1323 replies to this topic

[Taxi]

I see Abu Dhabi and yesterday as two situations that having benefited Max, it was made justice. He deserved 2021 title. Lewis got away with Silverstone so it was like that refree who  gets a penalty wrong for one team and then tries to compensate with another penalty for the other. 

 

Yesterday it was more or less a normal decision, but make no mistake, bar some suicide dive bomb from Leclerc the result would not be diferent at the front. Maybe dr Vries would be eaten alive though. 

[baddog]

Presenting an opinion as fact is a great way to restart it ;-)

 

But yes, expect the SC rules to be followed as written for the near future :-)

 

I didn't mean it that way, I was putting it in the most neutral terms imaginable without any judgement as to what was correct, as I didn't wish to distract from my actual point that no-one is going to rush to try to get a 'real restart' again.

[JimmyClark]

What happened at the track then - for the spectators?

 

Oooft where do I start? 

 

Public transport was pretty terrible all weekend, though I guess the circuit cannot help the strikes on Friday. But by Sunday train provision was abysmal, with so many cancellations - it just wasn't fit for purpose for 150,000 people trying to get out of Monza and get back to Milan. I've been to the Monza race before and I'm sure that was better. The shuttle buses from Monza station to the circuit were pretty bad too. 

 

But the organisation at the circuit was truly atrocious. It was very hot all weekend, but you could only bring in a small bottle of water and at the entrance they confiscated the bottle cap. You could also not bring in food or other drink (even soft drinks), and reusable bottles were taken off people. The bottle cap thing might had made sense had they not been happily selling you capped bottles at the circuit. But that's if you could buy them... which is where it really gets messy. 

 

So none of the food/drink stalls took cash or contactless cards; you had to buy tokens in order to purchase these. The two options were physcial tokens (which meant people were walking round with huge bags of these damn things), or they were promoting an NFC bracelet system where you top up online and pay with the bracelet from your credit. Even though I went on Friday morning, it still took two hours of faffing and queuing to get this - the system kept going down. It was chaos. Luckily I got one though, as they gave up with this later in the weekend, which meant that there were huge queues for tokens, before you could then queue up for food and drink. There were not enough token stalls for the sheer number of people, so many people just spent much of their weekend in queues. By Sunday tokens were running out, so people could not buy food or drink. The only other option for water was free water points, but the queues for these were horrendous. It was absolutely scandalous. People were buying bottles with caps from each other so they could have something to hold water. 

 

There weren't enough stalls for the people there, so any kind of purchase of food or drink took forever.

 

Toilets were disgusting and overflowing (luckily as a bloke I could go into the woods, and eventually a female friend was doing the same as she couldn't face the sanitatary situation). 

 

Getting into the circuit took over two hours every morning. There weren't enough ticket barriers, and apparently the organisers just gave up and opened them. I'm not sure if there were many non-ticket holders in, but general admission was full to bursting. Sight points had been further restricted this year, and I met many GA people (I had a lot of conversations in the queues!) who said they didn't see anything on track. One Canadian guy I spoke to had paid a four figure sum for a scalped raceday grandstand ticket as he saw nothing of qualifying. 

 

For the 'free roaming' Friday, I went with my Parabolica ticket up to a virtually empty grandstand at Serraglio, but was denied entry. However, by race day, there were too many people in the grandstands - they seemed to have given up on restricting entry. People were sat on stairs, taking others' seats, and there was no proper stewarding. It was very messy. 

 

I could go on, but it was hands down the worst organised big event I've ever been to, and certainly the worst Grand Prix experience (this was my ninth I think). I tried to tot up how many hours I'd spent in queues at Monza over the three days and got to around 14, but it could well be more. For about five and a bit hours of F1 action I can't say it was worth it.

 

If you want to see other horror stories, just search for stuff like 'monza organisation' or 'monza tokens' on Twitter. Hopefully someone in the F1 media will pick up on it. https://twitter.com/...src=typed_query

Edited by JimmyClark, 12 September 2022 - 18:56.

[CharlesWinstone]

Its a shame Mercedes started with a poor concept, with Ferraris design at the start of this year we might have had another epic title battle between Russell/Lewis/Max.

Make that Russel and Max.Lewis has made to much misstakes and is trailing to much.

[Nemo1965]

Oooft where do I start?

