277 replies to this topic

[Miles749]

Hamilton’s first win in 3 years is gonna be a sweet reward for all those fans

I love the fact that you made this comment, went to the race, caught two signed caps by Russel and Hamilton and witnessed that race and victory.

[FirstnameLastname]

I love the fact that you made this comment, went to the race, caught two signed caps by Russel and Hamilton and witnessed that race and victory.

Yeah, I honestly still can’t believe it myself! Was such an amazing weekend, loved it.

[JimmyClark]

Record attendance this year, though. Perhaps the pricing policy is not as stupid as we might think.

 

Oh its great for business, but prices out many traditonal fans, so I can't agree with it. 

[FirstnameLastname]

Oh its great for business, but prices out many traditonal fans, so I can't agree with it.

It’s that choice between pricing out the traditional fans, and pricing themselves out of being able to host a race I guess. Obviously they are a business so they will (reluctantly?) go with the first option if it means they can thrive… and from the looks of the investment at Silverstone, they must be doing alright for themselves

[Silverstone96]

I attended 25 British GP’s but I guess Silverstone didn’t owe me any loyalty like I don’t owe them, it doesn’t really exist these days.

The last couple of years I’ve gone to the Silverstone Festival (formerly Classic) which I have to say is great value, even if prices on that are creeping up too!

No it’s not the Grand Prix but the sheer volume and diversity of machinery on track and off is superb, if you’re baulking at going to f1 again then I highly recommend trying this instead.

[MikeTekRacing]

Oh its great for business, but prices out many traditonal fans, so I can't agree with it. 

traditional fans aren't paying tomorrow's bills for F1

[IrvTheSwerve]

Oh its great for business, but prices out many traditonal fans, so I can't agree with it. 

The thing for me is that the product just isn’t worth the price, especially to do on a yearly basis as I used to.

 

The thought of paying half or a third of today’s prices to see some epic V10s tear around the track (and also see driver helmets) makes it tough to swallow.

[lamo]

I have been going since the mid 1990’s and always managed to get one over them. The first time I ever went in 1996, my uncle came with me and my Dad. He never had a ticket and said to my Dad “give me the cool box”, he walked straight in and someone questioned him he just kept waking and said “I told you 5 minutes ago, I am running out to get my cool box” .. “oh ok” and he was in for free.

 

He smoked, so spent a decent amount of time doing free scratch cards with the B&H and Marlboro ladies which nearly always won you a free 20 box of cigarettes. He left with about 400 cigarettes and the top prize a B&H Jordan jacket. In the end they gave him a 200 carton to get rid of him. My Dad tells me that during the 80’s he actually got into the pits at Brands Hatch.

 

When I started to go on my own. The first year we only had 2 camping tickets for 4 people and they said it was sold out and only two of us could camp. Even though it would still be 2 tents they would not budge.  So we cut the wrist bands in half and taped them to our watches or sleeves using tape for a cars first aid kit.  That weekend we realised when you leave the track they stamp your hand with a basic shape and the colour of it changed each day.

 

The next year we turned up with 6 people but only 2 camping tickets and 2 GA race tickets. The same again, we managed to get 3 out of each camping wristband and had small safety pins to attach to our long sleeve shirts (no T shirts allowed). We also had masking tape, scissors and a 30 pack of children’s felt tips to be able to replicate any colour they had for stamps.

 

Friday, two of us enter and they tear off the ticket and leave you the stub. One of us exits with both stubs, get stamped on the hand. It turns out it was a map of the track. Back to the campsite to fashion our own stamp and green felt tip. Apply stamps all around and rinse and repeat the 2 in 1 (usually moving to different gates) out routine until all 6 are in.

 

This worked for over a decade. One year we only turned up with camping tickets and managed to buy 2 cheap tickets at the camp site on the Friday night. There is always someone with unused tickets there. Silvertsone never sold out, so we would usually buy 2 tickets at about half price the week of the race on eBay.

The amount Silvertsone spent on security was quite shocking. They have fixed this loophole now though but created quite a few others.

 

I did actually go this year, first time since 2019. I still managed a little one up on them. I sold off my Friday and Saturday tickets (for way below what they ask for them) to make my Sunday ticket cost a more palatable £150. I also managed to enter without having my QR code scanned. Old habits die hard.  The art of distraction, confusion and a little nonchalant confidence.

