Best GP to watch live for first timer

[Vaud]

willy wombat said:

Surprised no one has mentioned Australia. Great support race package, brilliant atmosphere and the Australian fans are magic. The one I would avoid is Malaysia - real lack of atmosphere, it normally rains and you get wet coz the grandstand roofs leak. I would also agree that Singapore, Monza and Monaco all epic.

Last race in Malaysia this weekend.

Aus is supposed to be great, but it's a bloody long way to go! Great if combined with a holiday!

[KobayashiMaru86]

My first GP was Suzuka in 2015, so almost 2 years to the day. First corner so great view of the action, great atmosphere, Japanese people really respectful but it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be. But then to get to it from Tokyo it's a bullet train to Nagoya and then a hour bus to the track. Once there though it's got everything you'd need and food is cheap too which was a surprise.

[Oz83]

Monaco.

But make sure you pick a grand stand with a big screen in front of it.

[daveake]

cuprabob said:

So would I have been

I was there . All the cars came round for the parade lap then all but 6 peeled off into the pits. Only reason I knew wtf was going on was that I was on the phone to my wife back home.

That was one angry crowd.

I did get the ticket price back as a cheque from Michelin. Never cashed it.

[PDP76]

I'd go with Abu Dhabi, the whole experience is great, and not just the track entertainment.
I opted to stay in the Jumeirah Etihad Towers. Amazing hotel to be fair. Top quality.
Used taxis a lot, cheap.
Didn't bother with the practice sessions on Friday ( been there done that) explored the expanse that is yas mall and Ferrari world.
Had the marina grandstand and it was pretty good for car time viewing.
I'd go again, but it's not cheap lol, except the taxis.












But then the atmosphere at Silverstone this year was amazing. Don't discount the Home GP.
Sat in the upper tier of Woodcote B. Again it has pretty good race/car viewing time.

• what's with the images flipping ? Noticing it a lot lately.

[Norfolkit]

Vaud said:

Is budget a factor?

Bang for buck, Monza or Spa.

Much as I love Monza and Spa, "bang for buck" it has to be Hungary, you won't get a grandstand ticket for £70 in Monza or Spa.

Having said that, OP won't go far wrong with any one of them.

[schmalex]

PDP76 said:

I'd go with Abu Dhabi, the whole experience is great, and not just the track entertainment.
I opted to stay in the Jumeirah Etihad Towers. Amazing hotel to be fair. Top quality.
Used taxis a lot, cheap.
Didn't bother with the practice sessions on Friday ( been there done that) explored the expanse that is yas mall and Ferrari world.
Had the marina grandstand and it was pretty good for car time viewing.
I'd go again, but it's not cheap lol, except the taxis.












But then the atmosphere at Silverstone this year was amazing. Don't discount the Home GP.
Sat in the upper tier of Woodcote B. Again it has pretty good race/car viewing time.

• what's with the images flipping ? Noticing it a lot lately.

Agreed. I went to the inaugural Abu Dhabi GP and it knocked Silvestone into a cocked hat for live viewing.

There was no risk of hypothermia and you were very close to the cars.

Personally, I'm not a fan of live GP. Unless you go full geek mode and get the radios and race trackers or watch the big screens (in which case, you may as well stay at home and watch it on TV!), after the first half dozen laps, and particularly into the pit stops, you really lose track of who's where and it really becomes a case of:

Silver one..... blue one....... red one........ silver one etc, etc.

[PDP76]

Yep good point with the tv etc.
I always make sure the stand I'm in has a big screen too. So much easier to keep track of what's going on.
Practice sessions are literally impossible to follow. I don't bother attending Fridays now if it's a weekend affair.

[Vaud]

Norfolkit said:

Much as I love Monza and Spa, "bang for buck" it has to be Hungary, you won't get a grandstand ticket for £70 in Monza or Spa.

Having said that, OP won't go far wrong with any one of them.