Public transport was pretty terrible all weekend, though I guess the circuit cannot help the strikes on Friday. But by Sunday train provision was abysmal, with so many cancellations - it just wasn't fit for purpose for 150,000 people trying to get out of Monza and get back to Milan. I've been to the Monza race before and I'm sure that was better. The shuttle buses from Monza station to the circuit were pretty bad too.

But the organisation at the circuit was truly atrocious. It was very hot all weekend, but you could only bring in a small bottle of water and at the entrance they confiscated the bottle cap. You could also not bring in food or other drink (even soft drinks), and reusable bottles were taken off people. The bottle cap thing might had made sense had they not been happily selling you capped bottles at the circuit. But that's if you could buy them... which is where it really gets messy.

So none of the food/drink stalls took cash or contactless cards; you had to buy tokens in order to purchase these. The two options were physcial tokens (which meant people were walking round with huge bags of these damn things), or they were promoting an NFC bracelet system where you top up online and pay with the bracelet from your credit. Even though I went on Friday morning, it still took two hours of faffing and queuing to get this - the system kept going down. It was chaos. Luckily I got one though, as they gave up with this later in the weekend, which meant that there were huge queues for tokens, before you could then queue up for food and drink. There were not enough token stalls for the sheer number of people, so many people just spent much of their weekend in queues. By Sunday tokens were running out, so people could not buy food or drink. The only other option for water was free water points, but the queues for these were horrendous. It was absolutely scandalous. People were buying bottles with caps from each other so they could have something to hold water.

There weren't enough stalls for the people there, so any kind of purchase of food or drink took forever.

Toilets were disgusting and overflowing (luckily as a bloke I could go into the woods, and eventually a female friend was doing the same as she couldn't face the sanitatary situation).

Getting into the circuit took over two hours every morning. There weren't enough ticket barriers, and apparently the organisers just gave up and opened them. I'm not sure if there were many non-ticket holders in, but general admission was full to bursting. Sight points had been further restricted this year, and I met many GA people (I had a lot of conversations in the queues!) who said they didn't see anything on track. One Canadian guy I spoke to had paid a four figure sum for a scalped raceday grandstand ticket as he saw nothing of qualifying.

For the 'free roaming' Friday, I went with my Parabolica ticket up to a virtually empty grandstand at Serraglio, but was denied entry. However, by race day, there were too many people in the grandstands - they seemed to have given up on restricting entry. People were sat on stairs, taking others' seats, and there was no proper stewarding. It was very messy.

I could go on, but it was hands down the worst organised big event I've ever been to, and certainly the worst Grand Prix experience (this was my ninth I think). I tried to tot up how many hours I'd spent in queues at Monza over the three days and got to around 14, but it could well be more. For about five and a bit hours of F1 action I can't say it was worth it.

If you want to see other horror stories, just search for stuff like 'monza organisation' or 'monza tokens' on Twitter. Hopefully someone in the F1 media will pick up on it. https://twitter.com/...src=typed_query

Yikes. This is indeed a story that should be picked up. Thanks for the detailed report. I don’t want to slack off my F1-media colleagues, but… critical reporting is having a low at the moment… (BTW: nothing similar happened at the Dutch GP. The incidents with women harassed was nasty, but had little to do with the organization, which seemed stressed but adequate. And the aforementioned incidents were reported upon.)

[Tenmantaylor]

Make that Russel and Max.Lewis has made to much misstakes and is trailing to much.

Russell has been better overall for sure, but when Lewis gets a sniff like in Zandvoort, Spain and Hunhary he's been able to show George the way in the race.

I think Lewis has been shell shocked for much of the season and probably a bit surprised by Russell's pace.

But I do think Lewis can still compete with anyone. George is definitely his biggest test since Rosberg and Button.

[Ragamuffin]

Oooft where do I start? 

 

Public transport was pretty terrible all weekend, though I guess the circuit cannot help the strikes on Friday. But by Sunday train provision was abysmal, with so many cancellations - it just wasn't fit for purpose for 150,000 people trying to get out of Monza and get back to Milan. I've been to the Monza race before and I'm sure that was better. The shuttle buses from Monza station to the circuit were pretty bad too. 

