From budget to blow-out: Two F1 fans try out hospitality
We’re Jen & Jake — two F1 fans from the UK who usually rough it at a campsite at Silverstone, but this time we pushed the boat out and got fancy tickets to the Australian GP. We recorded our thoughts each day, and here they are:
An Airport, London
Jake: So, we’ve been Formula One fans for a long time.
Jen: Well, when we got together I made it clear that if you wanted to spend time with me on an F1 weekend, it’d be while watching F1. And my plan worked, you’re now a fan.
Jake: Yep! To the point where we’ve been to… how many races?
Jen: Four, and all at Silverstone. And we sort-of do it on a budget because we’re…
Jake: Tight northerners?
Jen: I was going to say “not extravagant”, but same thing I guess. We get “silver tickets”, which means assigned, uncovered seats on the Sunday, and roving access on the Friday and Saturday. In terms of accommodation, we pitch a tent with some friends at a campsite next to a circuit.
Jake: But we’re cheating on those friends, and going to another grand prix with another group. I was lucky enough to get a bonus at work, and we thought we’d be a bit reckless for once, and spend it on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Australian GP.
Jen: Yeah, the tickets are pretty fancy too. We’re in the paddock club on the Friday, the pit straight with hospitality on the Saturday, and the first corner on the Sunday, again with hospitality.
Jake: We were talked into it by our friend Matt. He organised the group, and he’d done the hospitality thing before in Canada. But I don’t really know what to expect. “Hospitality” sounds like a mix between “hospital” and “fatality”, but it’s better than that right?
Jen: Yeah… you know in the middle of the race when they cut away and show some people in suits who clearly aren’t watching & have no interest in F1…
Jake: …drinking champagne and making important business deals…
Jen: Well, we’re going to be amongst them. Our tickets even come with a “dress code”.
Jake: I’m terrified about that. I’ve packed my suit jacket, which I usually only wear when people get married or die. I’m worried they won’t let me in. Like, they’ll be able to smell my humble upbringing or something.
Jen: Well, we’re all staying in an AirBnB this time, so at least you’ll be able to shower some of that off.
Jake: True. So it’s a huge change from what we’re used to. But at ten times the cost, is it going to be ten times the experience?
Jen: Let’s find out!
Thursday
Jake: We woke to an unexpected sound this morning.
Jen: You farted.
Jake: No, before that.
Jen: Oh, yeah, you said “unexpected”… We heard the roar of a V10 engine, which turned out to be the two-seater Minardi going around the track before the gates opened.
Jake: We’re used to hearing stuff at the track from the campsite at Silverstone, but this was from 5 miles away. I don’t buy into noise being the be-all and end-all of F1, but it was amazing hearing that, and it got us all in the mood for the first day at the track.
Jen: For me, it was seeing all the tickets for the first time. Matt, one of our group, had laid them all out on the kitchen table.
Jen: We hopped in a taxi with our tickets for the day, and went to the circuit. The first big difference we noticed compared to Silverstone was — wow, we’re in the middle of a city, in a park.
Jake: Yeah, in that way it felt a lot more like when we went to the Formula E in Battersea Park.
Jen: Also, today was a bonus compared to what we get at Silverstone. Usually on the Thursday we set up the tent and just check out the bar at the campsite.
Jake: Except last year, when we were lucky enough to win a pit lane walk.
Jen: True, that was great, but here we got a full day of cars on track as part of the regular ticket.
Jake: Yep, there was the Porsche Carrera Cup, the GT, Supercars, some historic cars, and they did that thing where they set off a road car, a sports car, and an F1 car off at intervals and they cross the line at roughly the same time.
Jen: The F1 car was the old Minardi two-seater, but it was still cool to see and hear it.
Jake: Our tickets were just basic track access, but on a Thursday that means you can get into most of the stands. The rest of the group & I walked around the track, watching the various support races, and taking a few photos.
Jake: Meanwhile, you stalked celebrities.