To my shame, i didn’t know Hungary was that cheap... in which case add it to the list, it’s a great country, lovely people, food, etc. Budapest is well worth 2/3 days to explore.

[craigjm]

Wow Hungary sounds good

[Vaud]

craigjm said:

Wow Hungary sounds good

You can get a 3 day grandstand (bronze) for £70...

Seriously, Buda and Pest are fantastic to stay in, great architecture, food, drink, and very hospitable locals. Some of the big name hotels are relics from the Cold War in terms of design, but that is also part of the charm.

[craigjm]

Vaud said:

craigjm said:

Wow Hungary sounds good

You can get a 3 day grandstand (bronze) for £70...

Seriously, Buda and Pest are fantastic to stay in, great architecture, food, drink, and very hospitable locals. Some of the big name hotels are relics from the Cold War in terms of design, but that is also part of the charm.

Yeah I've just looked that up. I've been to the city before but not that race. That might be a winner for my friends first timer next year

[PDP76]

Monza was good, very good. Sat at velocita a or something. Stands that overlook the first turns from the start.
Went there of the last season of V8. The stand shook when the cars came. Crazy, amazing. So loud.
My only fault I had with monza then was the stupid system to get drinks and food.
You had to que to change money into drink or food tokens. Then you had to que to get food with a token, then que again to get a drink. Pretty fking ridiculous.
But to be fair, now when I go out and my friends ask if I've got plenty of beer tokens. I always say just the one !
Because I literally do have a beer token left over from that ridiculous system at monza lol

[PDP76]

Anyway Abu Dhabi tickets are cool as fk. Scan cards.
Monza with one unused Friday ticket, plus offending beer token.



Vs hi tec Abu Dhabi entry



Images flipped again, the uploader is broken admin

[PDP76]

I'll add just this one thing ( bit drunk last post on it lol )
If you stop at eithad towers have a meal on the top floor of the towers, it's an exclusive restaurant and they will bump Pre booked tables out that are non hotel residents for hotel residents. It's smart dress no jeans, shoes, shirts with collars etc.
Man it's amazing. Top floor full glass sides top to bottom, great view at night. But seriously it's proper wallet raping.
Dinner for two
Two pre dinner glasses of champagne
Two fish starters
Two Kobe beef steaks with sides and sauce
Two desserts
Two after dinner drinks


Bill ........ Thick end of £500. I kid you not 😂😂
I nearly died man, put it on the room. Elevator to beach bar level and put the thick end of £100 over the bar for a few after dinner drinks 👍🏻😂

Very expensive, but ... worth every penny 👍🏻

[Norfolkit]

craigjm said:

Vaud said:

craigjm said:

Wow Hungary sounds good

You can get a 3 day grandstand (bronze) for £70...

Seriously, Buda and Pest are fantastic to stay in, great architecture, food, drink, and very hospitable locals. Some of the big name hotels are relics from the Cold War in terms of design, but that is also part of the charm.

Yeah I've just looked that up. I've been to the city before but not that race. That might be a winner for my friends first timer next year

We went in 2015 and that was probably the best race I've ever seen live, so don't believe anyone who says it only has boring races. The bronze grandstand is on the far side of the track from the pits (overlooks the chicane) and to be honest, at that price we bought them (£66 that year) thinking that if the view wasn't very good we'd just treat them as GA tickets and find somewhere better to watch from (the Hungaroring has a lot of good GA viewing). As it turned out the view was great and we saw incidents in every race, right in front of us, including Lewis going straight though the gravel trap on the first lap, accidents and contact galore in the support races all at the same spot, it is an overtaking spot if you get it just right, most drivers didn't.
As I said earlier, if you do pick Hungary just make sure you book your flights early, they hike the price outrageously nearer to the race. We were in Bronze 1 so could see the big screen but not that well, Bronze 2 had a better view of the screen but was further away from the chicane, so they didn't get as good a view of that as we did.

Edit to add. The food at the Hungaroring is really good and really cheap, as is the beer.

Edited by Norfolkit on Monday 25th September 19:40