 

But the organisation at the circuit was truly atrocious. It was very hot all weekend, but you could only bring in a small bottle of water and at the entrance they confiscated the bottle cap. You could also not bring in food or other drink (even soft drinks), and reusable bottles were taken off people. The bottle cap thing might had made sense had they not been happily selling you capped bottles at the circuit. But that's if you could buy them... which is where it really gets messy. 

 

So none of the food/drink stalls took cash or contactless cards; you had to buy tokens in order to purchase these. The two options were physcial tokens (which meant people were walking round with huge bags of these damn things), or they were promoting an NFC bracelet system where you top up online and pay with the bracelet from your credit. Even though I went on Friday morning, it still took two hours of faffing and queuing to get this - the system kept going down. It was chaos. Luckily I got one though, as they gave up with this later in the weekend, which meant that there were huge queues for tokens, before you could then queue up for food and drink. There were not enough token stalls for the sheer number of people, so many people just spent much of their weekend in queues. By Sunday tokens were running out, so people could not buy food or drink. The only other option for water was free water points, but the queues for these were horrendous. It was absolutely scandalous. People were buying bottles with caps from each other so they could have something to hold water. 

 

There weren't enough stalls for the people there, so any kind of purchase of food or drink took forever.

 

Toilets were disgusting and overflowing (luckily as a bloke I could go into the woods, and eventually a female friend was doing the same as she couldn't face the sanitatary situation). 

 

Getting into the circuit took over two hours every morning. There weren't enough ticket barriers, and apparently the organisers just gave up and opened them. I'm not sure if there were many non-ticket holders in, but general admission was full to bursting. Sight points had been further restricted this year, and I met many GA people (I had a lot of conversations in the queues!) who said they didn't see anything on track. One Canadian guy I spoke to had paid a four figure sum for a scalped raceday grandstand ticket as he saw nothing of qualifying. 

 

For the 'free roaming' Friday, I went with my Parabolica ticket up to a virtually empty grandstand at Serraglio, but was denied entry. However, by race day, there were too many people in the grandstands - they seemed to have given up on restricting entry. People were sat on stairs, taking others' seats, and there was no proper stewarding. It was very messy. 

 

I could go on, but it was hands down the worst organised big event I've ever been to, and certainly the worst Grand Prix experience (this was my ninth I think). I tried to tot up how many hours I'd spent in queues at Monza over the three days and got to around 14, but it could well be more. For about five and a bit hours of F1 action I can't say it was worth it.

 

If you want to see other horror stories, just search for stuff like 'monza organisation' or 'monza tokens' on Twitter. Hopefully someone in the F1 media will pick up on it. https://twitter.com/...src=typed_query

Oh boy, what a sh!tshow... 

 

And this year's Italian Grand Prix proudly brought to you by the home of Ferrari!

[Clatter]

Oooft where do I start? 

 

Public transport was pretty terrible all weekend, though I guess the circuit cannot help the strikes on Friday. But by Sunday train provision was abysmal, with so many cancellations - it just wasn't fit for purpose for 150,000 people trying to get out of Monza and get back to Milan. I've been to the Monza race before and I'm sure that was better. The shuttle buses from Monza station to the circuit were pretty bad too. 

 

But the organisation at the circuit was truly atrocious. It was very hot all weekend, but you could only bring in a small bottle of water and at the entrance they confiscated the bottle cap. You could also not bring in food or other drink (even soft drinks), and reusable bottles were taken off people. The bottle cap thing might had made sense had they not been happily selling you capped bottles at the circuit. But that's if you could buy them... which is where it really gets messy. 

 

So none of the food/drink stalls took cash or contactless cards; you had to buy tokens in order to purchase these. The two options were physcial tokens (which meant people were walking round with huge bags of these damn things), or they were promoting an NFC bracelet system where you top up online and pay with the bracelet from your credit. Even though I went on Friday morning, it still took two hours of faffing and queuing to get this - the system kept going down. It was chaos. Luckily I got one though, as they gave up with this later in the weekend, which meant that there were huge queues for tokens, before you could then queue up for food and drink. There were not enough token stalls for the sheer number of people, so many people just spent much of their weekend in queues. By Sunday tokens were running out, so people could not buy food or drink. The only other option for water was free water points, but the queues for these were horrendous. It was absolutely scandalous. People were buying bottles with caps from each other so they could have something to hold water. 

