Insider tips and tricks to maximize your F1 experience at the Miami and Emilia Romagna (Imola) Grand Prix races.
Insider tips and tricks to maximize your F1 experience at the Miami and Emilia Romagna (Imola) Grand Prix races.
AdamR46: Founder of Grand Prix Travel, the #1 community on Reddit and FanAmp for Formula 1 fans enjoying races around the world
F1Destinations: The guru for Grand Prix travel guides, tickets, and tips with over a decade of industry expertise
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Join_FanAmp: Greg is the Founder of FanAmp, the app connecting Formula 1 fans to the communities, live conversations, news, and more that maximize their F1 experiences
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ZoeyERacing: An American racing driver who brings a wide range of experience having competed in F4, EXR, the Saleen Cup, Stadium Super Trucks, and more
[00:00:00] AdamR46: Hey guys, what's going on? This isAdamR46. I am the founder and moderator of r/GrandPrixTravel and this is our new episode of Know Before You Go. Today we're going to cover Miami and Imola. I've been to Miami, I have not been to Imola, but we have some people who have been, and I'm familiar with the area. I've been to MotoGP out in Misano a couple times, and it's a great place of Italy to visit. It's known as Motor Valley, which is the home of Ferrari, Ducati, Lamborghini, Pagani. It's pretty incredible out there.
In Miami, well, it's Miami. It's a party and lots of sports, lots of things to do, lots of good food, beach vibes. It's got everything. Joining us today, we got Greg with FanAmp. Greg, you wanna say anything?
[00:00:53] Join_FanAmp: [laughs] Yeah. I guess you did the intro for me, so there we go. Yeah.
[00:00:57] AdamR46: We've got Andrew with F1Destinations…
[00:01:01] F1Destinations: Hi everyone.
[00:00:57] AdamR46: …and we’ve got Zoey.
[00:01:04] ZoeyERacing: Hi guys.
[00:01:07] AdamR46: All right. So let's get right into it. Miami GP, Andrew, what's your take on attending the GP just in a general sense? Is it something you want to travel to, is it something meant for locals? I feel like it's a real destination race.
[00:01:24] F1Destinations: I think it's definitely a destination race. The kind of race here you go to build it around a one- or two-week holiday, maybe some beach time. Lots to see and do in the area. But it's also very much one of the more expensive races to attend on the calendar. All the US races are now right up there in terms of cost for race tickets, accommodation, et cetera. But I think it'll be a lot better this year. There's a school of thought don't go to the first edition of any new event because it will be poorly organized.
I think it would be unfair to say Miami was poorly organized. There were a few pockets of poor organization last year, but also a lot of things went really well for the first year. So I think they've learned a lot and will improve the fan experience this year.
[00:02:20] AdamR46: My take on it was I went as a, just a general fan. I bought a three-day ticket for the turn 18 grandstand. And from my point of view, everything was incredibly organized. The stuff I was reading did not match what I was experiencing because I felt it wasn't crowded. I think that the high ticket prices kept the audience at a manageable capacity. Also, the stadium is used to hosting NFL crowds, which are just massive. And they're efficient at managing the flow of traffic both in and out. The crowds into the grandstands, it was easy to go down and grab a beer or food. Lines weren't too bad, and I just think that from the fan perspective, I have a great time. Zoey, what about you?
[00:03:11] ZoeyERacing: I think internally it was more chaotic being in the paddock. A lot of drivers and teams were pissed because there was the celebrity garage, so cameras everywhere and it was hard to get from one side of the paddock to the other and it was so small. So everything was so congested. I think that's where a lot of hate about the Miami GP came from. And the routes that they had people walking from the F1 paddock suites, they had it called something different that weekend. Someone else took over, there was no Paddock Club, I don't think, unless it was above the actual paddock.
[00:03:51] AdamR46: There was a Paddock Club, but we could talk about what happened there.
[00:03:52] F1Destinations: [laughs].
[00:03:55] ZoeyERacing: Yeah, it was bought out by somebody. It wasn't like normal, I don’t think.
[00:03:59] AdamR46: It was just run by a different catering organization to normally. So it was a Paddock Club, but normally it's an Austrian company called Do & Co, that run the Paddock Club to a very high standard. And Miami organizers said, “No, we can do it ourselves.”
[00:04:17] ZoeyERacing: Yeah. So we didn't do the paddock tours for them. We just did it for, I think it was F1 Experiences had it.
[00:04:23] F1Destinations: I think you were doing it for maybe the Champions Club, which was on the other side of the stadium.
[00:04:29] ZoeyERacing: That's what it was, yeah. We had to walk people down the spiral. It was just like a spiral, I don't even know what it was. It wasn't like a walk, it was just a walkway, I guess. So internally, I think there was a lot of miscommunication and the security people were not knowing fully what was going on, but I think that happens at every first event. And I heard all good things about the fan stuff outside of the actual paddock, so…
[00:05:00] F1Destinations: Yeah. I could give you a bit more insight into the Paddock Club because I've worked in the Paddock Club, one of the suites with F1 Experiences. We had a hundred guests only, but through the whole weekend, we just have random people that were not supposed to be even in the paddock club just wandering in and eating and drinking. They weren't coming into our suite because we were checking credentials and saying, “Sorry you can't be in here. But I don’t know if you noticed, Zoey, that halfway down the paddock, there was an exit, the turnstiles for exiting the paddock, and at every other race, a meter away, you would have a second set of turnstiles to enter the paddock club.
There was no second set of turnstiles. So if someone had a paddock pass, which doesn't grant you get in the paddock, but there's no food and drink, there's no spectating, people were just coming out of the paddock and straight into the paddock club and just going and getting food and drink [laughs].
[00:06:00] ZoeyERacing: Yeah. I remember it was pure chaos.
[00:06:02] F1Destinations: It was crazy, yeah.