Jen: I prefer the term “autograph hunting”. But wow, Silverstone could learn a thing or two here. I got more autographs today than the last two Silverstones & Goodwood Festival of Speeds combined.
Jake: Yeah, at Silverstone we’ve noticed a downward trend in fan access over the years. Back in 2006 the teams would have their own stands around the track, which the drivers would appear & speak at, but you don’t really see that anymore.
Jen: Whereas in Melbourne they have an autograph stage where the drivers are scheduled to appear throughout the Thursday.
Jake: But that’s not where you were.
Jen: No, I spent most of my time at the “Melbourne Walk”. Instead of smuggling the drivers into the paddock each morning, they drop them off at the start of a walkway, and they interact with fans along the way. It’s great to see the circuit organise this and the autograph stage, especially since it’s for everyone at the circuit, not just a privileged few. At Silverstone it seems you have to be part of the inner circle to see any of the drivers.
Jake: Go on then, what were your spoils of war?
Jen: I got autographs from Marcus Ericsson, Paul Di Resta, Ted Kravitz, Martin Brundle, Jonathan Palmer…
Jen: Also Daniil Kvyat, who didn’t quite do it right…
Jake: No, it looks like he lost control of the pen in one of the corners and flew straight off the page.
Jen: He’ll be hoping for a better result in the race. But I have to say him & Ericsson were really going out of their way to be nice to the fans. However, I didn’t manage to get Massa’s autograph.
Jake: Oh yes, we should say you’re a massive Williams fan.
Jen: Yes, proud fan for 23 years. I’ve been a Williams fan since I started watching F1.
Jake: I don’t have a strong team affiliation. At a push I’d say I lean towards Red Bull. But I think that’s because the dream of actually owning a Red Bull is pretty achievable. Ferrari fans have it a lot harder in that regard. Anyway, Massa…
Jen: Yes, I’ve been wanting Massa’s autograph for years. I queued for the Williams autograph session, but Massa was a no-show. I got Lance Stroll’s autograph though.
Jake: That’s almost as good.
Jen: [grumbles] maybe tomorrow. But back at the Melbourne Walk, it was amazing how friendly everyone was, the atmosphere was great. It was pretty crowded, but people at the front of the fence were taking autograph books from people behind them, getting drivers to sign it, and passing it back. Also, as drivers arrived people were shouting the page number of the programme they were on, so everyone could get prepared.
Jake: It wasn’t just the driver access that was better than Silverstone. There were tents where you could practice a pit-stop tyre change, and various competitions & simulators. For a bonus day, it was very good!
Jen: I’m really excited for tomorrow — The Paddock Club. Even the tickets feel special. They’re fancy plastic lanyards in a special little presentation box. But question is, will they let you in with your shirt?
Jake: Ah yes. So, I decided the suit jacket was a bad idea since it’s really warm. So I panic-bought a shirt.
Jen: And you’re dead proud of yourself too.
Jake: I found one on sale for $7 AUD, that’s about £5. Bargain! But now I’m worried they’ll be able to tell it’s cheap and scream at me like they do on The Bodysnatchers.
Jen: Well, I’m looking forward to finding out!
Friday
Jen: We set off for the circuit, armed with our special passes, my autograph book…
Jake: …and my $7 shirt.
Jen: Yeah, some of our group were wearing suits, but others were wearing team wear & shorts. I decided to risk it with the team wear. Screw the dress code.
Jen: The Friday package included two pit lane walks, the first was at 10:05, but the circuit didn’t open until 10:00. I’m not quite sure how we were supposed to make that.
Jake: Yeah, again, some people seem to have gotten in early, but we weren’t given any details about that.
Jen: Once we got into the circuit we went over to the Melbourne Walk, which is where the entrance to the paddock is.
Jen: But today, we were able to cross over to the other side.
Jake: You make it sound like we died.
Jen: Of excitement maybe. Although, we quickly discovered we still had boundaries.
Jake: Yeah, y’know how you used to be able to buy a TV that was “HD Ready”, which basically meant “Not quite HD”? Well our tickets where for the “Paddock Club”, which means “Not quite the paddock”.