 

There weren't enough stalls for the people there, so any kind of purchase of food or drink took forever.

 

Toilets were disgusting and overflowing (luckily as a bloke I could go into the woods, and eventually a female friend was doing the same as she couldn't face the sanitatary situation). 

 

Getting into the circuit took over two hours every morning. There weren't enough ticket barriers, and apparently the organisers just gave up and opened them. I'm not sure if there were many non-ticket holders in, but general admission was full to bursting. Sight points had been further restricted this year, and I met many GA people (I had a lot of conversations in the queues!) who said they didn't see anything on track. One Canadian guy I spoke to had paid a four figure sum for a scalped raceday grandstand ticket as he saw nothing of qualifying. 

 

For the 'free roaming' Friday, I went with my Parabolica ticket up to a virtually empty grandstand at Serraglio, but was denied entry. However, by race day, there were too many people in the grandstands - they seemed to have given up on restricting entry. People were sat on stairs, taking others' seats, and there was no proper stewarding. It was very messy. 

 

I could go on, but it was hands down the worst organised big event I've ever been to, and certainly the worst Grand Prix experience (this was my ninth I think). I tried to tot up how many hours I'd spent in queues at Monza over the three days and got to around 14, but it could well be more. For about five and a bit hours of F1 action I can't say it was worth it.

 

If you want to see other horror stories, just search for stuff like 'monza organisation' or 'monza tokens' on Twitter. Hopefully someone in the F1 media will pick up on it. https://twitter.com/...src=typed_query

 

That all sounds quite horrendous. Glad we went to Spa and not Monza.

[Clatter]

Oh boy, what a sh!tshow... 

 

And this year's Italian Grand Prix proudly brought to you by the home of Ferrari!

 

They must use the same people that Ferrari do for their strategy.

[SenorSjon]

Yikes. This is indeed a story that should be picked up. Thanks for the detailed report. I don’t want to slack off my F1-media colleagues, but… critical reporting is having a low at the moment… (BTW: nothing similar happened at the Dutch GP. The incidents with women harassed was nasty, but had little to do with the organization, which seemed stressed but adequate. And the aforementioned incidents were reported upon.)

 

https://twitter.com/...269211918131206

 

I think that happens at every track when temperatures soar.

[Nemo1965]

Oooft where do I start?

Public transport was pretty terrible all weekend, though I guess the circuit cannot help the strikes on Friday. But by Sunday train provision was abysmal, with so many cancellations - it just wasn't fit for purpose for 150,000 people trying to get out of Monza and get back to Milan. I've been to the Monza race before and I'm sure that was better. The shuttle buses from Monza station to the circuit were pretty bad too.

But the organisation at the circuit was truly atrocious. It was very hot all weekend, but you could only bring in a small bottle of water and at the entrance they confiscated the bottle cap. You could also not bring in food or other drink (even soft drinks), and reusable bottles were taken off people. The bottle cap thing might had made sense had they not been happily selling you capped bottles at the circuit. But that's if you could buy them... which is where it really gets messy.

So none of the food/drink stalls took cash or contactless cards; you had to buy tokens in order to purchase these. The two options were physcial tokens (which meant people were walking round with huge bags of these damn things), or they were promoting an NFC bracelet system where you top up online and pay with the bracelet from your credit. Even though I went on Friday morning, it still took two hours of faffing and queuing to get this - the system kept going down. It was chaos. Luckily I got one though, as they gave up with this later in the weekend, which meant that there were huge queues for tokens, before you could then queue up for food and drink. There were not enough token stalls for the sheer number of people, so many people just spent much of their weekend in queues. By Sunday tokens were running out, so people could not buy food or drink. The only other option for water was free water points, but the queues for these were horrendous. It was absolutely scandalous. People were buying bottles with caps from each other so they could have something to hold water.

There weren't enough stalls for the people there, so any kind of purchase of food or drink took forever.

Toilets were disgusting and overflowing (luckily as a bloke I could go into the woods, and eventually a female friend was doing the same as she couldn't face the sanitatary situation).

Getting into the circuit took over two hours every morning. There weren't enough ticket barriers, and apparently the organisers just gave up and opened them. I'm not sure if there were many non-ticket holders in, but general admission was full to bursting. Sight points had been further restricted this year, and I met many GA people (I had a lot of conversations in the queues!) who said they didn't see anything on track. One Canadian guy I spoke to had paid a four figure sum for a scalped raceday grandstand ticket as he saw nothing of qualifying.