[00:06:04] AdamR46: Okay. So the stadium's located in Miami Gardens, which is technically not Miami and I guess not really Fort Lauderdale. It's in the middle or about the same distance from both airports. The circuit itself is semi-temporary. There's some parts that are paved through the demolished tennis courts and some, what is like public roads or service roads around the stadium. So it is a weird hybrid of permanent facility, but it’s temporary in some places. So it's just a unique circuit, which they are supposed to repave this year, and hopefully that makes a big difference on the type of racing that we get.
I think the two major airports are gonna be Miami International and Fort Lauderdale. And Miami will probably have the majority of the international flights, and Fort Lauderdale I've noticed has more domestic flights. But they both get I guess both types of flights, but I feel like Fort Lauderdale might be cheaper to fly into if you're coming from America versus coming from overseas, you're probably gonna wanna fly into Miami International because there'll just be more availability, cheaper tickets. How do you guys get to the circuit each day?
[00:07:35] F1Destinations: Zoey, you can go first?
[00:07:36] AdamR46: Yeah, sure.
[00:07:38] ZoeyERacing: Well, I would say that Fort Lauderdale is definitely an easier airport to fly into. Miami was horrible, it was so crowded. Miami in general without an event going on is just crowded. So Fort Lauderdale, if you can get a flight into there, living in, I live in Arizona, so…
[00:08:01] AdamR46: Audio froze a bit.
[00:08:03] ZoeyERacing: So by our [inaudible] and I would say getting there in the morning is better, you can explore around. They have water stations and stuff, so if you bring a temporary or a refillable water bottle, getting there and being there all day, I feel like there's a bunch of stuff to do. They have so many things out there as well, like event stuff that you can do. They have giveaways and stuff, so being there all day I think is worth it to beat the traffic. I don't know what it was like in the afternoon or the times, but in the morning, not bad traffic, easy in and out.
[00:08:43] F1Destinations: I flew into Miami International. I think I flew with Lufthansa, and I hired a car and drove for the first time in the USA…
[Laughter]
[00:08:54] F1Destinations: …which was somewhat a baptism of fire [laughs].
[00:08:55] Join_FanAmp: Not hired, you rented it.
[00:08:59] F1Destinations: One thing I would point out, I thought the car rental pickup-drop off location at Miami Airport was awesome. It was huge, it was really well organized. Quick to both pick up and drop off the cars and really efficient, getting out onto those six lane highways, having to drive was a bit of a shock. Also, I did get ripped off at the airport with a SIM card because I was about to hire a car. I needed a local internet to be able to navigate, and it didn't seem like there was any T-Mobile shops or anything like that. I had to pay, I think it was a hundred dollars or something for a local SIM card, but it was either that or not know where I was going to go.
[00:09:49] AdamR46: My experience, actually, I book out myself with points and I shop around a lot. So I flew into Miami International, rented a car, and then when I flew back to Austin, I flew out of Fort Lauderdale. So I got to experience a little bit of both where flying into Miami wasn't too bad. I don't remember what day I flew. I think I flew in Friday morning. I skipped Friday at the circuit. I flew into Miami Friday morning and they have the Metro or Miami mover that'll take you to that rental car facility. It was really easy. And I'm used to driving in America, so getting on highways wasn't too bad for me.
Overall, I had a pretty good experience. I was staying in Wynwood, and so Wynwood is a, I don't know, like a up and coming arts district with a lot of good local food. So I wanted to stay somewhere that's walking distance. It was my first time in Miami, so it was just something new and my wife wasn't going to the race, she just wanted to hang out, so I wanted to find somewhere where there's things to do that are walkable and things like that. And then flying out of Fort Lauderdale was pretty easy.
We ended up going to the beach in I think the Hollywood area while we were killing time. We had a couple hours between checking out of our Airbnb before we had to get to the airport, and dropped off the rentals. So we just, I think we got lunch and just hung out by the beach and then flew out of Fort Lauderdale. I felt like security wasn't too bad and drop off for the rental was similar to Miami, where I believe they had a whole rental car facility and then you just catch a shuttle to the terminal. We flew out on Monday and I was surprised how easy it was, but maybe that's just a Fort Lauderdale airport thing.
[00:11:36] Join_FanAmp: Even for other big events, Miami seems to handle it really well. I think the thing is what do you want me doing outside of the race, if anything, because that's gonna determine how much traffic you wanna sit in, and how far you wanna drive. A lot of people talk about going to South Beach, but you've got to weigh all of the traffic getting out there, all of the traffic getting off the island if you're coming back at the wrong hour. So I feel like Fort Lauderdale is super convenient, or downtown Brickell might be another good option for nicer hotels without having to deal with all the inconvenience.
[00:12:08] AdamR46: I guess you've been in Miami a couple times, Greg?
[00:12:13] Join_FanAmp: Yeah.
[00:12:14] AdamR46: What's your favorite things to do in the afternoon? Once I'm done with the race day, where do I go?
[00:12:22] Join_FanAmp: [laughs] Some of it I probably can't put out here. No, I’m kidding. I think it really depends. Like I do love South Beach. If you're at a nice hotel, I think it's definitely really worth it being over there because while it is more expensive, they really are well taken care of, the beach is really nice. So I think being in that area, it's very lively at night. There's a lot of, sort of the major restaurants that you have in all other parts of the world tend to open up another annex in Miami, so you have really good food, great nightlife. That's a great area.
And then you hit on Wynwood, I think Wynwood's awesome. A lot of, mostly all outdoor bars, there's breweries, there's a taco shop with a secret club in the back, or not so secret. So there's plenty of stuff to do. I really don't think you can go wrong in Miami. It's just a question of do you wanna wander off the beaten path or do you wanna stay in one of these bigger areas that's a lot more commercialized and maybe a little bit more expensive than, I don't know what the average person's budget might be.
[00:13:19] AdamR46: Zoey, what about you, where do you like to stay when you go to Miami?
