, Sunday for online reserved only) at Hockenheim it was free but fine, I guess.
- 4ish ticket checks to the grandstand - 2 times should be enough (one at the "Fanzone" and one at the grandstand)
- Only allowed to bring 0.5L Bottles without a cap becaus "you could throw it at the track or pollute the park", BUT at the food & drink stands you get Bottles WITH a cap.
- As mentioned in the video there were queues everywhere to purchase tokens, to get drinks and food (I didn't get anything there because I wanted to see the event I came for and not for queues!)
- Ridiculous paths: There are tarred paths but ok, they block them so the police etc. can pass easily. But the alternate route was a desaster - over a meadow or muddy path, passing trees where you have to duck so you can go through, 2 Meter wide stairs for both directions!, in the "infield" you had to go over a parking area which you only were able to access by passing Fangios statue (2 Meter left and right, but everybody wants to take pictures with it so it gets tight as hell) instead to use the road right beside it,........
- Instead of offering a little discount for beeing at the track with expensive tickets, the F1 shops were expensive as hell
- There're for sure things I forgot but I think that's the major part you needed to hear
In summary I just went there to watch the action and went back into the hotel because everything else didn't make fun at all. Really a shame for such a iconic track. I hoped for such an amazing weekend but it wasnt.
Thank you once again for giving us a voice!
I went to Monza this year. Out grandstand was right next to the entrance clockwise. But there wasnt a way to go clockwise, so we had to walk 40 minutes to walk from the entrance around the track to our seats. On friday I was very upset about that, but as the weekend continued, I was very glad it was like that, because it was quite a hidden spot, where the queues especially to the toilets (that were hidden behind a red cross stand) were very short. We didn't use the food/drink stands though, because with the token system, I did not feel like it was worth it. There was a free water stand, where 1! person was giving free water/refilling bottles. You can imagine the queues. Regarding food, we brought our own. The security checks at the entrance were extremely random, especially on sunday they didnt look inside any bags, i just didnt tell them i had a powerbank and it was fine. (No wonder, there were hundrets of meters of queues even in the morning when i arrived). The people before us however had to throw away the top part of their box with grapes?! For whatever reason?? In general the organistation was catastrophic. I could go on and on about the things that need great improvement.
Edit: Some things that I havent heard so much, thag I want to add:
I had to throw away my disinfectant, because it is flamable. Fine. At a sport like f1 i absolutely understand this. But in covid times, give us some opportunities to clean our hand, which leads to the next point.
There were no soaps at the toilets. The toilets closest to our grandstand had no soaps, they did have paper towels, but no rubbish bin to put them in after usage.
The track people had no idea, where anything was. At the first day, where we were searching for the best way to our seats, (Remember, I was scared we had to walk around literally the complete track) we asked multiple track people for the way - none could tell us, they had no clue. This of course isnt their faul, but just let them have a short introduction ahead of the race weekend, so that they can help with even such basic stuff.
I was at Monza this year. I paid for an actual seat, not a general admission, and even for my seat, I did not have any viewing screens or anything that would help me understand what is happening on track.
On race day my friends and I decided to just try our luck getting somewhere with a screen because otherwise, we wouldn't see anything..
The experience was still pretty good though because I managed to be very close to the podium after the race and see Max, Charles, and George very close.
Yeah, being in the states Ive pretty much resigned to probably never going in person. The tickets are insanely expensive when combined with I would still need to travel for it by plane, and Id assume the majority of fans would as well. And then, add on all of these horror stories about what the general admission ticket experience is like and it's ruined my ideal of what it would be like. Just not worth it sadly, would rather watch on the couch with 5-6 of my buddies and hang out for sure.
Have you considered Montreal? I went in 2016 and don't recall any negative experiences. Plus, if you consider the USD > CAD exchange rate, it's like everything is on sale!
Go to the Indy 500 instead - better racing and better environment
@@Podoboo_ST Ah, will look into it! I do live rather far from there sadly (California, US), Thanks!
I went to my first Grand Prix in Australia this year and it went as expected, long lines for some things but nothing unreasonable for an event like that I’d say 10 to 15 minute waits for food but you could easily get 2-3 minutes waits if you when at a good time. No bad behaviour and honestly I had a great time as everyone going to a Grand Prix should.
aus gp was pre nice i mean it was crowded but they handled the gp good and it only was 10 minutes the waitts usaully
The only time I went to a Grand Prix was Hockenheim 2014 (I was 11 years old and went there with my father), and it was absolutely amazing. We sat at the end of the pit strait, with the main fan zone directly behind us. We only went for the race itself, and it took us maybe half an hour to an hour to enter the circuit area, but from then on, there were only small queues or no queues at all. The only problem was parking, only some small roads to the area where we parked, and with everyone leaving at a similar time, the was some chaos. But absolutely worth it
Had a similar experience in Melbourne this year. Lines for food and drink were ridiculous. They did not have enough catering for the number of people that attended. 400k people over 4 days. I get that we were still dealing with impacts of COVID-19, but they should have anticipated that. It is always better to overcater than to undercater and event of that magnitude.