For the 'free roaming' Friday, I went with my Parabolica ticket up to a virtually empty grandstand at Serraglio, but was denied entry. However, by race day, there were too many people in the grandstands - they seemed to have given up on restricting entry. People were sat on stairs, taking others' seats, and there was no proper stewarding. It was very messy.

I could go on, but it was hands down the worst organised big event I've ever been to, and certainly the worst Grand Prix experience (this was my ninth I think). I tried to tot up how many hours I'd spent in queues at Monza over the three days and got to around 14, but it could well be more. For about five and a bit hours of F1 action I can't say it was worth it.

If you want to see other horror stories, just search for stuff like 'monza organisation' or 'monza tokens' on Twitter. Hopefully someone in the F1 media will pick up on it. https://twitter.com/...src=typed_query

BTW: You understand that from an experienced Monza-visitor it is kind of expected that he or she writes the OP for the Italian GP, right? Noblesse oblige…So next year I will send you a reminder!

Edited by Nemo1965, 13 September 2022 - 11:12.

[Gareth]

Is the reason for confiscating bottle tops so the bottles can’t be thrown?

[Clrnc]

Thanks Jimmy. Great write up and so so useful for people who wants to visit Monza. 

 

I went to Monaco early this year, none of this crap that you say so I was pretty lucky. In fact, we could bring drinks and food in whenever we want, stalls there were adequate and plenty selling food and drinks (contactless payment or cash is fine, no faffs). 

 

And I was already annoyed I queued 1.5 hours for a train to get out of Monaco back to Nice.    seems pretty lucky compared to you. 

[JimmyClark]

BTW: You understand that from an experienced Monza-visitor it is kind of expected that he or she writes the OP for the Italian GP, right? Noblesse oblige…So next year I will send you a reminder!

Haha I can't say I've heard of that but if you remind me I'd be happy to ;)

Is the reason for confiscating bottle tops so the bottles can’t be thrown?

If it was, then what's the point of selling you water with bottle caps on in the circuit?

[Gareth]

If it was, then what's the point of selling you water with bottle caps on in the circuit?

I can't see why there's any reason to remove the caps on entry, and have them in place on sales, other than perhaps security and retail not being joined up? So I agree it makes no sense!

 

Just wondering why they were doing it at all. I've not experienced that at any event before. I guess they must have a reason, even if it's a crap one!

[Jarninho]

Oooft where do I start? 

 

Public transport was pretty terrible all weekend, though I guess the circuit cannot help the strikes on Friday. But by Sunday train provision was abysmal, with so many cancellations - it just wasn't fit for purpose for 150,000 people trying to get out of Monza and get back to Milan. I've been to the Monza race before and I'm sure that was better. The shuttle buses from Monza station to the circuit were pretty bad too. 

 

But the organisation at the circuit was truly atrocious. It was very hot all weekend, but you could only bring in a small bottle of water and at the entrance they confiscated the bottle cap. You could also not bring in food or other drink (even soft drinks), and reusable bottles were taken off people. The bottle cap thing might had made sense had they not been happily selling you capped bottles at the circuit. But that's if you could buy them... which is where it really gets messy. 

 

So none of the food/drink stalls took cash or contactless cards; you had to buy tokens in order to purchase these. The two options were physcial tokens (which meant people were walking round with huge bags of these damn things), or they were promoting an NFC bracelet system where you top up online and pay with the bracelet from your credit. Even though I went on Friday morning, it still took two hours of faffing and queuing to get this - the system kept going down. It was chaos. Luckily I got one though, as they gave up with this later in the weekend, which meant that there were huge queues for tokens, before you could then queue up for food and drink. There were not enough token stalls for the sheer number of people, so many people just spent much of their weekend in queues. By Sunday tokens were running out, so people could not buy food or drink. The only other option for water was free water points, but the queues for these were horrendous. It was absolutely scandalous. People were buying bottles with caps from each other so they could have something to hold water. 

 

There weren't enough stalls for the people there, so any kind of purchase of food or drink took forever.

 

Toilets were disgusting and overflowing (luckily as a bloke I could go into the woods, and eventually a female friend was doing the same as she couldn't face the sanitatary situation). 