[00:13:23] ZoeyERacing: I stayed near the Aventura Mall and I think it was perfect because we were far enough away, so restaurants weren't too crowded around us. And being able to just walk in the mall, you can grab coffee in the morning really quick. I loved staying in that area. We also went to the South Beach area at night and I think everywhere around there if you wanted to go out at night, was reserved for some F1 after party. So if you want to go out after and you have like, say you've been to Miami before and there's a club that you like, it was almost 99 percent that it was rented out by some event and you have to get tickets.
And all tickets were sold out too. So I would prepare for the nightlife if that's what you're into. I remember it was a struggle. The whole team wanted to go out and we didn't think ahead and that was definitely everything was booked.
[00:14:22] Join_FanAmp: That's a great point, because I think, so one of the places that typically has stuff is LIV, for example, in the Fontainebleau and like I think tickets are maybe $300 GA, but you'll have like Calvin Harris or David Guetta, so if you want to go to that, it's probably on the highest end. And then you have maybe something like story, which is typically open later, but I think tickets are usually a little bit cheaper. But yeah, definitely by now if you're looking to go.
[00:14:45] ZoeyERacing: Yeah, you can't wait till the last minute on those. It was crazy. I was not prepared at all for that. I don't know why I didn't think of that, but that was one thing I wish we all would've been more prepared for.
[00:14:57] AdamR46: So in Wynwood, my experience was, we went out to a brewery, J Wakefield, and I had some really high ABV stouts that, that's just what I'm into. So we got a little tipsy and then we walked around. Red Bull had an event that was like a market setup with a bunch of different vendors, and they had DJs doing sets. They had a few bars spread out, but the whole area is surrounded by just restaurants, bars, and just all kinds of different things to do. So getting there was just entertaining. There's people everywhere. It was like midnight and the event itself, it seemed like it was winding down around that time.
I guess everybody was off in the bars and stuff, but there was still a good little crowd hovering around the DJ and dancing and lights everywhere. And I took a bunch of funny pictures with my wife. They had a bunch of different setups, props and things like that that you don't normally see unless you really go out to some clubs and things like that. But yeah, we had a good time in Wynwood and it was fun. I didn't have to have any reservations or tickets for some of that stuff. I just kept an eye out on social media for where some of the free events were.
So Miami I feel like has a good range of things to do, where you can do stuff for free that's still F1 related, because there's free events throughout the city. They host live watch parties and things like that for practice qualifying. And then at the end of the day, they turn into clubs essentially, and it was just an open area, you just walk right in, and it was cool. I had a good time.
[00:16:45] F1Destinations: There was a big festival at South Beach last year, wasn't there? FTX sponsored it off the grid, I think.
[00:16:51] AdamR46: Yeah. I'm guessing, I think that was with Mercedes. And then McLaren also had a building they rented out and they had a bunch of cars on display, sold merch, and they had watch parties and things like that. Which that one you did have to get tickets for, it was free, but you just had to basically do one of those free RSVP things and you were on their list to be able to access it.
[00:17:11] F1Destinations: I'm just wondering if this year with the whole cryptocurrency wealth having dropped so much in the past 12 months, whether some of the high-end places won't be quite so buzzing or people throwing so much money around.
[00:17:28] AdamR46: Yeah, walking around Wynwood, I felt like every five cars I saw, one was Lamborghini. It was insane the money down there. It was like Monaco. It was like, it really surprised me.
[00:17:42] Join_FanAmp: That's also great South Florida though. That is so Miami in a nutshell. Anywhere you are, whatever you're doing, so maybe a little bit quieter, but I don't think it's gonna be that much different. That's also what makes it such a great place. I think the vibe generally speaking, is much more of a party atmosphere. So if you want something where you don't leave the track and the town's asleep, like the place is just waking up, it's actually a great place to be.
[00:18:06] AdamR46: Yeah.
[00:18:08] F1Destinations: Anecdotally, I've heard the tickets have not been selling as fast as last year for the Miami Grand Prix. Maybe obviously that's a good thing if you're looking to go this year and you haven't got tickets yet, because I think there's still a fairly good range of tickets available at different price points.
[00:18:26] AdamR46: Yeah. So the other thing I've been wondering, is they haven't showed their parking or transit situation that they have coordinating. I know last year there was some lots that were scattered around the stadium property through neighborhoods. I ended up getting a free parking pass emailed to me, but I bought three tickets for turn 18 and they just emailed me whenever they announced the parking that, “Hey, here's a parking pass.” So I don't have to pay for it. I don't know how much it cost for other people, but I parked in, I believe it was like lot 30 or 31, right along the canal that runs on the north side of the stadium.
Greg, do you wanna pull up the photo of the parking map? Getting to that area, I took the turnpike, and like I said, I was there in 30 minutes maybe. And the parking lot itself, yeah, I was parked in lot 30. The entrance was along that main road where all those parking, the pink parkings are situated. From there it was about a 10 minute walk to the gate. I was right along, I guess the north side of the stadium at turn 18.
Overall, I had a great experience. I was able to get in and out of there really fast and easy. I know some people didn't have that experience [laughs], but I think they might have been parking on the opposite side, or they took the shuttles and public transport out there to the circuit. Because I know that there's two different options for rideshare. There was either remote drop-off or a walking distance drop-off. And the remote drop-off was, I believe Greg, you had that highlighted here.
[00:20:13] Join_FanAmp: Yeah, it's a lot, lot further out.
[00:20:15] AdamR46: I'm pointing it. Or you were getting dropped off by Uber and then catching a shuttle for about 20, 25 minutes depending on the location. I heard that the wait for the shuttles got hectic for some people, but I feel like they probably saved a decent amount on Uber, or at least it's more catered to locals who have a better option of driving because parking around the circuit. If you don't have a parking pass, I think it's all residential neighborhoods, so I think it's a decent option, but probably not plannable unless you get with the local. But a lot of houses around the area let you park in their grass or their driveway for like $20 to $40 depending on the people there. But I saw a lot of people offering that.