 

Another year, I think it was 2012 I bought “Friday tickets with parking” on eBay a few days before. 4x tickets for £100 with parking. Collecting them on route. I meet the person to buy the tickets. It’s 2x tickets + parking, but the tickets are hospitality tickets and they say once you are in the car park a person will come and give you the other two. So we drive to the car park (central track car park) they just wave us in when they see the parking pass in the window.  We were parked next to Damon Hills car (forget what it was, but the numbered plate was his name). All the drivers were parked here too. The person brings out the tickets and they are for Hospitality for Brooklands, 4x tickets. We can’t believe it, we bought them as general admission, so we head over to brooklands to have our meal and nice seat. We present our tickets “one moment please”, a few minutes later they come back and say we are very sorry there is no hospitality for that room today. Haha. Oh well, worth a try. So we roam around the inner track and nobody ever asks to see our tickets. The only time we had to show our tickets was to re-enter the track centre as we ventured over the bridge.

 

When we leave, we realise our car parking ticket is for the entire weekend… you guessed it. We return on Sunday, 5 of us now. Security is a little tighter than on the Sunday and we aren’t waved through. “Do you have your tickets gents?”, “no, not yet we are collecting them at Brooklands”, “car park to the left, enjoy the race!”. We managed to get into a grandstand that was half empty on the inner circuit, “we are from Brooklands hospitality, we’ve been in there all weekend , can we watch from here?” and in we went.  I think these are actually for hospitality guests to venture trackside but are rarely fully used.

 

Anybody else get one up on them over the years?

Edited by lamo, 27 July 2024 - 00:51.

[FirstnameLastname]

I love that ^ great stories!

We had GA tickets this year, but I did notice that they must pay peanuts for their security - the people guarding the entrances to the stands looked like they really couldn’t give a toss. I saw someone approach a stand with a tray of chips in each hand and they were just waved through after doing an awkward ‘I haven’t got a spare hand to get my QR code out’ sort of shrug

Also, there was quite a few times where the person guarding a stand entrance would disappear - I was up for just darting in and into the stand but my wife is a stickler for the rules, thinking if we got caught we’d be thrown out the track

But yeah, a lot of the security just don’t seem to give a toss really. Also the amount of people means it’s possible to just chance walking straight past and into a crowd and nobody will bat an eyelid. The ‘bag checks’ are also laughable, my wife had some tampons in her rucksack and the security guard engaged panic moment the minute he saw them for some reason and decided to not check the rest of the bag

[pdac]

I have been going since the mid 1990’s and always managed to get one over them....

 

A perfect fit for F1 - someone who cheats, steals and takes advantage of all loopholes.

[lamo]

A perfect fit for F1 - someone who cheats, steals and takes advantage of all loopholes.

Haha yes very true. All of our group have very high level of civil obedience outside of that weekend.

From Silvertsones point of view, they got 2 tickets sold for a none sold out event. None of us would have gone at full price. So they were up overall as well. 
Plus, on the high of getting so much money off elsewhere we spent a lot with the small private food vendors and establishments within the campsites. We would never pull these kind of tricks on small business or individuals. 

[FirstnameLastname]

My father was at Spa. He was telling me that they had a ‘token’ system in place where you had to buy a card in order to buy food at the track. Minimum to pre-load on the card was €50, but there was also a fee for this. You couldn’t spend across multiple cards either, so they had 2 cards but once 1 got down to a euro or so, it was essentially ‘lost’ money - as it cost €1.50 to ‘convert’ your money back to real cash after the race.

Sounds like a total rip off, and a way of even more stealth money being generated for F1

[southernstars]

My father was at Spa. He was telling me that they had a ‘token’ system in place where you had to buy a card in order to buy food at the track. Minimum to pre-load on the card was €50, but there was also a fee for this. You couldn’t spend across multiple cards either, so they had 2 cards but once 1 got down to a euro or so, it was essentially ‘lost’ money - as it cost €1.50 to ‘convert’ your money back to real cash after the race.

Sounds like a total rip off, and a way of even more stealth money being generated for F1

 

There were plenty of stories about a similar system having issues at Monza two years ago, too.

[JimmyClark]

There were plenty of stories about a similar system having issues at Monza two years ago, too.

Yes, I was there for that one and it was utter chaos. We arrived early on Friday and it took two hours to get one beer despite the bar tents being empty! (Just the time it took to get our tokens). Heaven knows how people dealt with it when it got more crowded.

By Sunday afternoon the whole system had collapsed and they were just giving beer away for free at my grandstand. Even funnier, my mate got an automatic refund of the €150 he uploaded to the system (and spent), despite spending it all (sadly that didnt happen to me).

The poor catering staff were at their wits end, they're the ones I felt most sorry for.

[Stephane]

You could load less, i know because i did.

But, yeah, i hate this system, but it is absolutely in every big event now.

Unless you are sponsored by Visa like the Olympics, this is cheaper for them than using mastercard/visa systems.

[IrvTheSwerve]

My father was at Spa. He was telling me that they had a ‘token’ system in place where you had to buy a card in order to buy food at the track. Minimum to pre-load on the card was €50, but there was also a fee for this. You couldn’t spend across multiple cards either, so they had 2 cards but once 1 got down to a euro or so, it was essentially ‘lost’ money - as it cost €1.50 to ‘convert’ your money back to real cash after the race.