 

Getting into the circuit took over two hours every morning. There weren't enough ticket barriers, and apparently the organisers just gave up and opened them. I'm not sure if there were many non-ticket holders in, but general admission was full to bursting. Sight points had been further restricted this year, and I met many GA people (I had a lot of conversations in the queues!) who said they didn't see anything on track. One Canadian guy I spoke to had paid a four figure sum for a scalped raceday grandstand ticket as he saw nothing of qualifying. 

 

For the 'free roaming' Friday, I went with my Parabolica ticket up to a virtually empty grandstand at Serraglio, but was denied entry. However, by race day, there were too many people in the grandstands - they seemed to have given up on restricting entry. People were sat on stairs, taking others' seats, and there was no proper stewarding. It was very messy. 

 

I could go on, but it was hands down the worst organised big event I've ever been to, and certainly the worst Grand Prix experience (this was my ninth I think). I tried to tot up how many hours I'd spent in queues at Monza over the three days and got to around 14, but it could well be more. For about five and a bit hours of F1 action I can't say it was worth it.

 

If you want to see other horror stories, just search for stuff like 'monza organisation' or 'monza tokens' on Twitter. Hopefully someone in the F1 media will pick up on it. https://twitter.com/...src=typed_query

 

I only went on Friday. Had tickets for inside Parabolica. All of the above is true. But I can add a bit more...

 

We had an apartment in Milan, about 45 mins by subway from the central station. We got to the central station and we asked many people working in coffee stands how to get to the GP. No one knew. We stood in line for the info desk, but the guy didn't know anything. There were no signs anywhere. It started to feel like we were in completely the wrong city. We asked many fans wearing Ferrari caps and no one had a clue.

After trying many different ticket machines we finally found one that had the Monza destination on it. But it said no seats available. Well I didn't mind standing but I just couldn't buy a ticket until after F1. Finally we found a Ferrari hat that said he heard somewhere that maybe there was a strike. It took us 45 minutes to find this out. It didn't say that anywhere and no one had told us.

 

We decided to go back to the hotel and take the car. So that was 45+45+45 mins wasted to get back to square one. It was 25 km to the track. Upon entering Monza we stopped moving for a long time. There were no, I repeat, no signs. No traffic controllers. Nothing. I had to rely on google maps the entire time. When we finally made it to the road parallel to the main straight we saw a big parking lot, but it turned out to be reservation only (which we only found out when they asked for our reservation, no signs). We had no idea where the other parking lots were. We were incredibly lucky to find a spot and we just parked and got to the entrance. No idea if it was allowed to park there (we weren't fined so I guess all good).

 

We already heard about the bottle caps so we put them in our pocket and put them back on after passing security while holding our plastic drinks bottle. There were indeed massive amounts of those expensive aluminium bottles confiscated. Passing security and getting in was the easiest part of our journey. We had to walk to the inside of Parabolica and we just followed the signs which took us into a tunnel under the main straight. But of course at a certain point the signs stopped and we had to ask. We could almost see our grand stand but just couldn't get there. Turned out we had to go under the back straight, take a right, walk a bit, go back over the back straight again, follow the inside of Parabolica till we got to our seats. We took our seats at 14.15. We started our journey at 9.45.

And only after FP1 I found out about the stupid coin system.

We left after FP2 and got back to our hotel at 21.00. That's 3 hours for a 25 km journey. Luckily we had plenty of water in the car.

 

On Firday it wasn't even busy. Grandstands I could see maybe 25-40 % full. Sunday must have been horrible. 

 

Some very easy improvements would have been:

-We booked our tickets directly. If the organisation had sent an e-mail informing us about the train strike we would have saved a lot of time.

-If the organisation had told us which gate to take onto the track I could have parked at the other side of the track and saved a lot of time walking, and perhaps also in traffic.

-They should have given us gps info on where to park.

-Stop confiscating bottle caps. You're messing with peoples health. Alcohol I can understand but taking water from people is just criminal. 

-Get rid of the token system. If i can tap my card on your toll routes I can also do it for a drink. In fact I could tap to buy tokens. 

 

Some other improvements that are usually present at other events:

-Some traffic control would have been nice. Both for the residents as well as the visitors. Now everyone was suffering in the free for all system.

-Put up some signs at the main station on where to go. Inform some of the workers there.