[00:21:01] Join_FanAmp: Yeah, they’re used to that. Sorry to interrupt. They're used to that because of the football games, right? You might even be able to go a day early and scope it out if you're there and see what you can get.
[00:21:12] AdamR46: Yeah.
[00:21:14] Join_FanAmp: Because the alternative for this, is you're either gonna take the shuttle, or if you're willing to see how traffic is, you can get within half a mile to a mile walking distance away from the track and they actually let you do drop off and pick up at either of these spots. One of the things that we've done in the past, like when we've gone with groups, is you could talk to the cab driver and say, “Look, this is gonna be the time,” and you can arrange a price off the meter so to speak, and that might be a good option for guaranteeing a ride back if you set something up.
[00:21:48] AdamR46: Yeah. And I think that they're going to officially announce the parking or the transit system that they have, I think early next month. So it could be next week or the week after.
[00:22:03] Join_FanAmp: It should be early April, I think, is the last thing we heard from the organizers.
[00:22:08] AdamR46: Yeah. What about hotels, or where did you guys stay? Andrew or Zoey?
[00:22:15] F1Destinations: I stayed in Fort Lauderdale, and the name of the hotel escaped me. I think it was an American chain hotel. It was pretty good. I enjoyed staying in Fort Lauderdale. Yeah, okay, it wasn’t South Beach, but it was long, hot days at the truck. And we had places to go out for dinner without reservations within walking distance of the hotel. I was gonna ask something, is it worth mentioning at all, especially in terms of where to stay, but also general weekend experience about personal safety and places where you shouldn't go in Miami because they're a bit sketchy or dangerous, or that side of things. Because you do, you know, the city does have a little bit of a reputation as that it has not always been the safest place.
[00:23:06] AdamR46: I was about to ask if you felt safe walking around your hotel where you were staying.
[00:23:11] F1Destinations: In Fort Lauderdale, I did, yeah. I don't know if Zoey had a different experience.
[00:23:17] ZoeyERacing: Yeah. I don't remember the name of the hotel, but by the Aventura Mall, it was super easy to walk around. I didn't feel like I was in danger at all. I just walked from the hotel to the mall, which it was literally through the parking lot, and we usually ate in that mall. It's like a big shopping center, so I had no problems. Also, the area that I was in, it seems like it was super easy to get anywhere. We had no problems with Ubers or rides or anything, not traffic around that area in general. So I had no problems where I was staying.
[00:23:59] AdamR46: And when would… one of the things that I pay attention to when I'm traveling is, is there women and children about? Then if there is then it's probably safe. Especially if they don't look like tourists. There's sometimes like I've been in Mexico where you, Mexico City, you walk down a road and it seems empty, but then the one right next to it is super populated. I'm gonna stick to the one that's more populated. I think if you just follow that general sense of self-awareness, it can help ease back a little bit at least my anxiety.
Things like that, if you're in Florida and you're… if it's night and you're walking around by yourself or maybe with a partner. If you don't see people around, I don't think it's a bad idea to make sure, don't just be locked in your phone navigating. Have your partner scoping things out and just keeping self-awareness. But overall, I felt safe in Wynwood.
[00:24:56] ZoeyERacing: Yeah. I think that was another thing, is I was also in a group and we were all wearing the same T-shirt. So I don't think anyone would wanna mess with us anyway. But yeah, I think just being with people in general is gonna be your best bet.
[00:25:11] Join_FanAmp: Wynwood might be the one neighborhood I think of all them we've mentioned, that that'd be the one to be on that like, well at street, versus wandering one or two off that area.
[00:25:23] AdamR46: Yeah. Some restaurants seem like they're in alleys where it seems a little weird walking down, but I think it's just an older neighborhood where it's just the way that the roads are situated. Overall, it didn't feel too bad because I did see crowds of people where it's a little group of five or six people that are migrating from a bar to a club or a restaurant to a bar. And so it didn't feel isolated or like, I didn't feel like an open target, if that makes sense.
[00:25:53] Join_FanAmp: Should we touch on the seating as well and give an overview of that?
[00:25:56] AdamR46: Yeah. So I sat at turn 18, which is coming off the back straight. The AutoNation grant stand, I was right in the middle of that. The way that the track is situated, it's separated into different, they call it a campus. So you have the turn 18 area that, right behind the grand standards, a bunch of tents with food vendors and beer, water, a bunch of different popups and some tents that looks semi-permanent. I think it might be, it didn't feel like a parking lot because they had like AstroTurf and so I think that really helped keep, I guess it didn't feel so hot.
I mean, it did, but I feel like that definitely helped if I was standing on pavement in a blacktop parking lot, it would've been completely different. And then just behind that you've got The Marina area, which is also, each area has its own amenities where you don't have to walk super far, unless there's something you actually really do wanna see. Like I walked over to The Marina and I got to see the whole fake water situation they had, and I took some pictures because they're just hilarious [laughs]. And then as you leave that area, go back to the stadium, you got the fountains, which is where they actually have the podium ceremony.
So the podium ceremony isn't on the main straight at this circuit, it's in the back of the stadium along this fountains area, which there's mostly a lot of hospitality. There's some standing areas, but it's really hard to see. The podium's elevated, but there's just so many trees and it is hard to find a line of sight where you can actually see anything as far as the podium. I scoped it out on Saturday and then on Sunday I went over there after the race ended and it was a little trek, probably about 10 or 15 minutes. It wasn't too bad, but I got there right around the time that they were spraying champagne. And it was cool to be there, but it was more hearing and watching a screen versus being there because you couldn't see.
And it takes away from the experience when there's a bunch of stuff blocking your view. So that's where, I don't know if it's actually worth going over there for some people. At least post-race, you might just want to beat some traffic or just hang out either way, because I'm pretty sure there's probably music and stuff going on too.
[00:28:30] F1Destinations: Adam, did you go up onto the actual stadium and have a look at any of the…
[00:28:34] AdamR46: Yeah.
[00:28:35] F1Destinations: You can view on several levels of the stadium as well.
