Three Ways To Buy F1 Tickets And Race Travel Tips

I’ve been a Formula 1 fan for almost 30 years. Finally, thanks to the success of Netflix’s “just a little overdramatic” but very fun to watch Drive to Survive, F1 has exploded in popularity, with venues selling out months in advance, widespread media coverage more frequent than before celebrity attendance, and bidding wars for broadcasting rights. With this increase in popularity and ticket demand, traveling to races has become a bit of a competitive sport. As such, I wanted to share a few ways to buy F1 tickets!

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Over the years, F1 insiders have referred to it as “the circus,” and that’s never been more true than now. With a sprawling calendar of 23 races across the Americas, the Middle East, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region, F1 is a unique sport that reaches almost the whole world. Having Cameron catch up with me and FINALLY understand what the hype is about has been so much fun, as now, we have a new travel opportunity to look forward to (it only took attending a full F1 weekend and then watching four seasons of DTS in four days for it to finally click for him – #WORTHIT)

In this post, we’re sharing our recommendations for buying F1 tickets and how to plan your travel based on your location and when you have time off. 

Before we learn how to buy F1 tickets, let’s start with the basics of Formula 1. 

Formula 1: Who, What, Where, and When

I think of F1 as a giant, very expensive engineering competition. Currently, ten teams compete for a driver’s and a constructor’s title, with races happening between March and November-December. Over the years, the calendar and the teams have changed quite a bit, as well as the guidelines under which cars have to be built and how points are distributed. F1 has always been distinctly European, with almost all teams being based in Europe (or having factories there) and a significant portion of the calendar taking place in the European summer. The Formula 1 World Championship is overseen by the Federation Internationale d’Automobile (FIA). 

The 2023 season is currently underway. You can see the calendar for this year and the 2024 calendar well in advance on the official F1 website. Two of the races initially planned for this year did not take place: 

• The Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai (the first race we ever attended) was canceled again in 2023 due to the COVID-19 restrictions China had in place at the time. Although the circuit has a contract, there hasn’t been any racing there since 2019. Here are some snaps of 2015 from the atrocious General Admission location we had (it was all we could afford at the time!)

• In the spring of 2023, the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, Italy, did not take place due to the severe flooding in the area. F1 hasn’t said that it won’t happen for good, but when you look at the rest of the calendar, it’s hard to find a place where it would fit. 

2022’s race included some fun ambiance courtesy of the Dutch/Max Verstappen fans and great views from the Main Grandstand. 

This one makes a lot of sense for us as we can be at the circuit in under an hour’s drive from our place. We are also going to the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, a classic F1 venue, in late July.

Since we already have tickets for the 2024 season opener (more on that later), and the F1 2024 calendar is out (before the halfway point of the season, no less!), it’s time to talk about traveling around F1 since it’s become a thing for us now, and the cost of attending races is a concern for many fans due to the sport’s popularity. Publishing the 2024 calendar was a nice kick in the pants to finish this post! 

Now that we know that races take place worldwide in some pretty cool destinations, you may be able to understand that when you find yourself an F1 fan who loves to travel. Naturally, a travel opportunity arises. We’ve been able to attend races thanks to living in different places (more on that soon), and this summer, we will travel to a destination specifically to attend a race weekend for the first time. 

Let’s start by talking about how you get tickets to F1 races. 

Ways to Buy F1 Tickets: Three Options

We have used three different vendors or methods to buy F1 tickets. All have their advantages and disadvantages, and in some instances, you may have to necessarily use one of these methods. Here is a brief look back at our experience with each of these methods: 

1. Buy F1 tickets directly from the F1 Tickets website

The official F1 website sells tickets to all races. We bought tickets to the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix through the website the day they went on sale, which happened to be Black Friday, so we got a bit of a discount. If you are going to, or have to, buy tickets through the F1 website, we recommend signing up for alerts when tickets to your preferred races go live for sale so you can get in line and get the ticket you want. 