As for what can be improved. Perhaps online food and drink ordering. You order your food and drink from your position on track, get an alert to advise when your food/drink is almost ready to be collected, so you can head to where you need to go to collect it without sacrificing track viewing time.
I have actually been to Monza this year and I can day most of what Matt says it perfectly accurate. However:
Access to the circuit was quite easy for us (was there with my gf). It never took us more than 5-10 mins to enter and then another maybe 15 minute walk since we had to go through a tunnel under the circuit, we had seats on the inside of the track.
The thing is, we used a side entrance from Biassono.
Monza sits perpendicularly on the map over Milan, so the closest point to Milan is Parabolica. I am pretty sure 80-90% of the fans tried to enter through there and that’s why it took them a thousand years.
I’m sorry but if your seat is near Lesmo and you enter through Parabolica, that’s on you. Granted, signage could be better to indicate this. They did try to direct people to their respective entrances, but if you’re already at one gate and your seat is at the opposite end of the circuit you’re gonna have a bad time regardless. They need to start indicating WAY earlier before you get to the track
Furthermore, traffic was ridiculous, but also in a single direction, Milan. Fortunately, our hotel was not in Milan (also because the cheapest hotel in Milan during those 3 days was 500 euro/night), it was in the opposite direction, towards lake Como, near Bellagio.
If you ever come to the race, I strongly recommend that you NOT stay in Milan for the reasons mentioned above. To get an idea: one of the three days we were there, we didn’t go back to our Hotel, we went to Milan.... it took us over 3 hours. And I’m sure it can be even worse, since we exited through Biassono. Buses came about every 30 minutes and it was impossible to get in one. Not that it made a difference because the traffic was so bad, we were walking faster than the bus was advancing.
At one point we actually found a shuttle bus from the circuit to the train station. By chance, although to their credit there were some people explaining in the bus station that the bus was a shuttle was going to the station.
The train station is 6 km away from the circuit so it’s at least a 1.5hour walk. Bus took about the same. IF you managed to get in one.
And then there was the train... again, to their credit, they tried adding extra train for the race. But they had huge delays and were so crowded they made indian trains seem empty.
On the other hand, the other day when we came by car and left by car towards bellagio, we lost almost zero time. On the day of the race, there was maybe 15 minutes of delay.
Inside, the atmosphere was indeed nice and I really didn’t see people acting like a-holes making MV fans take their shirt off and such. That, I think was an isolated incident. Also, there were quite a few stewards, but we did have grandstand tickets. May have been another story for general access.
Speaking of general access, there were a few spots on the back straight where you could watch, but other than that I genuinely have no idea how you’d be able to see jack shit, but the circuit is huge so maybe there were a few other spots. There was also quite a degree of freedom in terms of roaming around.
The token system was even worse than Matt said. You’d either wait in line an hour (some even waited two hours) or go out of the circuit to have a drink/bite to eat. Fortunately for us, like I said above, the walk wasn’t too long. Inside, a burger cost 10.5-12 Euro, a beer cost 7.5 euro (5 tokens) and water cost 1.5 euro. There were vending machines that gave out free water if you had a glass or a bottle, but the queues were over 100m long. I genuinely don’t think people had enough time to get a drink between FP1 and FP2 or between FP3 and quali.
This shit token system is so that you buy a ton of tokens just so you avoid the line and then throw them away because you didn’t get to spend them.
On sunday we had to buy like 8 bottles of water (2 people) because we had too many tokens left and also because I would never sit in such a line again in my life.
Weirdly though, they took our drinks on Friday but then didn’t give a damn on Saturday and Sunday. Could have probably brought the entire fridge with us.
Even with parking, we parked in Biassono, about 10 min away from the track. I’m sure if you’re coming from Milan you would driver around for 2hrs and still find nowhere to park.
Overall, the organization could have been better, but it could have been much worse. Maybe I just have low standards in terms of organization coming from eastern Europe 😅.
But tbh, if you go to an event with about 150.000, you should also take some time to document yourself on how to get around
Respect