 

It can't be a lack of personnel that caused all this because I saw a lot of people doing absolutely nothing. It was the management of the event that was terrible.

[Clrnc]

You must have prepared to go to the circuit very early considering you wasted 45+45+45 and still made it for FP1. 

[Jarninho]

We left in good spirits around 9.45. FP1 only started at 14.00, but I had also planned to see some other classes. F3 started at 9.15, so i wasn't particularly early. It was sheer luck I could park so close to the main entrance otherwise i would have missed F1 FP1 entirely. An entire train of cars in front of me passed the spot before i took it. It was less than 5 mins from the entrance. 

[taran]

I feel the Monza horror stories point towards a national characteristic as it mirrors Ferrari's lack of organizational ability too much to be a coincidence.

 

While I didn't attend the Dutch GP, I did learn about some of the planning behind it, specifically the meetings with local authorities to coordinate the managing of the mass of people attending the race. Obviously, it wasn't perfect but you'd be surprised how much planning was involved. Clearly, they thought about it.

 

I personally was involved in a 1-week state visit by an imperial prince and princess (and entourage) a few years ago and we spent months planning it and ended up with a scenario book that went through 37 drafts with literally no detail too small to solve.

 

Monza seems a clear example of inadequate planning and there is no excuse as it is not a new venue and Monza is typically sold out every year so it's not like they were surprised by a sudden influx of visitors. 

 

Maybe the popular image of Italians being unable to arrange a piss up in a brewery holds some truth....

Edited by taran, 13 September 2022 - 13:39.

[JimmyClark]

I feel the Monza horror stories point towards a national characteristic as it mirrors Ferrari's lack of organizational ability too much to be a coincidence.

 

While I didn't attend the Dutch GP, I did learn about some of the planning behind it, specifically the meetings with local authorities to coordinate the managing of the mass of people attending the race. Obviously, it wasn't perfect but you'd be surprised how much planning was involved. Clearly, they thought about it.

 

I personally was involved in a 1-week state visit by an imperial prince and princess (and entourage) a few years ago and we spent months planning it and ended up with a scenario book that went through 37 drafts with literally no detail too small to solve.

 

Monza seems a clear example of inadequate planning and there is no excuse as it is not a new venue and Monza is typically sold out every year so it's not like they were surprised by a sudden influx of visitors. 

 

Maybe the popular image of Italians being unable to arrange a piss up in a brewery holds some truth....

 

I've been to Monza before, granted 13 years ago (so I might have had a lot more patience in my youth and/or blurred out bad memories), but I remember it being fine. 

 

Quite simply they sold too many tickets for the event. That's what many of the problems boiled down to.

 

Train strikes didn't help, but I didn't know about this on Friday and somehow got straight onto a train to Monza at Milan - friends I met there, and most other people going, didn't have such luck though. Getting back was more of a pain, but still fine on Friday. For Sunday we just walked to Monza town from the circuit, which was still quicker than waiting for the shuttle buses (after a nightmare on Saturday), and both Saturday and Sunday we stayed in Monza for drinks waiting for Milan trains to die down. 

 

But as I said I think there was just a bit of greed from the promotors trying to get as many people in as possible, without thinking of the consequences for the fans on the ground. Then the hated token system and bizarre security policies just exascerbated it all. 

 

One good thing about the disorganisation was that I got onto the old banking at the top end of the circuit without too much trouble on Friday; security even helped me through the fence ("But this is between us!" they said). I got some great pictures. It was pretty amazing seeing it in the flesh. 

[taran]

I've been to Monza before, granted 13 years ago (so I might have had a lot more patience in my youth and/or blurred out bad memories), but I remember it being fine. 

 

Quite simply they sold too many tickets for the event. That's what many of the problems boiled down to.

 

Train strikes didn't help, but I didn't know about this on Friday and somehow got straight onto a train to Monza at Milan - friends I met there, and most other people going, didn't have such luck though. Getting back was more of a pain, but still fine on Friday. For Sunday we just walked to Monza town from the circuit, which was still quicker than waiting for the shuttle buses (after a nightmare on Saturday), and both Saturday and Sunday we stayed in Monza for drinks waiting for Milan trains to die down. 