Some important notes about tickets on the F1 website: 

1. Not all races are up for sale at the same time on F1. Given that race tickets go out on sale at different times of the year because of how far in advance from the calendar publishing a race may be, it would not be possible to buy tickets to every race you wanted at once through this platform. 
2. If you get tickets delivered, you must ensure someone can receive them, so you may need to arrange your delivery time. Tickets are delivered via DHL. 
3. F1 tickets do not accept cancellations. If you cannot attend, you must pass your tickets along. 
4. Some events (but not all) may issue e-tickets, hard-copy tickets, or both. Make sure to check what kind of ticket you’re getting. 

In addition to general admission and grandstand tickets, you can also buy Hospitality tickets and Paddock Club tickets, elevated experiences with privileged views, food, drink, and access. These are, however, quite expensive – in most cases, hundreds or thousands of euros a person, so maybe a bucket list item for your dream race with careful saving and planning. 

Lastly, you may also want to look into F1 Experiences, which allows you to book packages offering race tickets, hotel accommodation, and transportation to and from the track. F1 Experiences also includes team packages for more up close and personal experiences with your favorite team. 

If you are new to F1 and want to make sure you get a seamless experience, getting tickets through the F1 website may be a good fit for you. But there are other options.

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2. Buy F1 tickets through authorized third-party vendors

In some countries, another option to buy f1 tickets is via third-party vendors. These third-party vendors sell tickets for activities such as concerts and art shows, as well as F1 races in their area. This is how we purchased tickets to our first race, the 2015 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. We used SmartShanghai, which frequently sells tickets to events like concerts or shows like Cirque du Soleil when they come to town. Back then, we paid cash on delivery and got hard-copy tickets. 

Third-party vendors may also include tour companies that prepare whole packages, including flight and accommodation. Many are location-specific, so you may want to research based on your location if you need your ticket to include air travel. Here are some examples of third-party vendors offering packages. We have not personally used any of these, but they come with solid reviews: 

• Grand Prix Grand Tours: Offers standard and VIP packages to most GP weekends. It is ideal for someone who wants a concierge-like service that takes care of most details to and from the race. 

• Motorsports Travel, Sportsbreak, and GPTours: Packages for various motorsport events, including F1, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and IndyCar. 

• Qatar Airways F1 Packages: Qatar Airways became an F1 Global Partner for this season and now offers Paddock Club packages through their website to most F1 races, as well as grandstand packages to the Qatar Grand Prix in Lusail. 

• Headout*, a platform for all your “things to do around the world” needs, has F1 tickets to almost every race left this season, some with some pretty nice discounts, even for last-minute races. You can purchase race day passes if you want to see the main event or three-day passes, which give you access to all practices, qualifying, the primary race, and the feeder series races. Headout even offers free cancellation: if you cancel up to 72 hours before the experience begins, you get a full refund.

When you purchase tickets through third-party vendors, make sure you check out reviews and see that it’s a reputable vendor with reviews showing previous experience in this particular type of package, especially if it involves overseas travel. 

3. Buy F1 tickets through the venue website

Each circuit in which F1 races are held has its own management. They organize races under a contract with F1, so, over time, you may see variations in which venues are in the calendar from one year to another. Due to the high demand to host F1 races, many venues are attempting to secure long-term contracts that give them a presence in the calendar for a long period of time so they can benefit from the high ticket sales occurring right now. This is our preferred method to buy F1 tickets.

If you want to find the website for a specific circuit, search for the official name of the circuit on Google. If you are unsure, you can check the F1 calendar for the exact name. For example, the Bahrain Grand Prix is held at the Bahrain International Circuit. When I search “Bahrain international circuit” on Google, my first result is the circuit’s website: bahraingp.com

Purchasing through the circuit’s website cuts the middleman and allows you to buy a ticket directly from the organizers. Sometimes, this may come with additional benefits: For example, when you buy grandstand tickets for the whole weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix, your parking passes are included. You just have to pick them up ahead of time at one of the ticketing boots on the circuit and attach them to your vehicle each day.

We were also able to take advantage of a very early bird discount through this website, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the race. We bought 2024 tickets with a 30% discount. It was a gamble since we didn’t know exactly when the race would be held while they ran the special. It paid off even better, though, since the race will be on a Saturday instead of Sunday when we work. 

This year, we purchased our tickets to the Belgium Grand Prix directly through the circuit’s website, giving us a one-stop shop for all the ticketing we needed. We will be driving to the circuit, so we needed parking passes; we were able to buy both tickets and parking passes through the circuit website, making tickets easier to manage. In this particular case, you can even prepay for box lunches, get camping permits if you plan to camp, and, of course, access higher-end ticketing options like on other websites.

In my experience, circuit customer service has been very responsive: I’ve had to contact both Bahrain and Spa with questions about ticketing and, in both cases, received a very clear, prompt response. So our experience buying tickets through the circuit websites has been very positive and is now our preferred way to get F1 tickets: get tickets at the circuit website and do the rest of the planning on our own. 

Getting to Circuits: Transportation Options

Circuit websites will include details on how to get to and from each circuit. Most circuits are accessible by some form of public transportation: either train or bus. Many circuits are on the outskirts of cities, so you have to add some walking time to and from a train or bus station and leave, sometimes, hours in advance to get to the circuit on time.

For example, the nearest public transportation stop to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (home of the Spanish GP) is the Montmeló Station, but from there, you have to walk 45 minutes to get to the circuit.

When we attended the Shanghai GP, our train ride was well over an hour and a half, as we lived on the complete opposite end of Shanghai, so we had to cross the city eastbound and then go north, only to then walk to the circuit for at least 20 minutes. So this is all to say that, because of the distance between most dedicated tracks to the nearest cities, you have to account for travel time. Unless, of course, you’re going to a street circuit like Jeddah, Singapore, Miami, or Monaco, your best bet is to stay close to town to avoid traffic and closed roads getting into town. 

If you are driving, be aware that even if you account for enough time to get to the circuit before the race start time, you may end up stuck in traffic in certain instances. So try to give yourself as much time as possible to get there…while you wait for the day’s racing to kick off, you can check out the activities in the fan zones or browse merch in the different stands. Sometimes, you find merch items on the track booths that are not elsewhere. 

Accommodation During F1 Weekends

We recommend booking your accommodation right after buying your tickets, if at all possible, as rooms sell out fast, and the closer you get to the race weekend, the higher the prices go. Consider this: each F1 team, and F1 itself, employs hundreds of people. Add to that, thousands of people attend races, which makes the demand for accommodation very high. If you’re going to attend races all weekend, it makes sense to find accommodation relatively close to the track or at least close to transportation options that will take you to the track. 

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Need Travel Insurance?

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Don’t forget to…

• Check the circuit guidelines for items allowed and not allowed on the track. 

• Watch the support races F1 has support series that race on the same weekends, most importantly Formula 3 and Formula 2, and starting this year, F1 Academy (the new F1 female feeder series) races at some events. The cars used in these feeder series are different (and so are the teams), but you get to see up-and-coming drivers show their early skills in the junior categories. 
• Pack earplugs or noise-canceling headphones for the little ones. Although the current generation of cars is not nearly as loud as they used to be in years past, they can still be a lot for sensitive ears. You may want some of these yourself if you are sensitive to loud noises.

Final Thoughts on How to Buy F1 Tickets

A traveling sport creates great travel opportunities, so if you happen to be both a fan of traveling and an F1 fan, the calendar provides very interesting travel ideas to visit different regions in almost every continent. Granted, it requires some planning, but if you’re able to wing it, we highly recommend it. Stay tuned to our platforms to find out how it goes for us on our first visit to the Belgian Grand Prix.

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