Jen: Yeah, we couldn’t get into the bit where the teams have their motorhomes etc, so it wasn’t quite what we expected. But anyway, the dress code thing turned out to be a false panic. People were dressed in trainers and shorts.
Jake: Even my $7 shirt didn’t set off any alarms.
Jen: The first thing we walked though was “The Lounge”, which was basically a fancy bar with some outside seating.
Jen: Drinks were free…
Jake: …Well, “included”.
Jen: True! But there was champagne, cider, beer…
Jake: Unfortunately, due to sponsorship, that meant Heineken. I asked if they did anything else, and they did, they had one other beer! So, I had the not-Heineken.
Jen: And how was that?
Jake: It tasted like Heineken.
Jen: Oh.
Jake: Also, it was 2.5% alcohol. So I figured, if I’m going to drink something that tastes of Heineken, I’d better be getting drunk at the same time, so I switched back to the Heineken.
Jen: Well, at least the cider was nice.
Jake: Anyway, we headed through “The Lounge” and onto the suites above the pit garages.
Jen: This took us across a bridge where we could see into the real paddock.
Jake: I guess it’s like flights, where they walk you past what you could have had if you’d spent even more money.
Jen: Yeah, I think there’s a bit of that. But on our way through to the suite we walked past Chase Carey, which was cool. Our suite was right at the end, above the Sauber garage.
Jake: We didn’t really explore it straight away, as we wanted to catch the end of the first pit lane walk.
Jen: Yeah, that was cool! It was pretty quiet, and there weren’t any drivers around, but we saw some great pit stop practices.
Jen: Unfortunately we had to rush through a bit, because the walk was ending.
Jake: After that, you resumed your autograph hunting mission…
Jen: Yes! This time on the other side of the fence.
Jake: And how did that go?
Jen: Amazing! I finally got Massa’s autograph.
Jake: Mission accomplished!
Jen: I also got Alain Prost, Jackie Stewart, Esteban Ocon, Romain Grosjean. Got some photos too…
Jake: Whereas I headed to the pit lane suite. It was a smallish room with a bar, and a little table where snacks occasionally appeared.
Jake: There wasn’t much of a view of the track. You could see the pits and a little of the main straight.
Jake: You had to rely on the TVs to see any of the track action, but I stayed there for the GT race.
Jen: And for the food & drink…
Jake: Yeah, the food was… well… you know on The Apprentice when they have to make “gourmet canapés”, and to maximise profit they just take cheap food and present it in a fancy way… it was like that.
Jen: Yeah, like three flakes of salmon served on an individual spoon.
Jake: Exactly that. It arrived infrequently and there wasn’t a lot of it either. I found myself craving the kind of dirty burger-from-a-van that we survive on at Silverstone.
Jen: What about the drinks?
Jake: The drinks were the same as the lounge, but at one point they ran out of beer and champagne!
Jen: Nooooo!
Jake: They found some more later though.
Jen: Disaster averted!
Jake: We mostly gave up on the suite and instead went to the roof of the pit lane for F1 free practice.
Jen: That was amazing! We could walk pretty much the full length of the pit lane.
Jen: Seeing the new cars, at the start of the season — that was pretty special. Being right above the cars meant we could smell them for the first time too. That was amazing.
Jake: I took the camera out for a spin, and thanks to the wonders of digital photography, I was able to take enough snaps so that, by chance, a couple turned out pretty good:
Jake: Being right above the garages meant we were able to look down directly into the cars while they were wheeling them in & out:
Jake: Between the practices there was a second pit lane walk, which we wanted to take full advantage of, since we missed most of the first one.
Jen: Yeah, but it was a bit of a let down — it was totally packed.
Jen: That, combined with the 30 minute time slot, meant it was a bit of a rush. The pit lane walk we did at Silverstone was much better, although that was on a Thursday so the timings were a bit more relaxed.