Sounds like a total rip off, and a way of even more stealth money being generated for F1

Yeah they’ve had that for years now, certainly when I was last there in 2017…

[FirstnameLastname]

Well good on silverstone for sticking with cash/card

[southernstars]

Melbourne also sticks with cash/card.

[loki]

You could load less, i know because i did.

But, yeah, i hate this system, but it is absolutely in every big event now.

Unless you are sponsored by Visa like the Olympics, this is cheaper for them than using mastercard/visa systems.

The card processing fees are in the 2%-4% range depending on the vendor.  The events processing the cards to turn them into food cards don’t get rates any less expensive.  It’s not about the rates.  It’s about having a mechanism from which the vendors pay a percentage of sales revenue to whomever controls the concession.  They get a cut and this way the vendors can’t underreport.

[Stephane]

I'll talk about Spa. There's just one vendor for food. So no cut for anyone else.

There's not only the rates in the EMV system, you also need the approved hardware.

[miso]

What's the range of food ike at Spa if it is just one vendor? My partner would love to go but I am not keen for varous reasons and poor food would just add to my list. 

 

Hungary had a broad range of food this year. They even had a separate section of free food (eg: gluten free, dairy free, vegan though those options were also around elsewhere). It was cash/card. You can buy Super Gold parking access now (I read it was previously only available if you bought 4 Super Gold tickets) and it was well worth it. I would go again if it wasn't in late July. 

We likely would have attended the Australian GP this year but the pay for early bird access has turned us both off completely. We're fortunate we can afford to travel to attend races but paying for access and dynamic pricing are both off-putting. I don't want to pay for nothing. 

[IrvTheSwerve]

What's the range of food ike at Spa if it is just one vendor? My partner would love to go but I am not keen for varous reasons and poor food would just add to my list. 

 

Hungary had a broad range of food this year. They even had a separate section of free food (eg: gluten free, dairy free, vegan though those options were also around elsewhere). It was cash/card. You can buy Super Gold parking access now (I read it was previously only available if you bought 4 Super Gold tickets) and it was well worth it. I would go again if it wasn't in late July. 

We likely would have attended the Australian GP this year but the pay for early bird access has turned us both off completely. We're fortunate we can afford to travel to attend races but paying for access and dynamic pricing are both off-putting. I don't want to pay for nothing. 

Not sure why food choice would put you off a GP!

 

In my experience Spa is just like any event, I wouldn’t say there was poor choice there but then again I’m going for the racing. You can get your hot dogs, chips, burgers etc. We tend to take our own food there anyway, call in a local supermarket for some baguettes, ham, cheese and crisps and you’re good to go.

 

Silverstone is particularly good for food now in terms of variety.

[miso]

Yes, I attended Silverstone in 2016 and thought it had good variety and it sounds like it has only improved. 

 

I said I'd add it to the list of reasons I'm not keen to attend, not that it would be the only one. I realise food isn't a big deal to most people but they probably aren't travelling with someone with a million intolerances.

[Clatter]

Not sure why food choice would put you off a GP!

In my experience Spa is just like any event, I wouldn’t say there was poor choice there but then again I’m going for the racing. You can get your hot dogs, chips, burgers etc. We tend to take our own food there anyway, call in a local supermarket for some baguettes, ham, cheese and crisps and you’re good to go.

Silverstone is particularly good for food now in terms of variety.

I've always taken my own food and drink. Refuse to pay the prices inside the circuit. Only minor problem was the year I went to Spa they introduced a ban on taking your own alcohol in, don't know if that's still the case.

[Stephane]

Yep, no alcohol in allowed this year

[loki]

I'll talk about Spa. There's just one vendor for food. So no cut for anyone else.

There's not only the rates in the EMV system, you also need the approved hardware.

The cut would be for whomever allows them to be the sole vendor.  Wallonia or whomever the promoter or authority over concessions would be getting a cut if there were such a deal.  The card processing systems are now able to run on mobile smart devices.  They're anywhere from under a hundred to a few hundred.  The unified payment system is for reasons other than processing.

[FirstnameLastname]

Silverstone was outstanding for food stalls this year (if you had the money). So much variety, no queues (unless you wanted a baked potato!) and the prices weren’t totally mental.

I know you’re there for the racing, but the off track experience at Silverstone was exceptional and definitely added to the weekend experience

[miso]

I know you’re there for the racing, but the off track experience at Silverstone was exceptional and definitely added to the weekend experience

Your weekend sounded amazing. I like when it feels like a weekend event and not just a race weekend though others here clearly feel differently. Singapore is amazing for that reason. Even when I'm not that interested in the artists selected, the whole event is fantastic. Plus, you get your full two hours in on race day. 😂