 

But as I said I think there was just a bit of greed from the promotors trying to get as many people in as possible, without thinking of the consequences for the fans on the ground. Then the hated token system and bizarre security policies just exascerbated it all. 

 

One good thing about the disorganisation was that I got onto the old banking at the top end of the circuit without too much trouble on Friday; security even helped me through the fence ("But this is between us!" they said). I got some great pictures. It was pretty amazing seeing it in the flesh. 

That's the real problem....

 

They are wonderful people with no notion of punctuality and they make beautiful things but poorly....you are either enchanted or annoyed with nothing in between.

 

Spoken as someone with friends in the Carabinieri and whose father and sister drove Alfa Romeo's....

[SenorSjon]

Is the reason for confiscating bottle tops so the bottles can’t be thrown?

 

No, they can sell you more. It is common on festivals as well to prevent people bringing their own drinks and not paying a kidney for a drink.

[Jarninho]

Quite simply they sold too many tickets for the event. That's what many of the problems boiled down to.

 

 

On Sunday it was probably really bad, but Friday was pretty empty and it was already quite bad then. 

[cbo]

Oooft where do I start?

Public transport was pretty terrible all weekend, though I guess the circuit cannot help the strikes on Friday. But by Sunday train provision was abysmal, with so many cancellations - it just wasn't fit for purpose for 150,000 people trying to get out of Monza and get back to Milan. I've been to the Monza race before and I'm sure that was better. The shuttle buses from Monza station to the circuit were pretty bad too.

But the organisation at the circuit was truly atrocious. It was very hot all weekend, but you could only bring in a small bottle of water and at the entrance they confiscated the bottle cap. You could also not bring in food or other drink (even soft drinks), and reusable bottles were taken off people. The bottle cap thing might had made sense had they not been happily selling you capped bottles at the circuit. But that's if you could buy them... which is where it really gets messy.

So none of the food/drink stalls took cash or contactless cards; you had to buy tokens in order to purchase these. The two options were physcial tokens (which meant people were walking round with huge bags of these damn things), or they were promoting an NFC bracelet system where you top up online and pay with the bracelet from your credit. Even though I went on Friday morning, it still took two hours of faffing and queuing to get this - the system kept going down. It was chaos. Luckily I got one though, as they gave up with this later in the weekend, which meant that there were huge queues for tokens, before you could then queue up for food and drink. There were not enough token stalls for the sheer number of people, so many people just spent much of their weekend in queues. By Sunday tokens were running out, so people could not buy food or drink. The only other option for water was free water points, but the queues for these were horrendous. It was absolutely scandalous. People were buying bottles with caps from each other so they could have something to hold water.

There weren't enough stalls for the people there, so any kind of purchase of food or drink took forever.

Toilets were disgusting and overflowing (luckily as a bloke I could go into the woods, and eventually a female friend was doing the same as she couldn't face the sanitatary situation).

Getting into the circuit took over two hours every morning. There weren't enough ticket barriers, and apparently the organisers just gave up and opened them. I'm not sure if there were many non-ticket holders in, but general admission was full to bursting. Sight points had been further restricted this year, and I met many GA people (I had a lot of conversations in the queues!) who said they didn't see anything on track. One Canadian guy I spoke to had paid a four figure sum for a scalped raceday grandstand ticket as he saw nothing of qualifying.

For the 'free roaming' Friday, I went with my Parabolica ticket up to a virtually empty grandstand at Serraglio, but was denied entry. However, by race day, there were too many people in the grandstands - they seemed to have given up on restricting entry. People were sat on stairs, taking others' seats, and there was no proper stewarding. It was very messy.

I could go on, but it was hands down the worst organised big event I've ever been to, and certainly the worst Grand Prix experience (this was my ninth I think). I tried to tot up how many hours I'd spent in queues at Monza over the three days and got to around 14, but it could well be more. For about five and a bit hours of F1 action I can't say it was worth it.

If you want to see other horror stories, just search for stuff like 'monza organisation' or 'monza tokens' on Twitter. Hopefully someone in the F1 media will pick up on it. https://twitter.com/...src=typed_query

Because, Italy? 😁

I travelled a bit in Italy in the 1980ies and this narrative fits perfectly with my experience from post offices, cafeterias, campgrounds, you name it.

Charming at first, then it got old and I haven't been there since 😄

Edited by cbo, 13 September 2022 - 15:30.