[00:28:40] AdamR46: Yeah, so I went up to the stadium and I took one of those giant escalators that goes way up there. It felt like I was on that thing forever. And then I did a lap around the whole top of the stadium while one of the support races was on. So you can see the area, the corner by the fountains closer to the Marina, that corner, they have these wrap around column walkways that you can either take up or go down. But from there, it's just open general admission where you're shaded, there's a breeze because you're up high. And you can see the track, it's a bit further, but there's no screens pointed at you. So it'd be really tough to follow what's actually happening on circuit. But it was a pretty cool views and also the…
[00:29:28] F1Destinations: I think they call them helixes.
[00:29:30] AdamR46: Yeah, they do.
[00:29:33] ZoeyERacing: I couldn't think of the word either earlier.
[00:29:36] AdamR46: Yeah, I just remembered.
[00:29:40] ZoeyERacing: That's a great viewing point just to see it, because you can see from above how quick they're going through there. And then it's like, eh, you don't really wanna watch the race there. Also in the corner by the paddock, you can see into the paddock. So people would start screaming and then you would know that someone's coming out of the garage or whatnot.
[00:30:02] F1Destinations: It's also worth noting that they're gonna redesign the whole paddock this year and put it inside the stadium.
[00:30:11] ZoeyERacing: Yeah, I saw that.
[00:30:12] F1Destinations: Last year, there was nothing really inside the stadium, was there?
[00:30:17] AdamR46: No.
[00:30:18] F1Destinations: They had some big screens and storing stuff or whatever, but that was not a focal point inside the stadium. But it will be this year. If people could see all the drivers and the teams and everything walking around down there, I think it'll be a popular place to go and watch what's happening.
[00:30:39] AdamR46: The thing about the stadium was that they had all the amenities open with all the restaurants, the bars, the bathrooms. Everything is indoor and it felt nice and cool. That was one of the best places to hang out in between sessions or in between track action because you could get out of the sun and just cool down a bit.
[00:30:57] F1Destinations: Absolutely.
[00:31:00] Join_FanAmp: Yeah, I think on the paddock piece, so they're adding like a 300-level viewing section, and I know you can look down even if you have a GA ticket, so maybe worth walking over there, even if you have that.
[00:31:10] AdamR46: Yeah. And then I walked over to The Beach area as well, and that was its own little party. They had the… I forget what it's called, the cabana area, where they had the live music and the pool and stuff like that. It was a separate ticket that you had to have to access that area, but there was a small little area on the side where anybody with a GA ticket was able to walk up. I saw free practice three from there up until, I think there was a safety car last year. I actually saw myself on TV for a second. It was funny.
But that section at the end of the beach, the one to the far right at the end of the straight, I feel like that probably has some pretty good views. You should be able to see a decent amount of overtakes. But I talked to somebody who chimed in to a question the other day, who said the very top row of that section, the awning was built low, and so it actually obstructs your view if you sit in the top rows of the section.
You would think that the top rows would give you a better view, but it was actually built in an awkward way where some of the people couldn't stand up all the way to get to their seats, or it actually blocked the screen where they had to look down to be able to see the screen just because the awning was so low. I don't know if it's gonna be like that this year or not, we’ll see. But that's one thing to be aware of with the beach grandstands. But that's where they had, and I think Post Malone played a concert right before the race or right before qualifying. I don't remember.
[00:32:50] Join_FanAmp: So we actually had, we had one of those questions come up of like, are there things to do at the track before, after? What were some of the activities that came to mind?
[00:33:00] AdamR46: Zoey.
[00:33:01] ZoeyERacing: I'm not sure what activities were in the actual, I think they had like corn hole and that thing. Just stuff for little entertainment, but I don't know exactly what was all in the fan event areas.
[00:33:20] AdamR46: Yeah, I did walk through. They had the fan zone, which is the normal pit stop experience. They had some of like a replica of the championship trophy and display of the 2022 car that they had, the show car they were taking around all the races. And then they also had… what else? They had a few things.
[00:33:44] F1Destinations: Where was the main fan zone? Was that in each of the different sections around the track? Did they have those interactive experiences?
[00:33:52] AdamR46: I think it was more so, it was mostly spread out, but I didn't see that much in the walk between the east campus to the beach area. I felt like that was a more shuttle drop off in VIP parking.
[00:34:08] F1Destinations: I was actually running a bus and yeah, just below that East Campus was a huge bus lot where we parked. Great for the guests because it was close. No walking. No complaints there. I was gonna mention something else. Oh, yes. Something they did the first time last year in Miami. I don’t know if either of you guys caught it, was the driver's parade, of course they do that an hour or two before the race. But didn't they also do a team principals parade? I think they did.
[00:34:42] ZoeyERacing: I think they did, yeah.
[00:34:44] AdamR46: That's the drive to survive effect.
[00:34:46] F1Destinations: Absolutely. Like just last weekend I wasn't actually in the paddock in Jeddah, but I was working right next to the paddock entrance and the likes of Toto Wolff and Christian Horner and Guenther Steiner, were just as popular as many of the drivers.
[00:35:07] AdamR46: That's funny. One thing that I did that was completely stumbled upon was at the, I'm gonna say like the corner of the stadium by the fountains. There's a bridge that crosses the track right there. Right there, I stumbled into this area where they were closing it off as they got there and kicking everybody out. But I was just trying to cross the bridge and I just, I hung out right there along the fence because I wanted to go to cross to get to the other side by the fountains. And then Lewis Hamilton runs right by me and he was going to a Mercedes, their hospitality tend to do an appearance.
So I was like, “Oh wow.” I never thought I'd be that close to Louis Hamilton without being in a paddock. And then, so I hung out around that area and I realized that that's where the paddock club or some of the hospitality entrances are. They have like a VIP drop off behind turn 18, somewhere, where I saw like Ludacris, I saw Pharrell, I saw LeBron James, I saw Michael Jordan. I just hung out in that area on Sunday morning for like maybe 20 minutes drinking a beer and I saw all these people.