Jake: I got a bit pissed off with the crowds and retreated back to The Lounge, which unfortunately was also rammed. Also they had some X-Factor guy I didn’t recognise warbling loudly. I think I was in a foul mood, but it was the first time I really felt amongst those people, the ones that were gifted tickets to the race but didn’t really care about F1. Anyway, I think we met back in the pit lane suite after that.
Jen: Yeah, we were there for the Supercar race, which I really enjoyed, despite not really following the series.
Jake: Same, although because it wasn’t a championship race, they did what they called “a special rolling start”.
Jen: Rolling starts aren’t special.
Jake: Right! They’re like “fun-sized” chocolates. No, they’re not fun, they’re just smaller. Stop trying to tell me it’s fun to have less chocolate.
Jen: Although one of the Supercar drivers came to the suite to talk about their race, and their thoughts on the new F1 season.
Jake: There’s one more element of the facilities that I want to review.
Jen: Oh, I know what this is. Go on, talk us through it.
Jake: I went for a poo, in the paddock.
Jen: Yes and you were very pleased with yourself. How was it?
Jake: Fine. They were just normal toilets.
Jen: Not gold-plated or anything?
Jake: Nope.
Jen: Well that was definitely worth bringing up. Moving on, at the end of the day I hung out on the bridge over the paddock, watching team principles chatting with their engineers, drivers heading to do their media work, and saw the Sky F1 team filming.
Jake: You got their autographs too, right?
Jen: Yeah, I chatted to Crofty, then Damon Hill and Simon Lazenby walked past. I already have Damon Hill’s autograph from years ago, so I just asked Simon for his. I don’t think Damon was used to that, he wasn’t sure what to do.
Jake: “Don’t you know who I am?!”
Jen: Anyway, I hung around the Melbourne Walk, but on the paddock side, until the end of the day. Unfortunately most of the drivers either stayed until after the circuit closed, or snuck out somewhere else.
Jake: All in all, it was a pretty unique experience, but it felt like it took us away from a lot of the track action, so I’m glad we did it on the Friday.
Jen: Yeah, if you watched a race from there you’d be missing most of it, aside from the pit stops.
Jake: I guess the pit straight, where we are tomorrow, has some of the same problems, but I’m really looking forward to watching qualifying from there!
Jen: But I’m really going to miss having paddock-side access to the Melbourne Walk, but yeah, really looking forward to qualifying!
Saturday
Jake: We felt like we missed out on some “early access” the past couple of days, so we set off early to see if we could get into the circuit before everyone else.
Jen: We managed to find a queue that let people in at 9am, but it seemed like everyone had this access too — There was still a huge queue.
Jen: I think this is something Silverstone does much better — the track opens really early, long before any track action. That means people aren’t arriving all at once, they filter in over time, meaning the queues are generally a lot shorter.
Jake: Also means you can scope out the track and find a good place to sit for the first session. Anyway, there was a another bonus feature today.
Jen: Yeah, we had “main straight walk” tickets in our ticket bundle.
Jake: And we weren’t sure what that was.
Jen: It turned out to be a walk down the main straight.
Jake: Ok, it sounds pretty obvious now you say it out loud.
Jake: After that, you went straight back to your usual haunt.
Jen: The Melbourne Walk!
Jake: I’m surprised they don’t have a park bench with your name on by now.
Jen: It was really busy today. I think some people had been there for hours. I still got some autographs though: Helmut Marko…
Jake: …The Emperor Palpatine of F1…
Jen: Paddy Lowe, Carlos Sainz, Marc Gené. Max Verstappen turned up, but he was swamped and I couldn’t reach over to get an autograph.
Jake: Didn’t anyone pass your book forward like on Thursday?
Jen: Nah, it wasn’t as friendly today. There was lots of pushing and elbows, especially when the big-name drivers walked past, like Ricciardo & Hamilton. Nature had its revenge though…
Jake: Nature?
Jen: Well, there was a huge guy in front of me who barged his way through. He had really long hair.
Jake: I’m imagining a Klingon.
Jen: Yeah, kinda. Anyway, a wasp flew at me, and I whacked it away, but it landed in his hair.
Jake: Uh oh!
