British Grand Prix

I was thinking of taking my boy to next year's British GP. Having never been myself, I was just wondering if anyone had any advice about it. He'll be 8, and I was thinking of going for the Saturday and Sunday, camping overnight. For the cheapest, general admission tickets (bearing in mind he's free), it's going to come to over £300. And that's without petrol costs, food, and other 'expenses' when we're there, such as programmes and entertainment etc.

Is it worth it? Other events are far cheaper, but are they anywhere near as good an experience? Also, are the general admission views decent enough?

Personally, I’m not sure I’d bother at that cost. Why’s it going to be so expensive?

The views you get from general admission are nowhere near as good as the grandstands. Think I’ve been 6 times - 3 of each - and the Becketts grandstand is probably the best - but, with me a two (adult) kids that was over £1000.

On the plus side, the overall entertainment is usually better at the British GP than most circuits with lots of racing and off-track and aerial entertainment. Traffic can be pretty horrible.

Worth it? Only you can say.

I've vowed never to go back to the British GP - and I'm a big F1 fan. It is very expensive and because of the way Bernie Eccleston structured the finance, the organisers basically have to fleece the fans to try to make any money at all.
Unless you have grandstand seats, the views for spectators are terrible, and unless you get up at 4am to walk (the substantial distance) from the campsite to the circuit, you'll find every decent viewing point is 5 deep.

If you can, I'd consider the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona instead. We did this a few years ago and stayed in an AirBnB for 3 nights in Barceloneta (a district of the city near the beach). There is an excellent and inexpensive bus service direct to the circuit (about 40 mins from the city if memory serves).

The overall cost including flights, accommodation and grandstand seats at the end of the pit straight was very similar to one night at the British GP and the experience was so, so much better.

I've also baled out of the British GP due to cost. The last time I was there with my two lads, the cost for three of us to get in and sit down was over a grand

For the last four years, we've spent about double that amount for five days at the LeMans 24h race - far more enjoyable, although its not quite as accessible (16-hour journey a couple of years ago...)

As above.

Two years ago I went to Spa, Belgium for two thirds of the cost (Inc fuel and food).
Campsites are not as good as the Woodlands site thou.

Give the Silverstone Classic a go. Its cheaper, lots more going on, the pits and paddock are accessible, grandstands are free and there is live music at night.
To be honest, seeing some of those old F1 cars going round is more enjoyable than the new ones.

Based on the costs of attending the GB GP I would say a trip overseas is more appealing?
The Silverstone Classic would be worth a go though.

Thanks for the thoughts - it pretty much sums my feelings up about it. The ticket for myself would be about £130, as my lad's only going to be 8 this time next year, he's free. However, the camping adds on £150, then there's the booking fees etc. If I knew I'd have a decent view I'd possibly go for it, but I think that unless we were close to the action he'd probably get bored fairly quickly. I'll have a look at other events...

I've only ever been to Silverstone for F1 once as a corporate guest, and even then the viewing position was not that great. I would probably not even be allowed to accept a "gift" like that these days due to various anti-corruption rules

But in (many) years gone by, when F1 was at Brands Hatch, I used to go to the practice day (Friday) and got some great views of the cars without the crowds and without the expense, I don't know whether that's still an option? Brands is a much better spectator circuit, even with the crazy fences up there now, shame it likely will never host F1 again

I did attend one day of the Silverstone Classic and agree that it is much better value with some interesting historic "racing" (but I'm not sure that everyone was driving flat out), with entry costs ranging from £43-£120 as part of the car club display, depending how early you booked and how many days you were there (1, 2 or 3) and camping was an extra £49 for adults & £16.50 for kids 6-16, so your father & son package still might start to approach £200...

Otherwise Spa is a great circuit for viewing, a bit like Brands in that it's not dead flat like Silverstone.

I had a terrible experience at Spa - made Silverstone seem amazing - but that was quite a few years ago.

To put pricing into perspective, 2 years ago my wife and I did the Monaco Grand Prix.

Midweek flight down to Nice, Airbnb, Practice 3 and Quali and the race itself. We had General admission tickets for both days which gave us plenty of options as to where to watch the race form. We used the train to and from Nice although there are plenty of buses/coaches laid on.

For the 2 of us it just over a grand for 4 nights.

So, given the choice of going to a windy ex airfield only 25 miles from where I live, or to the French Riviera, only one choice for me