F1 Help: Which Races are the "Easiest" to attend?

I'm in the US and have attended past USGP's, and when that race was cancelled I started going to Montreal. Now that race has been cancelled. In an effort to find another race to attend, I'd like some input as to which races are the easiest to attend from a logisitics perspective. The CGP was easy as you fly in to Montreal, a major international airport, and the hotels and the track are in a major city. Transportation was easy. Indy was very similar, but no subway. As I look at France and Great Britian, I don't see a lot of 'local' infrastructure. Neither are close to major cities or airports, and it looks like it's a pretty big challenge to actually get to the track. I'm guessing hotels are a challenge as well.

For those of you that have attended other races, do you have thoughts about the 'easiest' to attend? Maybe Valencia? I'd prefer not to have to rent a car, but also don't want to be stuck in traffic jams in a cab.

I'm looking for advice for the 2009 season.

 

I swore many years back that I would never go to Silverstone again unless it was by helicopter.

I guess the evil pygmy convinced the Queen to pay for some new roads around the circuit, but I'm not sure it's really helped much. [Comments anyone?]

I've been to Magny Cours (not for the GP) and it really is midway between nowhere and nothing.....

I have been thinking about doing one in a rented RV however - Get in on Tues/Weds and stay thru' Monday - No hotel and traffic hassles, and watch 'em build the "city" in the paddock etc - Monza or Spa maybe?

Cheers,
Ian

 

a friend of mine did one of the GP tour package things to brazil, he said everything was taken care of, they had busses to take you to the track. as I understand they do that for every race, I have never tried it, just found my own way to the city and then to the track, but you might look into that

 

if they keep canceling the races you go to...maybe you should stay home

 

Very true - He does seem to be a (the?) precursor to a cancellation. I was once offered the choice of being paid in USD or UK Pounds. My choice (the "mighty greenback") was immediately and 100% responsible for the immediate collapse of the USD.....

 

IMO, the 'easiest' way is one of those tour packages.

The hotel I was at in Monza was hosting one. In the morning, there were maybe 100-150 people mulling around to get on the bus. The bus picks them all up in the morning, drives you to the track (and likely stops at multiple entrances depending on what's closest to your seats) and picks you up again later. They do everything.... you just walk to the bus from your hotel, then you walk to your seat at the track, then walk back to the bus when it's over, then walk back to your hotel room when you get off the bus. Simple. Those group tours are done for every race, so it takes that out of the equation. You don't deal with directions, rental cars, where to park, driving congestions, staying sober, etc.

For me, if I was to attend a race in the future, it would be Spa. It's a great track, lots of history and just a good place to be at. Or if I really felt I could handle the trip, then perhaps Malaysia or Japan. And I would strongly consider doing it as part of a packaged tour.

 

I am not the best person to comment as i have only been to the GP at Silverstone once, which was this year. To be honest i was expecting it to be much worse, and i was very surprised at how quickly we got in. I was expecting an hour or two of traffic approaching the circuit.

I parked in the car park of one of the industrial units right near the main gate and was sitting at the Abbey chicane. I was getting in the car and clearing off when the national anthem started Didnt fancy hanging around because of the weather.

 

Consider Brazil for the least time change difference. Or buy yourself a yacht and park it in Monaco. (and invite me.)

 

Yes, I agree Mike, done the same thing , it takes all the headache's out of it.

Spa is the one I want to go to, before it get's axed!!

Let me know when your going Mike...

 

Perfect! Cheaper than seats!

 

Myself and a friend did Japan four years ago (almost to the day) when it was at Suzuka. We'd made a vacation out of it, Tokyo, Mt Fuji and Kyoto. For the race we'd stayed in Kyoto as we had full rail passes. We just jumped on the bullet train; I think it was 30 min later we were in Nagoya. Hopped another train and in about 15 min we were just a few miles from the circuit. Then a taxi to the circuit. Real no brainer. The problem was finding a taxi or bus to take us to the train station afterwards! That was an adventure.

There were two guys that sat next to us from New York that flew in just for the race. They took the bullet train in from Tokyo on Sunday (it was the year the typhoon hit so qualifying was that mooring) watched the race and then about with five or ten laps to go they jetted to catch the train and get back to NY for work the next day. Tough life!

Now that it's moved away from Suzuka I've no idea how easy it is. But, I'd say Japan certainly should be on your list. I'd posted some pics from the race on a thread somewhere around here...

 

Brazil would be great, has anyone been that can provide insight into the 'ease' of attending? The only problem with it would be that I'd like to take my son, and if I did a June/July/August race he wouldn't have to get out of school.

 

for me the easiest GP to attend without doubt is the Singapore GP ..... but honestly in terms of flying in, staying at a hotel next to the track and the convenience of not having to commute to/from airport/city/track etc, it's hard to beat Singapore. Admittedly in your case you've got a +20hour flight to get here though.

 

Steve,

I would consider doing Spa next year... I would be especially interested in the championship stays as close at it was this year! If you are thinking of going, I would very much like to meet up with you and have a few drinks. I've never been to Spa before... I'd really love to have a location where I can get some good pictures (ideally something without a fence obscuring the view). If you decide to do Spa, let me know in advance and maybe we could get seats together - unless you have some special box seats that regular peons like me aren't welcomed in .