It just blew my mind. I didn't think I'd ever really see those types of people at an F1 race. It's the type of people you see on the TV or you see photos that they were there making an appearance. But I saw them all walk in and it was in that one little area just under the bridge, which every now and then they were closing it to kick people out. But I just took a few steps back and then just lingered. And I didn't get a chance to talk to anybody or get autographs, but it was more just people watching and just enjoying the vibe.
[00:36:55] F1Destinations: In terms of celebrity spotting and people watching, if that's something you're interested in, Miami's definitely the race to go to, along with Monaco and maybe Abu Dhabi. But yeah, absolutely. Loads of celebrities there last year.
[00:37:09] AdamR46: Yeah.
[00:37:11] ZoeyERacing: Yeah, they dedicated a whole garage just for all of them to hang out in. And I think that was like one of their first times doing it, I believe.
[00:37:19] F1Destinations: I think you're right. I think it was the first time and now that's an actual product at I think 10 or 12 races this year.
[00:37:26] Join_FanAmp: [Correction: for 2023 it is 8 races].
[00:37:27] ZoeyERacing: Yeah.
[00:37:28] F1Destinations: Guess how much that's gonna set you back?
[00:37:31] ZoeyERacing: [laughs].
[00:37:32] Join_FanAmp: I think it’s $30 grand per person?
[00:37:34] F1Destinations: Yeah. Right about 30,000 US dollars for the weekend.
[00:37:37] Join_FanAmp: Yeah. And they are doing it in Miami again.
[00:37:40] F1Destinations: Yeah. I'm not sure of the exact races. We probably guess the high profile are kind of bigger attended races.
[00:37:48] ZoeyERacing: They had it in Austin too, which I don't think they had before Miami. I think it did well at Miami and then they were like, okay, let's throw in Austin as well.
[00:37:58] AdamR46: A mutual friend of mine drove Will Arnette to COTA last year. Just the random celebrities that you see, or it seems like a lot of people come to Austin now. It's pretty fun.
[00:38:10] ZoeyERacing: Yeah.
[00:38:12] Join_FanAmp: So it might be worth, I know that's like the other end of the spectrum. But the GA side, I think a couple of things that are worth mentioning is they're adding… one, is you can go into the Porsche support paddock through the whole weekend, even if you have a GA ticket, which is cool experience. Any other thing is like they're adding these viewing platforms, which you can pull up here. But they're making it easier for people who have a campus pass, which is that GA ticket, to be able to actually see and experience the race. So it may be a good option, even if you don't want to pay up for the grandstand.
[00:38:41] AdamR46: Yeah, because at first I thought these grandstands were pricey, but then everybody else or at least some of the American races started raising their prices to match. And so now what is it, $500 for a general admission for three days doesn't seem so bad compared to some of the other races now, at least North America. But essentially a flat circuit doesn't give you a ton of views, but they're building these viewing platforms. It should make it a lot nicer.
[00:39:10] Join_FanAmp: Are there any, I guess maybe to close this one out, are there any grandstands or seats that you guys would say, “Yep, this is the one you've got to do, if you're gonna go that way?”
[00:39:23] AdamR46: Andrew, do you have any insight to that?
[00:39:24] F1Destinations: I don't have a lot of insights. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to go and have a look at the different areas myself. Probably should have looked at a few more YouTube videos which are always a good source of views from a grandstand if you’re ever thinking about what to go for, go on YouTube, look for the view from the Beach grandstand or the Marina grandstand in Miami, and for sure someone will have filmed it last year to give you an idea. But I'd like to look at the turn A team that Adam was last year, as well as the grandstand on the outside of the first corner, but they're obviously more expensive.
I wouldn't have thought the fountains or the family grandstand have a good view because they're pretty much on a straight. So The Marina and the Beach are probably the best ones to go for, for fans on a budget but can still afford a grandstand. But I don't have any real insights, I apologize, into which grandstand in each of those areas is better than the others. But normally you can work it out from the pricing.
[00:40:38] ZoeyERacing: I would agree with those. I think that the Beach might be like the best one on the outside, just because I find the most entertaining it like overtakes, and I think that was a place that was more popular. Also the East Campus, I heard people liked being in turn one and just being down there. I think there were good views. The only thing is walking to certain fan zones from there is a long walk. So if you're more into just like having fun, drinking, just experiencing the fan stuff, I would say probably the Marina is your best bet.
[00:41:15] AdamR46: Yeah. So I sat at turn 18 and the view was incredible. You could see them coming down the straight, you can see the, like half of the straight in the DRS section hard-breaking. And then the corner exit, and then you got to see last minute dives in the pit lane. So I saw a bunch of overtakes under the brakes and then I saw Verstappen setting up his overtake on Leclerc for the win. He was right in front of me. I could see him going into the brakes that he was following him to stay within a certain area. And I could see that he was pushing that exit. I got it all on video. It's on my review on Grand Prix Travel, but I definitely recommend turn 18. It's just pricey.
If I was trying to attend with a little bit cheaper grandstand while still getting some shade, I would sit at the Beach area. Probably outside at the end of the straight, but if that's not an option, the inner beach area's cool just because it reminded me of photo Soul in Mexico City. It's a stadium vibe with loud crowds. The music is right in front of you. You got screens and timing all over the place, and plenty of amenities around you. I'd probably go for the beach, but if you wanna spend a little bit money I'd go turn 18 or probably turn one area.
[00:42:34] Join_FanAmp: Cool. Should we jump to Imola?
[00:42:35] AdamR46: Yeah, let's do it. So Imola, it's got a lot of history. It's one of the older circuits that's currently on the calendar. I haven't been to Imola, or I haven't been to Imola at all, but I haven't been for F1. The last time I was in the area, I went to Valentina Rossi's last race at Misano, and I flew to Milan, rented a car, and I was driving down to Misano, and I had the full intention of stopping at Imola to take a picture and see the Ayrton Senna Monument, that's kind of an infield.
