2026 Motorsport trip: Indy 500, NASCAR or Monaco F1?
Discussion
Planning a long weekend away next year to hopefully tick a box off my bucket list.
Current options are:
Indy 500 - amazing spectacle but does it get boring after 3 hours?
NASCAR - favouring Kansas as it’s close to a couple of other things I would like to do.
Monaco Grand Prix - Much cheaper and easier to get to, potentially expensive for a grandstand seat, and is general admission even a thing? Could also do this any other year as it’s only a short flight to Nice.
Thoughts and experiences invited.
Current options are:
Indy 500 - amazing spectacle but does it get boring after 3 hours?
NASCAR - favouring Kansas as it’s close to a couple of other things I would like to do.
Monaco Grand Prix - Much cheaper and easier to get to, potentially expensive for a grandstand seat, and is general admission even a thing? Could also do this any other year as it’s only a short flight to Nice.
Thoughts and experiences invited.
It must be over 15 years since I last went to Monaco so this might be wildly out of date but general admission was certainly a thing back then although it basically meant clinging to a hillside. The regulars brought trowels with them so they could dig themselves in a little bit. The tickets you are looking for are called Secteur Rocher. I did the hillside one year and the next year it was a section called Z1 which was much nicer but less of a view but you can't get any more track adjacent unless you are a marshall.
Great thread, I’ll join the club of those who want to go to all three events.
Monaco is surprisingly cheap to actually buy a ticket, although of course everything else in the place is quite ridiculously expensive. The GA on the hill is something silly like €50, and a grandstand seat something like €200. As mentioned above Austin for the F1 is the choice of Stateside events, not only a high chance of a good race, but also loads to see and do in the city, many small music and comedy venues where big stars just turn up unannounced. Tickets for Joe Rogan’s comedy club are as difficult to get as tickets for the F1 grid walk!
Indy I’ve always thought needs to be done the proper old-fashioned way. Stay there for a fortnight and use it as a base for exploring the area, rent a big pickup truck or small RV and join the locals at the nightly campsite parties at the track. It’s by far the largest one-day ticketed attendance of any event in the world, nearly 400,000 there this year which is awesome to see in itself.
Probably Daytona or Charlotte for the NASCAR, suitably crazy and small-town American. Need to go and see them before they follow every other series in introducing turbos or hybrids, while you can still hear the big ol’ V8s in a relatively small space. This year at Daytona the pace car at the start was Trump in his limo - only in America…
Monaco is surprisingly cheap to actually buy a ticket, although of course everything else in the place is quite ridiculously expensive. The GA on the hill is something silly like €50, and a grandstand seat something like €200. As mentioned above Austin for the F1 is the choice of Stateside events, not only a high chance of a good race, but also loads to see and do in the city, many small music and comedy venues where big stars just turn up unannounced. Tickets for Joe Rogan’s comedy club are as difficult to get as tickets for the F1 grid walk!
Indy I’ve always thought needs to be done the proper old-fashioned way. Stay there for a fortnight and use it as a base for exploring the area, rent a big pickup truck or small RV and join the locals at the nightly campsite parties at the track. It’s by far the largest one-day ticketed attendance of any event in the world, nearly 400,000 there this year which is awesome to see in itself.
Probably Daytona or Charlotte for the NASCAR, suitably crazy and small-town American. Need to go and see them before they follow every other series in introducing turbos or hybrids, while you can still hear the big ol’ V8s in a relatively small space. This year at Daytona the pace car at the start was Trump in his limo - only in America…
Done Monaco a few times, I really don't see it as expensive as opposed to what lots of other people say. The ticket isn't cheap but other than that you simply stay slightly outside of the principality and then it's no more expensive than any other holiday in the south of France.
If you simply must stay in Monaco, then yes, it will be expensive! Admittedly that would bring an extra dimension to the experience, being there for the whole weekend-I must admit I'd love to do it that way but for what it would cost?
One of the big American races for me would be first choice even though I have no interest in either of the sports. I think I'd love to see a NASCAR race just for the spectacle and it being something completely difference-it's on the list for when the kids bugger off!
If you simply must stay in Monaco, then yes, it will be expensive! Admittedly that would bring an extra dimension to the experience, being there for the whole weekend-I must admit I'd love to do it that way but for what it would cost?
One of the big American races for me would be first choice even though I have no interest in either of the sports. I think I'd love to see a NASCAR race just for the spectacle and it being something completely difference-it's on the list for when the kids bugger off!
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff