I’m going to Spa this summer. It’s going to be my first real life F1 event!
I went last year to Spa, but only for the friday.
Couple of quick tips in case it is your first time at Spa.
- Wear comfortable shoes, you’ll be walking a lot. Weill, you should at least. Check out the circuit apart from your seats.
- The height difference is bigger than you might have guessed from TV. Eau Rouge is insane to look at.
- Watch F2 and F3 whenever you can. They sound and look way better IRL. F3 is loud as fuck.
- Take food and water with you, buying on premise is expensive.
- Most impressive thing for me? The breaking. Go stand at Les Combes and be afraid they’re breaking too late because that shit doesn’t seem physically possible. Every time.
Have fun
thanks for the tips!
Nope. Not a financially viable thing to do atm.
Good luck at your first event. Hope it’s smooth and filled with appropriate amounts of available hydration opportunities.
Not this year, maybe next. I’ve been to a couple over the last 15 yearsz including Spa (and 6h of Spa a couple of months ago). Spa is fantastic and seeing Raidillon/Eau Rouge in real life will give you goosebumps. Like others said, it’s quite steep and you might have to walk a bit, so comfortable shoes are a must. You’re not walking a marathon, so you don’t have to overdo it, but get something you can walk in all day. Expect them to get dirty though!
The location is gorgeous but for infrastructure not ideal (once you leave the motorway it’s some narrow country roads to the track), so expect it to be really busy and try to be on track early. Don’t aim to be there just in time for a session.
Friday is the best day to walk around the track and figure out where everything is, so you waste no time on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning is alright as well if you can’t go there on Friday.
Stock up on food and drinks well before the F1 race begins. The stalls are going to have massive queues, so either bring lots of water or buy it in the morning on track. During the race you can get some refills, just don’t do it 30-60 minutes before the race starts.
Anyway, it’s fantastic. I’ve been to 5 F1 races and everytime I see an F1 car drive past for the first time it’s surreal. The support classes are great to watch as well and make F1 cars look even more impressive. The sound is good as well in real life. It’s still loud enough but not deafening.
Have fun at Spa! I will be going to the Zandvoort Friday, but I’m also looking to go to Hungary this year.
I’ll be in Zandvoort, my first event as well! I’m quite excited, though I hope the orange smoke won’t be too bad 😅
Only if Verstappen wins. And how big are the chances for that?
Unlikely 😂
But cool gp to visit. I was there the fist year in the arena grandstands.
Ditto. Spa and it’s my first. Been to LeMan few years ago.
4 ppl road trip through UK in a 1.4 lite Corsa. Camping at a nearby nice enough place.
Ditto. Spa and it’s my first.
First race ever for me though, really looking forward to it!
Enjoy it mate. It’ll be awesome.
Thanks mate! You too!
Watched a couple of hours of the LeMans 24h this year on tv. Would love to visit that at some point too.
It was really good and not massively expensive. I’d advise to go a few times since it’s such a big event you can’t really experience it just going once.
Where will you be sitting? Spa was my first and only F1 event.
We have bronze tickets, so I guess we can roam around a bit?
That’s gonna be fun. Make sure you see the cars shooting down kemmel straight at least once
If they were cheap and easy to get to I would check it out once, but they are not. I’m quite happy watching from my couch.
Enjoy! A buddy and I went last year and had a blast, thought it was extremely well-run. And you’ll be surprised at how the elevation changes really don’t translate on TV very well.
I’m also going to Spa! Also went last year but only for free practice and qualifying. Very excited to be in attendance for the race this year (hopefully the heat wave won’t be as bad then as it is right now).
I’m heading to Suzuka this year, my second time going to an F1 event. My first one was Spa a couple of years ago. I remember having a great time at Spa, but being quite annoyed at the on-site commentary alternating between 4 different languages.
Going to Canada this weekend! Also my first F1 event, not my first racing event though as I’ve been to Indycar and stage rally events. It’ll be fun to compare the experience with Indy specifically :)
Enjoy Montreal! I went a few years ago and it was a very fun weekend.
Merci!
After a disastrous trip to Hockenheim a few years back, it’ll be a while until I go to another GP.
As a special gift for my wife, I got us tickets for the whole weekend for 700€. What to do with the kids? We’ll work something out. We decided to take them with on Saturday, and have them visit friends on Sunday.
With three little kids, sharing the shuttle bus ride with the drunk fans was real fun. Walking kilometers in the heat till we got to our seats was fun. Sitting in the sun with the nagging kids - getting a bit aggro. We thought it wouldn’t get much worse after standing in line for ages with hungry kids to get something to bite. Even calling friends to arrange Sunday didn’t work out, because the phone network was overloaded. By then everyone (especially the kids) wanted to just get home as fast as possible. We decided to watch the race in the comfort of our living room. I tried selling our tickets, finally got the attention of some drunk guys that offered us 70€ for the tickets. Better than nothing. God, I felt just all around awful.
Didn’t improve the mood that the youngest kid had a seizure in the parking lot.
My guess is since there will never be GP in my state that I will never go to a GP
I’m happy for you guys. I would like to attend live event someday.