Jen: I was going to tell him, but I thought, no, you elbowed me and stood on my foot… you can keep it. It was in there until I left, like an hour later. Maybe it’s still there.
Jake: And because it’s an Australian wasp it probably burrowed its way into his brain and now controls him, using him to further the wasp agenda.
Jen: Ok, you’re making me feel bad now. Things seemed to quieten down later on, and I was right at the front when Vettel walked past. But he was called away just as he was about to sign my book… gutted!
Jake: Meanwhile, I went to the hospitality lounge that we had for the day — “The Fangio Lounge”. It was a little building behind the pit straight stands. It had a bar with the same drinks as elsewhere, and a balcony.
Jen: Was the food more salmon a la spoon?
Jake: No! They had ham & egg breakfast rolls, along with other breakfasty foods. We ate loads, worried that it may become as scarce as yesterday, but this was a mistake. They had loads of good food throughout the day.
Jen: I joined you later, and yeah, the food was great. Not as fancy, but better. Pork belly, steak sandwiches, spring rolls… great finger-food.
Jake: I think the package we did today was cheaper than the paddock, but I have to say the staff were friendlier, more attentive, the food was better…
Jen: Yeah, it felt really special. We hung out there a lot, enjoying the sun, watching the support races on the screens they had there. This was a great place to watch the air displays too.
Jake: I’m not particularly patriotic, but I love the Red Arrows, so I was a little unsure what I’d think of these Aussie equivalents, The Roulettes. But wow, they were great. Also, they’re on every day of the weekend, whereas the Red Arrows only appear on the Sunday at Silverstone.
Jen: Yeah, it was great that they were out today — we missed them yesterday because we were in the pit lane suite. But what about that fighter jet?!
Jake: The noise of it! I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything so loud.
Jen: And the stunts it was pulling for an aircraft that size — incredible.
Jake: But, there’s one important detail left to review…
Jen: Is it the toilet again?
Jake: It’s the toilet again!
Jen: [sigh]
Jake: This time it was more like a prison toilet. No seat, just a big metal bowl. I can’t help feeling Fangio would be unimpressed with his name being linked to such bathroom facilities. Luckily everything else there was great.
Jen: Excellent. Good. So… we went to the stand to watch the track action.
Jake: And that was excellent. We were in a covered stand on the pit straight, one of the highest seats…
Jen: …and the staff brought food and drink throughout the day — including ice cream.
Jake: We watched the Supercars from there. It wasn’t a championship event for them, but judging by a couple of big crashes, they were taking it pretty seriously!
Jen: Yeah, and we were able to keep up with the action around the track since we had a little radio with us, a trick we learned at Silverstone. You don’t see a lot of action on the straights, so you need the big screens plus a radio to know what’s going on.
Jake: F1 practice and qualifying were great from here. You really got a feel for how much faster this year’s cars were on the pit straight. And it was good to see Ferrari being more competitive than last season.
Jen: Gutted for Danny though. Really wanted him to do well at his home race.
Jake: Yeah, but all in all, a brilliant day. Although, compared to Silverstone, I found myself missing Formula 2 and GP3.
Jen: It might have been better if we followed Supercars like we follow the other open-wheel formulas. I also missed watching the races from different stands, like we tend to do at Silverstone, but you can’t do that here — your tickets are for a particular stand each day.
Jake: True, and I’m glad we’re not on the pit straight for the race, as you don’t really get to see much of the action — just cars whizzing past.
Jen: Well, tomorrow we’re at the first corner. I don’t think we have assigned seats, just a shared balcony, so we’ve got to get there early to get a good spot. Hopefully we’ll be able to see down the main straight to the starting grid.
Jake: Really looking forward to seeing the start of an F1 race in real life! We’ve never been at the first corner for an F1 start before.
Jen: Yep, bring it on!
Sunday
Jake: Well, that’s it. The weekend’s over.
Jen: So sad! It’s been amazing. Anyway, how did today start?
Jake: With a shower! I know it’s such a minor thing, but it’s been great sleeping in a proper bed and having a shower each morning.
