Grand Prix Travel Guide

G-Money

I was thinking it would be a good idea to create some sort of F1 travel guide on this forum. Basically a place where we can post our tips, experiences, do's and dont's of F1 races we've travelled to.

Mod's, if possible, I think making it a sticky might be the way to go.

I'll start the ball rolling.

I've been to two F1 races in my life. Melbourne 03 and Italy 09. I'll give my update on Italy first as it's the most recent and the freshest in my mind.

Italian Grand Prix - 11th-13th September 2009

This was my 2nd ever Formula 1 race and it was my first time travelling to Italy. We flew from Dublin to Milan with Aer Lingus, it's a non-stop flight and takes about 2 hours. One thing to be careful of is that there are two airports in Milan - Malpensa and Linate, and Aer Lingus fly to both. We flew to Linate which is basically a 'city' airport. It's quite close to the city centre so it doesn't take too long to get into town. Malpensa is quite far away (on a map anyway) so I'd only recommend flying there if you have a particular desire to stay there or something.

There's no rail link to the city from the airport so you're basically left with taking an airport bus, or a taxi if you want to go via public transport. I've never driven in Italy and based on my experiences in Milan, I'd never drive there. They are insane. We were told to be wary of certain taxi's at the airport as well. Basically, the legit taxi's are all white and there's ton's of them around. You'll see a few other guys hanging around offering taxi trips but we were told to avoid them. I'm not sure why, perhaps they just rip you off. Anyway there were so many white taxi's at the airport, we got one within about 30 seconds.

We stayed at the Hotel Aurora on Corso Buenos Aires. Finding accomodation for Milan was a bit of a nightmare. We booked in good time but I simply had no idea where to go and where to stay. After scanning TripAdvisor for what seemed like an eternity, we stayed at the Hotel Aurora. When we went to book it, for some reason Expedia wouldn't let us book 2 rooms, only 1. So my friend booked via Expedia and I went with Booking.com and was offered a room for 30 euro less. The Hotel was grand, but it was very small and doesn't serve any kind of breakfast or meals. There's no restaurant or anything. It's basically just somewhere you sleep and shower. If you need/want anything more than that, you need to go elsewhere.

Corso Buenos Aires is one of the main shopping districts in Milan so there were ton's of people around. It was also only a 15-20 minute walk to Milan Central Station as well. This was good as you need to take a train from there to get to the circuit. We were told that around Central Station was a bit dodgy at night and possibly during the day. To be honest, we had no problems when we were there.

We had a 3 day ticket to Monza, our seats were grandstand seats at the first corner. The stand was Tribuna Esterna Prima Variante A. Basically if you were walking down the start/finish straight and came to the first corner, we were on the grandstand on the left. There's two types of ticket for that grandstand, we went for the more expensive option and ended up 2nd row from the back. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not. Perhaps the view is better the higher up you are. But at the same time, you are further from the track. The view was still very good though. There was a big screen straight across from us so we could follow what was going on.

Getting to and from the circuit is easy enough, but you can end up doing a lot of walking. On the Friday and Saturday at least, you take a train to the Monza station (you have to pay for the train) then there is a free shuttle to the circuit. Just so you know, you still have about a 30 min walk to the circuit from where the shuttle bus drops you. On the Sunday, there is a free train from Milan all the way to the circuit and it drops you at the Lesmo entrance to the circuit. This is handy but we got a bit lost trying to get to our seats. I simply thought we could go in, walk along the outside of the track all the way down to the first corner. In the end we went under the track into the middle of the circuit, then walked all the way down to the start/finish line, under the circuit again, then back down the other side. It took 1hr and 30 mins to just do that!

On the Friday and Saturday you can take the paid train and free shuttle bus. On the way back there will be quite a long queue for train tickets at Monza station. There was one automated machine (which convieniently had an English option) or the ticket desk. However there was a small newsagent type shop that sold train tickets as well. So rather than queue for 20 mins to use the machine or go to the ticket desk, we went to the newagent and got a ticket within like 20 seconds.

I think in hindsight, I might possibly take the shuttle bus to the circuit as from where our seats were, it was a much shorter and more direct route. Unless there's a better way to get from the Lesmo stop. After the race they open the gates so you can walk on the track so getting back to the station was much much quicker.

It pays to allow yourself plenty of extra time to get to the circuit. We left our hotel about 9.30am on the Sunday morning to get there. We stopped for a bite to eat on the way (got to love McDonalds ). I think we were into the train station about 10.20am and there was a train due at 10.30 but we had to queue up and it left. That was no big deal as the queue wasn't very long at that stage and we were close enough to the front. They run a train every 30 minutes to the circuit on the Sunday between certain hours. We got the 11am train and it was just as well we were early as I hadn't expected a 1hr 30 min walk. We got to our seats about 1.10pm and the race started at 2pm so it worked out well (Milan is 1 hour ahead of Dublin).

Coming back we didn't have to wait too long for a train and it wasn't too packed until it stopped at the Monza station and took more people on. It was sweltering and it waited for ages before it left. No idea why.

We got back anyway in good time, had a bite to eat and went out for the night. Got up the next morning, very hungover and went to the airport to fly home. We again took a taxi. There was a taxi rank just outside the hotel where we stayed so we didn't have to wait longer than a few mins. There was also a supermarket across the road and some sort of 24 hour (it never seemed to be closed) shop that sold ice cream and some other stuff. It was handy as we'd no idea if we could drink the tap water in Milan or in the hotel bathroom (I assume not).