It's in the public park, so even if the race isn't going on, you can still go there and take some pictures or leave some memorabilia. A lot of people leave flags and things like that. It's a really cool thing to check out. But I ended up spending a lot of time at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello. It took longer than I thought just because I couldn't walk away, and so I lost track of time, and I had to get to Misano to get checked into my Airbnb. So I haven't been to Imola, but I've been to the area a few times and that's one of the best places to visit.
The food is great, the people are friendly. There's plenty of things to do if you're in the cars at all or bikes, because Ducati's from there. Overall, it's just easy to get around whether you're using public transport like a train from Milan. You can catch a train to Imola with, I think it's probably like two hours or less.
[00:44:12] Join_FanAmp: It's an hour. It's even faster, an hour, hour and a half. Yeah.
[00:44:14] AdamR46: Yeah, that's not bad at all. And driving to the area is probably about an hour and a half or two hours as well. So there's plenty of options. It just depends I think on where you stay for the circuit, whether that dictates if you could use public transport as an option, or if you need to drive. But so Imola, Imola was a replacement for I believe the Chinese Grand Prix. And so it was a fill-in circuit in 2020 and they didn't allow spectators. It was new or back on the calendar for the first time since like 2006 or 2003?
[00:45:13] F1Destinations: Correct, 2006. Yeah.
[00:44:58] AdamR46: So it had been away from the calendar for a long time, and so without spectators, all we got to see was on screen. And then last year they sold tickets, but it was at a limited capacity due to the Covid restrictions by the Italian government.
[00:45:13] F1Destinations: I think their capacity might have only been like maybe 20 or 30 percent less than what it will be this year. I think it was also, they put the tickets on sale really late, so they didn't really give people a chance to have much time to buy them. But I did go to this race last year, and honestly it was a bit like a dream come true for me, because I grew up in Australia watching races at Imola on TV. Obviously, there was a really tragic weekend in 1994 when Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna both died in crashes at the track. But yeah, it was always traditionally that the first race in Europe, it was early spring everyone's getting together.
And just a fantastic part of the world as Adam said. I first went to the track in 2021 when we were on a family holiday in Rimini. I hired a car and drove there and went to the center memorial, and then I've worked at the race last year. And one thing I did do before I even knew that I would have the chance to work at the race, was as soon as it was announced to be on the 2022 calendar, I went on to Airbnb and I booked an apartment in the town itself. The apartment was old and shitty. It was pretty low standard, but I didn't care because it was 20 minute walk from the track through the town. After the race on Sunday and also Saturday night, there were these huge street parties and people dancing in the streets and everything.
It was like the end of Covid as well, little pizzerias and restaurants everywhere. Yeah, it's a special track with a special atmosphere, but we also should note that it's still got the poor Italian organization. Maybe not as bad as Monza, but you have to have expectations that it won't be run with the same level of organization as a Zandvoort or a Red Bull Ring race. Go over the flow a bit except when things are not very well organized, and don't be in a hurry to get angry or whatever.
[00:47:38] AdamR46: Yeah. So that’s…
[00:47:42] Join_FanAmp: How did that manifest? I heard horror stories from like the food lines, for example. And you have to get tokens to buy everything and convert.
[00:47:50] F1Destinations: That was Monza. Imola didn’t have the… they may have had the tokens, but they certainly didn't have the problems, the organizational issues that Monza had. So it was a bit easier. Last year was a challenge for a lot of fans as well because it rained a lot. I remember on Thursday afternoon, evening, early evening when we had the F1 Experiences activities and it was heavy rain and it was not fun. And then that meant that a lot of the fan zones inside the track on Saturday and Sunday were, or Friday, Saturday and Sunday were waterlogged.
For example, I think we had a picture of the Rivazza R1 grandstand in that slideshow there, and I don't think you can see it there. But on the other, on the left side of that grandstand, some of the seats at the lower level, because they're just built into the hill, they were just sat, people were sat in mud [laughs]. So yeah, you don't wanna get a seat lower down in that grandstand. But in terms of the atmosphere and the location and the things to do and the food and drink, it's right up there for me, as someone that enjoys the history of Formula 1.
[00:49:11] Join_FanAmp: Where would you sit? I think we have the track map, but where would you look for…
[00:49:16] F1Destinations: It's a bit strange because in terms of pricing, if you look at the red grandstands on the main straight, there's four of them, they were all much, much higher priced than all the other grandstands. I think they're like 800 euros plus, whereas all the other ones are like three, four hundred Euros or cheaper, even 200 Euros for Rivazza R1. So I don't know if you… I personally wouldn't justify spending 800 or a thousand Euros just to be on the main straight. I would probably go for Acque Minerali, so that's the ones DEF there in the purple on the top of the circuit, or that cheap, the grandstand R Rivazza is also awesome, because you can see the final corner and also down to the starting grid in the pits.
[00:50:08] Join_FanAmp: The one call out on that though, and this is what I've heard, so tell me if I'm wrong on this, but is that it's assigned seating in a very Italian way?
[00:50:16] F1Destinations: In an Italian way, yeah. You’ll quite possibly come to your seat and find someone sitting in your seat and not wanna move. It does happen occasionally and more likely to happen in Italy. But in that case you should just, if you can't get your own seat by talking to the person, then go and grab the people working on the security and hopefully sort it out.
[00:50:41] AdamR46: Yeah, most of the time I just try to approach them in a friendly way and just say, “Hey, this is…” especially, I don't speak great Italian, and so I'll just point at my ticket and point at my seat and say, “Hey, this is my seat, but you're…”
[00:50:56] F1Destinations: But if this is on Friday, you'd probably just go, well, it doesn't matter. I'll just go and sit in a seat opposite or whatever. But if it's for the race day and you wanna watch your race from your seat, of course that you paid for, then you want to get them moved on.