Jen: Yeah, at Silverstone the campsite showers are usually busy, and not all that great. So we tend to skip showering and just be stinky together.
Jake: By the Sunday the group is usually pretty toxic. Our skin is built of compound layers of dirt and suncream. Anyway, back to today, once we arrived at the circuit, we headed to our stand — “Chicane Pavilion Upper”.
Jake: When we arrived… it became clear we weren’t their usual clientele, as the staff asked us which company we were with. Turns out we were part of the “Matthew McNulty corporation”, which is just the name of the person in our group who booked the tickets.
Jen: Inside the stand there was a large dining area with a bar, and an area for buffet food, and like yesterday, the staff brought snacks around throughout the day.
Jen: We spent most of our time on the balcony, which gave us our view of the track.
Jake: There were a few tables on the balcony, but they were already taken by the people who knew the secret handshake to get into the circuit super early — we still hadn’t figured that out. But we found a good place to stand where we got a good view of the first corner and some of the main straight.
Jen: We couldn’t see right up to the starting grid though — maybe you could at the far left of the stand, but that was reserved by some company called Securitease…
Jake: That company sounds both safe, and sexy. Anyway, our group spent the whole day guarding our spot on the balcony.
Jen: Well, you left briefly, because you were the only one not wearing team merchandise, and we bullied you into fixing that. But you didn’t even fix it properly, you bought this half-arsed Red Bull t-shirt…
Jake: What? It’s a full-arsed Red Bull t-shirt.
Jen: It’s not a full team kit though, like the rest of us had. You looked like the odd one out.
Jake: But… I wanted something I’d be able to wear in the office without looking silly. Did I spoil everything?
Jen: Yes, and you should feel bad.
Jen: Oh, and also a couple of us left the balcony for a bit to go and do another pit lane walk.
Jake: Ahh yes, we had pit lane walk tickets for today too, but most of us weren’t keen because of how crammed it was on Friday. Plus, we wanted to guard our balcony spot.
Jen: But one of our group had missed the Friday, so they were pretty keen to go, and I went along with them.
Jake: How was it?
Jen: It was great! It was a 45 minute slot, meaning it was less of a rush. We got a good look in the garages, although you had to have special tickets linked to a team to get really close to the cars. Really glad I went though.
Jake: One of the nice things about being in a covered stand all day is I didn’t have to wear sun cream.
Jen: I thought that was very brave of you — a 60 watt bulb is usually enough to melt your skin.
Jake: Well, the sun cream I bought in Australia was made by “The Cancer Council”, who sound like the kind of bunch who’d really nail a good sun cream, but it turned out to be like PVA glue, or Elmer’s glue as they call it in the US.
Jen: I think Matt said he was still able to style his arm hair two days later. But not only was your delicate shell protected from the sun, you were protected from the heat too.
Jake: Yeah! The balcony was air conditioned. I usually disagree with outside air-con & heating… it’s really wasteful as it’s all just escaping, but I have to admit it was really nice. Back to the track action, once again the support races were pretty good, but it was a shame about the rolling start.
Jen: After that, we got the air show again, with the RAAF Roulettes, the jet, but this time they also had a huge military plane do a flyover.
Jake: The first thing we saw was its shadow. And wow, it was huge!
Jake: During the support races they had some singers on in the dining area, and a lot people sat inside for food. Again, it was a reminder that a lot of people there weren’t really into the racing.
Jen: Although almost everyone came onto the balcony for the main race. Before we get onto the race, shall we get your corporate toilet review out of the way?
Jake: Certainly! Today was a tremendous return to form. On par with the paddock ones I’d say.
Jen: Good to hear. In terms of the real reason we were there, the race… it wasn’t the most exciting we’ve seen, but watching all the cars pile into the first corner was incredible.
Jen: We had a great view of the first corner, and a bit of the second, but we couldn’t see as much of the track as we can at Silverstone.