We also seen Paris Hilton at the gate beside ours, when we were at the airport going home. We also seen what looked like quite a few of the Renault team boarding the same BA flight to Heathrow.

I'd like to go back to Monza again. I think I'd buy grandstand seats again, even though they are very expensive. I suspect I'd either buy first corner seats again (same stand as last year, or the other side of the track) or I'd buy grandstand on the start and finish straight. I also think I might like to arrive a day or two earlier. There are some things like autograph sessions and pit lane walks on the Thursday/Friday that we missed. By the time we got off the plane, got my bag, got to the hotel and checked in etc, we'd lost quite a bit of time. We also left it kind of late to go to the circuit on the Friday and we only caught the last 10 mins or so of free practise.

I'd also maybe consider staying in the Monza town itself next time. Just to make getting to and from the circuit a bit easier. Although I'm not sure it would be a short walk either.

One thing to be careful of. On the walk back to the shuttle bus, there were various groups of people along the pathway playing different games. For example they'd have a ball and cups and mix them around and try to get you to guess which cup the ball was under. It cost 50 euro to join in and guess. As we were walking past we watched it and it was obvious to me and my mate which cup the ball was under, but the woman who was standing there, picked a different cup. We suspect the 'players' actually all knew each other and it was made to look easy to guess correctly to lure new people in. It looked suspicious anyway and at 50 euro a pop, not cheap. So when your man offered to let us join in, we politely declined. They weren't aggressive or threatening or anything like that. But it definitely seemed like something to avoid!

Anyway, this turned out a bit longer than I intended. Hopefully it's of help and sure maybe others can post their experiences and tips from races they've been to.

G-Money

This is a bit delayed sorry, I'd been meaning to write up my Melbourne trip but forgot.

Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne - 2003

This was the very first Grand Prix that I have ever attended and until Monza last year, had been the only one. The race was held in the usual venue of Albert Park and I was travelling in Australia for a year at this time and was spending most of my time in Sydney, but I booked a week down in Melbourne specifically for the F1 race.

Melbourne is a nice city but it's so long ago that I can barely remember much of what it's like. I flew from Sydney to Melbourne with Virgin Blue. They're kind of like the Ryanair of Australia, but a bit better I think. In those days I always stayed in hostels and I was booked into a place in St Kilda called the Coffee Palace Backpackers. However when I went to check-in there was some issue, I can't quite remember now. They wanted to charge me more than what they quoted me when I originally booked it. I was a bit miffed at this so I went up the same road (Grey Street) and found another hostel called the Oslo Hotel. Don't be confused by the name, it was a hostel, not a hotel It was grand enough and I was sharing a room with a few others. The hotel was clean and dry, if unspectacular. I heard afterwards that Grey Street was a frequent place for hookers to hang out. I don't think I seen any when I was there anyway.

St Kilda is right beside Albert Park so I was literally walking distance to the entrance gates to the circuit. It was very handy but as usual, Albert Park turned out to be a lot bigger than I had imagined. I bought a 3 day general admission ticket for this race which came to about $170 Australian dollars if I remember correctly. I bought the tickets over there from their local version of ticketmaster or whatever the site was that sold the tickets.

I went there on one of the days, I can't remember which and there was no F1 action scheduled I don't think. Or at least I had missed it, I can't remember which. However they did put on some sort of comparison show between an F1 car and some other cars. That was my first time seeing and hearing an F1 car and my only reaction was "WOW".

I remember thinking the TV made them look slow and it did, I couldn't believe how fast they accelerate.

On one of the other days I went walking around the circuit but forgot to bring sun cream and got a right bit of sunburn. It wasn't too bad, but I could have done without it. Us Irish, we don't tan do we?

A mate had recommended sitting at turn 9 as the cars have to slow down there quite a bit and there's a big screen across from it. I think I stayed there for the qualifying but for the race I was with a few other people and we were on the grass between turns 2 and 3. I think there was a big screen near us but I can't quite remember. I do remember it was raining and wearing ear plugs and thinking to myself that there was hardly any point wearing them as the cars were so loud. Coulthard won the race and all in all, it was a memorable experience.

We spent a few nights in St Kilda, in the local bars and stuff. The Elephant and Wheelbarrow is a popular backpackers bar and hosts a Neighbours night every Monday night. At least they did when I was there. Basically you pay $30 Aus dollars in and they have some stars from the show and you can get pictures with them etc. I have 2 pictures with Harold Bishop You normally have to buy tickets ahead of time and it was sold out but someone we were with managed to get the guy at the door to let us pay in there and then which was cool.

Earlier that day we wanted to go on the neighbours bus tour but it was sold out also. Basically that tour would take you to the street where they filmed the show and some other location I think. We just wanted to go to the street and it's a public area where normal people live so we got directions and took a train and bus to get there. After being there a while, the tour actually showed up and the guy who ran it was really cool and let us use their Ramsay Street sign in our pictures and everything.

So all in all, a cool location. I think in hindsight, I prefer Monza, even though there was a ton of walking involved. I'm going to Spa this year and it will be my first time there so that should be good.

I'm hoping to go to Monza again this year and I think I might go for grandstand tickets on the start/finish straight this time. I'm also thinking of flying over on the Wednesday, relaxing in Milan and getting out to the circuit on the Thursday for the pitlane tour and to hopefully get a picture on the old banking. That is one thing I really wanted to get this year but didn't.

So that's it. The story of the only two F1 races I've been to so far.