We can cheer for *cough* Massa *cough* together

 

Agreed! I was pleasantly surprised on how easy it was to get in and out of the track on all 3 days, including the dreaded "after race" on Sunday when everybody tended to leave at the same time. The subway system was superb, efficient, and easy to understand, it doesn't really matter where in Singapore you stayed. Depending on which grandstand you are at, and/or the gate you are supposed to enter into, they have shuttles from various subway stations to bring you to the right place. For a first ever event at this venue, the Singaporeans really did a stellar job.

If you can handle the long flight out (16-18 hours, depending on whether you take a straight flight out or a stop at Narita), the Singapore GP is definitely highly recommended.

Cheers

 

hi
i have been to spa and monza,and 2 of the german gps
any of these are great to attend,the access to these grand prix is excellent
for viewing at spa you cant beat en rouge,monza if you can get stand tickets for the start/finish line at is brilliant.
nurburgring i think its stand 13 on last corner before the start/finish line and hockinheimring if you can get tickets for
the mercedes stand excellent viewing from here, hope this helps
joe

 

Out of all the posts in response so far few if any pose a good alternative to Montreal.

Silverstone - too far from civilization
Monza - go with 150 other people and be locked into the bus schedule
Singapore - fly for 20 hrs tp watch a boring race
Japan - walk miles to the track or fight for a cab
Brazil - not sure what the downside of this trip would be but you will fly for 8 - 10hrs
etc.

From a fan perspective, Montreal was the best GP on the schedule:
easy trip from hotel to track
no "tour buses"
reasonably easy flight from most cities in N. America
great accomodations close by
real food
etc.

It is clear Bernie doesn't care about the fans. Yes I am "sour grapes" over the loss of Montreal. If I had the money there would be only one GP I would be heading for - the Belgian GP at Spa. This too will come off the calendar soon so you should see one of the truly "old-world" tracks before they take that away too. I hope you find a reasonable alternative.

 

Here my $ 0.02 from my own experience:

Brazil:
With Canada and USGP gone, Interlagos is the only one left "in our timezone". However flyingwise it takes about as long to go there from the States as going to Europe. You don't have to endure the timechange and the race is basically in the city of Sao Paulo, so that makes it relatively easy. Also Sao Paulo is ok as a town, however the track is infra is weak and its location in the slums is not very charming.
-> I went there once and that was enough.

Britain:
Silverstone is a fantastic track in the middle of nowhere with limited infrastructure. Hard to get to and hard to endure.
-> Once was more than enough.

Monza:
Great atmosphere, but boring track from an audience perspective. Relatively easy to get to with Milan nearby. Not the hottest of places though.
-> Once was good, but if you are a dedicated Ferrarifan, this might be your ticket.

France:
In the middle of nowhere, hard to get to. Only for the die hard fan I guess. Will go there next year.
-> Go there soon if you must, as it might get axed.

Hungary:
Boring track on TV, but very entertaining in person as you can see lots of pieces of the ondulating track. Easy to get to and lots of infrastructure at the trackside. Budapest is a fantastic city. It looks like an odd choice and gets a bad rep, but is a great destination.
-> Would go there again anytime.

Monaco:
The best atmosphere, views and easy to get to. But also the most expensive tickets of the year. You pay what you get for. Fly to Paris, connect to Nice and pick a hotel in Nice. Go to Monaco by train. Easy, hasslefree.
-> Been there 2 times, would go again.

Hockenheim:
Great views for the visitors, but a bit in the middle of nowhere. You'd have to stay in Karlsruhe or Frankfurt perhaps. Not much going on outside of the motodrom.
-> Not bad, but there are better options.

Nuerburgring:
Great views, great infrastructure at the track, but also in the middle of nowhere. You'd have to stay in Cologne, which is beautiful, but quite a bit away.
-> One of my last choices on a long list

Barcelona:
Fantastic track, great views as the track ondulates. Good infrastructure around the track and easy to get to with public transportation. Barcelona is one of the best towns on Earth. Beautiful and entertaining on many levels.
-> My #1 recommendation

Valencia:
Haven't tried it yet, but has the potential to be even better for the fans than Barcelona.

 

My short answer is: Don't.

To be fair I went there in the mid nineties, so maybe things have improved, but the question is how much have they. I had my personal driver from the hotel (do NOT use public taxis) who delivered me to the entrance and picked me up again. The stadium was surrounded by armed troops to defend against the robbers and murderers from the slums. It was a scary sight.

I got there early and the entire "program" was somebody constantly talking in portuguese over the speakers. Nothing until the drivers' parade. Incredibly boring. The view was obstructed by the catch fences (sat right in turn 1). In short a nightmare.

 

You're completely wrong.

You don't have to do the tour thing at all for Monza. You can take the train right to the track (actually the train stops right at turn 11). You can take a shuttle bus. You can drive and park at the track. You can drive and park near the track and walk the rest. You can do a tour and take a bus that will drop you at the track.