Jake: Yeah, from Stowe we can see a good portion of the track, but I think that’s more to do with Albert Park being a street circuit than anything. Thankfully, for the bits we couldn’t see, we had plenty of screens to keep us updated, along with our radio for the track commentary. The track commentators were pretty good too, and it was great to see Louise Goodman doing the pit lane reporting.
Jen: Although not a lot happened in the race, it seemed like all the main overtakes happened right in front of us. One of the overtakes we saw was Hulkenberg and Perez on Alonso. Shame the McLaren seems to have gone backwards. Honda’s claim of matching last year’s Mercedes engine seems… wrong.
Jake: Honda aimed to build a 900 horsepower engine, but I think they used seahorses by mistake.
Jen: Hah! We also saw Vettel come out of the pits in front of Hamilton. It’s fair to say the Ferrari supporters in the group were happy… not so much the Red Bull supporters.
Jake: Gutted for Danny. Always want to see the local guy do well, and his weekend just went from bad to worse. Anyway, no point in talking through the race, there’s a reason we’re not paid to be commentators.
Jen: True. So, as soon as the race was complete, people poured onto the track.
Jake: But we stayed back to enjoy one last free drink.
Jen: Well, “included”.
Jake: Haha yes. But after that, we went onto the track, which was pretty quiet by then. And that was a great way to end the day — strolling along the track among shreds of Pirelli rubber.
Jen: We also had one final group photo. You can tell who felt the most victorious.
Jake: So, after all of that, was it 10 times the experience we have at Silverstone?
Jen: It’s been one of the best weekends of my life, but I wouldn’t say it was 10 times better than what we usually do.
Jake: You could bare to go back there then, even in the tent?
Jen: Yeahhh! This weekend’s been amazing in its own way, but I still love what we do at Silverstone. If money wasn’t a problem, I’d be tempted to repeat parts of this weekend.
Jake: Which parts? What’s your perfect F1 weekend?
Jen: Well, I’d want to roam on a Friday.
Jake: Yeah, that’s one of the things Silverstone does right compared to Albert Park. Being able to see the races from different places on the Friday & Saturday is brilliant.
Jen: Yeah, we can watch a GP3 race from the main straight, then a GP2 race at the other side of the circuit. We normally walk the full circuit a couple of times over at Silverstone but didn’t even do one lap here. I guess that’s partly because we were taking advantage of the hospitality.
Jake: At least we were in a different place every day here, I think I’d have gotten bored being in the same stand for the whole weekend.
Jen: Yeah, but I’d love to do the Paddock Club again, maybe on the Saturday.
Jake: Hmm, I’m not so sure. You don’t really get to see a lot when you’re on the main straight. You just see cars going past — none of the overtakes, none of the action.
Jen: Ahh, but you’d get to see them crossing the line for qualifying, and you’d see them celebrating in the pits afterwards.
Jake: Yeah, fair enough. I think if I was going to do the hospitality thing on any day, it’d be the Sunday. Because you’re in one place pretty much all day anyway, and having food and drinks brought to me… I can get used to that.
Jen: But it’s mostly about the view.
Jake: Yeah, I still wouldn’t want to be on the main straight for the race. Where we were today was pretty perfect.
Jen: Yeah, you want to be able to see a couple of corners.
Jake: We’ve mentioned it already, but I really missed seeing other open-wheel series. I think in future I’d avoid going to races that didn’t have any. It doesn’t have to be F2, but maybe F3 — they do have an Australian series I think.
Jen: However, I really want the organisers of Silverstone to come here and learn how to be better for the fans. The driver access here is amazing, and there’s loads of extra entertainment and stands. At Silverstone, the only chance to get photos or autographs is if you’re lucky enough to get a pit lane walk, and even then you have to be lucky to catch a driver. Either that, or you hang about outside the hotel where most of the drivers stay.
Jake: Which you do. Like a stalker.
Jen: Oi! It’s “Autograph hunter”.
Jake: So, sum up the trip…
Jen: Like I said — one of the best weekends of my life. I loved it. My face is sore from smiling so much.
Jake: Couldn’t put it better myself. Loved every minute.
