Driving to Milan for the GP.

[BravoMark]

On a tight budget myself and the fiance plan to drive to Monza for the GP this year, I thought about flying through France in 1 day to get to the mountains/monaco area. I would REALLY appreciate any advice from any of the other forumers on here who have done or are planning to do this also. Id be leaving from Glasgow.

[RacingTeatray]

You'd be pushing it to get from Glasgow to Milan in a day. I've done London to Milan (and vice-versa) any number of times and that takes the best part of a day - around 8-9 hours solid driving from Calais. You can go via Geneva and the Mont Blanc tunnel but I rather think it's quicker via Basle and the San Gotthard.

Maybe a plan would be to drive from Glasgow to, say, Reims. Stay overnight in a Formula One (appropriately!) for a couple of euros, and then drive on from there. Reims to Milan takes about 7 hours at most.

EDIT: by the way, it takes much longer to get to Monaco than it does to get to Milan - the route is longer as it is far less direct and it takes around 3 hours longer - a good 12 hours from Calais.

Edited by RacingTeatray on Monday 30th March 01:04

[snapper8v]

I'd second the previous reply. It took me just under 17 hours to get from Turin to Preston (1,000 miles door to door) and that was including 4 refuelling stops and the ferry. Enjoy the journey by getting as close to the Italian border as is possible. We've been via Mont Blanc twice now due to the destination being Turin, but again I'd reccomend the ST Gothard route as the scenery is stunning. Also go via the Channel Tunnel as that will save you at least 1 1/2 hours, plus if you use Tesco club card points you can get a discounted ticket.

LAWRENCE

[Gillet]

I certainly don't want to put you off in any way, but the Monza GP circuit is awful as a spectator. If you have expensive seats you'll be ok, but if your going General Admission you won't see any racing. Its a great venue, and getting on the old banked circuit is worth the experience in itself, but what happens on race day is all the Italians build "camps" next to the fences, they use tarpaulin to cover their area, about 10 foot high, so no-one else can see the track nor the TV screens. We found 1 spot on the whole circuit where we could see about 20ft of the circuit, we were rather gutted.

Pay for seated tickets, it'll be worth it.

[Stu_00]

Sorry I disagree, Monza is fantastic, ok its not great viewing in some places, but you can see a lot of track compared to most places, and if your on a budget I would not bother with a stand, we had a lot of fun being in the free Tifosi stands just before the last corner, and you can find some great places.

Plus you can get good espresso / some Italian beer while watching!

Great/Fantastic place!

Gillet said:

I certainly don't want to put you off in any way, but the Monza GP circuit is awful as a spectator. If you have expensive seats you'll be ok, but if your going General Admission you won't see any racing. Its a great venue, and getting on the old banked circuit is worth the experience in itself, but what happens on race day is all the Italians build "camps" next to the fences, they use tarpaulin to cover their area, about 10 foot high, so no-one else can see the track nor the TV screens. We found 1 spot on the whole circuit where we could see about 20ft of the circuit, we were rather gutted.

Pay for seated tickets, it'll be worth it.

[BravoMark]

Thanks a lot for all the replies. Dont go arguing now! lol.
Im thinking of getting tickets for the stand at the parabolica but having a wander on saturday so i know for the sunday and for future visits. Being an avid Ferrari fan im going for a drive down to the factories after the race too.

[Longers]

I don't think from Glasgow would be possible in 1 day. When we went on Friday from Peterborough 7 or 8 years ago we had 2 cars with 2 people in each. We drove a tank of fuel each then had a splash & dash to fill up & change drivers. Every other stop we made sure to have a longer break.

Breakfast in France, lunch in Switzerland and bbq tea at the campsite at Monza! I think we left P'boro about 3am and arrived at the circuit 7pm (via chunnel).

We were "flat out" (!!) all day on the motorways until we hit the rush hour traffic closer to the circuit. Also did the return in 1 day.

If I were to do it again I'd definitely take an extra day to get down there and back to enjoy some of the mountain roads rather than taking the quickest route through the tunnels.

We had the very cheap general admission tickets and camping. The campsite was very....er....um....basic! And people complain about the Le Mans facilities?!! It was fine but, if you can, make sure you camp round the edge of the site so that there is a handy tree or bush you can use rather than a heavily used Italian portaloo that has been sitting in 25 degree sun for a couple of days......

Saturday was free access everywhere so we had a wander round for pratice then sat in the Parabolica stands for qualifying. For race day it was a case of getting up before dawn and finding a space for the day on top of the banking at the end of the final straight (before the parabolica) where there was a big screen we could see behind us.

As said above we could not see much of the track if not in a seat - it's flat and there are a lot of trees. However you could get close to the fence and track on some of the straights where there are no big run off areas (worth doing on the Saturday if you've a seat for Sunday) and could see the cars pass you at very high speed / volume!

At the end of the day standing on that banking for the race was not the best GP view I've ever had - but it was the best atmosphere I've ever experienced at any race track

You'll love it I'm sure (provided you take some earplugs for the night time to block out the 24hr euro techno bass that plays in campsites!!)

Hope above helps.
Longers