You can do it however you like. Saying "locked into a bus schedule" isn't true... if you do a tour, those buses don't just make one trip to the track... they make multiple trips, so you can go for the whole day, or you can go for just the qualifying/race/practice, or you can do whatever suits you. I am simply saying that of all the options, the tour option is nice, because you can zone out and not have to deal with traffic. Your only responsibility is to get on the bus, then you sit back and relax and you get off right at the track. Then you do the opposite going home. At any of the races, there are going to be tens or hundreds of thousands of fans leaving all at the same time, so it's going to be a giant bottleneck. If you take a bus, you just walk to your bus (which is waiting for you), and even though you will inevitably get stuck in traffic, you don't really have to think about it. You just get on the bus and chat with your friends or take a nap or read or whatever - you don't need to think about it.

That goes whether you are attenting Monza, Spa, Singapore, Brazil, Canada or any of the GP's. Those tours are available for all the various GP's, not just Monza. I didn't do the tour... the first day I parked at the track and it was a pain - HUGE traffic. The rest of the 2 days we got smart and drove to the parking lots off-site that have shuttles taking you to the track. It was very easy... we waited maybe 20-30 minutes to get on the bus on Sunday after the race... then a 10 minute bus ride to the parking lot, about 30 minutes to get out of the lot, and about 30-40 minutes to drive home. We were back in the hotel within 2 hours of the checkered flag. The only difference would have been if we took a tour bus, we wouldn't have had to walk to the bus, wait to get out of the lot, or drive ourselves. We could have just got on the bus at the track and zoned out until the bus stopped out front of the hotel. Easy.

 

Not sure what tours you guys are talking about, but at any rate I never book a tour. Grand Prix Tours is one of the organizers and IMHO the biggest ripoff imaginable.

The GPs that are close to a city (see my list below) can be easily managed on your own: Book a flight and a hotel. Hotels are easy to book in big cities where the GP has little influence on the pricing. Montreal and Indy always took you to the cleaners, but cities like Budapest and Barcelona hardly notice that there is a GP because they got so much tourism going on anyway.

All you need to "organize" is a way to the track. Often there is public transportation (e.g. Barcelona) or organized taxis (Budapest, Brazil). Get the tickets online and you're set. Check out websites like FChat and learn in what hotels the teams hang out and there is your chance to meet some heroes in person.

 

Thats how I prefer to do it. I have a lot of travel perks available to me, so tours don't really make sense. I can fly and get hotels at a very low cost, so am more interested in the ease of attending the race. Montreal was ideal. I didn't realize how good it was until it was gone. Indy was easy too, but less so than Montreal.

Thanks for the insights, keep 'em coming! For what it's worth, Budapest is one of my wifes favorite cities. Might be a good alternative, though she doesn't really care for the race.

 

I don't know either. In Italy, there were tons of buses coming in with people that were on tours. I spoke to a few of them... one was a bunch of Germans and they told me the name of the tour co but I forgot, but it wasn't GP tours. Another was a group from Poland, another was people from all over who were just taking a chartered bus from a start point.

I think all the parts of doing a GP are pretty easy, the only thing that can be a PITA seems to be transport to the track. At Monza it was pretty good, although after doing it, I would never drive straight to the track like I did the first day. Driving to the near-track parking lot was good - the only thing that seemed nice about the tour bus was that you don't deal with transport from the moment you exit your hotel lobby until the moment you arrive at the track.

You haven't done Spa Andreas?

 

Melb GP is easy, besides the 14hr+ plane trip and loss of a day coming from the USA

Its a 15min free tram trip(which come past every 5mins) to the track from the heart of the city, tho you can find accommodation walking distance from the track if you want.
While you can't see the whole track there are afew corners where overtaking and accidents happens.

Another bonus is we speak English.

NExt years race will start @ 5pm so you can now get drunk the night before without the need of being up at 7am

 

No and the reason should be pretty obvious: It is in the absolute middle of friggen nowhere.

I have been to Spa when there was no race and even did a lap on the track (not possible anymore as it is closed now) and saw what an absolute magnificent racetrack it is and how unbelievably spectacular it must be to watch a GP there. However I also realized how totally impossible it would be to attend: Brussels is about the nearest major town to find a hotel bed (and even Brussels isn't that big) and then you drive hours to get towards the track on a 2 lane highway. As you approach Spa that is down to a two lane road, which they do use both lanes of (hope you enjoy being at the track, no way to leave for a quick errand). So if you thought Silverstone was a traffic jam and a nightmare, you'd probably welcome it over Spa. Spa itself is a lovely village of about 5 houses. Imagine how that looks with 100,000 race fans.

In Silverstone you can at least rent a helicopter and avoid the pain by throwing some money at them. I have no idea what you could do to avoid the pain in Spa. I think Spa can only be done when you're twenty and willing to spend the night in your VW beetle or your tent in the forest.

To put it into perspective: A friend of mine was invited by the Scuderia to attend the race with them from the pits. Life couldn't be better right? However they didn't include a hotel bed with that and once I explained to him what that meant in real life, he thankfully declined the offer.