[00:51:10] AdamR46: Yeah. That was similar to MotoGP at Misano. We had some people that just don't really care. And if you show up last minute, you're probably gonna find somebody in your seat. But everybody's friendly for the most part. And so a general little courteous, “Hey sorry, but this is my seat,” it goes a long way, versus just going straight to security if you can find somebody.
[00:51:32] F1Destinations: Exactly. Exactly.
[00:51:34] AdamR46: What about Tosa? Did you make it up out there?
[00:51:38] F1Destinations: I didn't. But when I went the year before, it was in summer and I wanted to go and see the Ayrton Senna memorial. But there was actually track activity on that day, it was like Formula 3. I'd actually inquired about being able to go, but this was still the middle of Covid and there were no fans. But I did actually watch from Tosa this track action when I was there on a previous time.
Tosa's great. I think it's definitely better than those orange or the yellow grand stands, the orangey ones, the Villeneuve ones, because that's essentially a straight, but yeah. And then you've also got these two green areas, which are between general admission and a grandstand seat. So the lawn Tosa, and the lawn Rivazza, they're essentially seats built into the side of the hill. The good thing about this track is it's got plenty of natural elevations. So a lot of the areas, even if you're not in a grandstand seat, you'll still be above the track looking down with good views.
[00:52:52] AdamR46: Yeah. That's what caught my eye about Tosa. Whenever I drive it in air racing, it seems like the grandstands, you could see them and they're just like a way up there and you can… If you're all the way at the top, you should be able to see down through Villeneuve and Tamburello chicane and all that stuff. Looks like it could be a good spot.
[00:53:09] F1Destinations: I think so. The only thing I'd say it’s like a little bit further away from the heart of the fan zone, which is behind the red grandstands on the main straight. That's why I think Acque Minerali is probably a good spot to watch as well because it's closer to the action let's say.
[00:53:29] AdamR46: Yeah. And so the good thing about Imola is that it's about a 20 minute walk to the gates from the train station. Am I correct?
[00:53:38] F1Destinations: It is, yeah. And it's a really pleasant walk, because you walk right through the old town. Really beautiful buildings, you can grab an espresso on the way or something to eat. And like I said, after the race or after qualifying on Saturday night, hang around. Grab dinner in Imola, soak up on the atmosphere because it's a fantastic little town. There's Formula One displays in all the shop windows and cool little restaurants. The other advantage of that is you'll miss the peak times for the trains if you're going back to Bologna. If you've got the time, hang around till 8, 9, 10 pm and then take the train back, in my opinion.
[00:54:23] Join_FanAmp: How does that work? We have like, it's sort of central to a lot of other bigger places that probably have better accommodation place to stay. But how does that… are there areas you'd specifically stay in in that region?
[00:54:36] F1Destinations: I think Bologna is the biggest, but it's not a huge city and I've certainly read a lot of people complaining this year they're looking for accommodation and prices are sky high. That's the number one and most popular. But Ravenna, I haven't been there, is also pretty close, and there's a direct train probably a little bit cheaper than Bologna, and maybe a little bit easier to find something. And of course on Rimini, if you don't mind staying further away, Rimini is a really cool seaside town with a super long beach. Lots of accommodation, lots of apartments to rent, that kind of thing.
I think a lot of the F1 teams and people working at the race stay in the towns around Imola. Immediately around Imola and the vicinity. I can't remember the names right now, but they're more likely to be driving and park in the truck.
[00:55:37] AdamR46: Yeah. I think staying in Rimini or somewhere around there, like I've been to Misano or Cattolica and I feel like it's only about an hour by train, maybe a little bit more. It's completely doable. It's not bad at all. Plus, if you're on a train for an hour, you just get to chill.
[00:55:55] F1Destinations: And Italian trains are good. They're fast, they're efficient, generally on time.
[00:56:00] AdamR46: Yeah. Pretty cheap too.
[00:56:02] F1Destinations: Pretty cheap too.
[00:56:02] Join_FanAmp: I was gonna say that I'm flying to Milan this year and the train I think was like 30 USD to get from Milan to Bologna. Super easy. You could buy business, have a reserved seat. Very, very convenient.
[00:56:14] AdamR46: Yeah. And so @proudlysydney had asked about buying train tickets. I looked into it a little bit and on Trenitalia, if you pre-buy tickets, it's supposed to be specifically for the train for the time you select. So they're not really good, or technically, if they're not valid for a different train, you would have to pay like a penalty fee to change your ticket. But with the race day crowds, I think just buying a ticket for a return later in the evening would be a good idea. And if you don't make it, it might be crowded and they might not really verify your ticket.
That's, I feel like sometimes here they missed, but either way, I think it's good to have a return. That way you're not queuing up at one of the kiosks with thousands of other people who didn't buy return tickets either.
[00:57:05] F1Destinations: Absolutely. Yeah, that's good advice.
[00:57:10] AdamR46: Now, flying in, I know Bologna has a pretty decent size airport, but I think there's probably limited flights for F1. I feel like a lot of it is actually…
[00:57:19] F1Destinations: No, it's actually a pretty large number of flights. I think it's good. I don't think there's anything outside Europe, but if you're connecting from somewhere else in Europe, you are gonna fly to Bologna pretty easily. But if you want to, if the times don't suit or the prices or whatever, there are other airports you can consider like Rimini Airport. I've flown there before. It's not particularly big, popular with Ryanair and carriers like that. I think there might be one or two more. Even Milan airport, if you are on a longer trip and you don't mind being a little bit further away. Milan has two or three airports.
[00:57:58] AdamR46: Yeah.
[00:58:01] Join_FanAmp: I'm sure flights are not bad to Milan. At least from New York, the flights are not that bad.
[00:58:07] AdamR46: Yeah. I think the times I went I flew. One time I flew to Rome. We took a train that was kind of long. It was probably about five hours total of getting to Cattolica from Rome by train. So that was a long trip. It was beautiful, but it was just, it felt like a really long day. I think you're better off flying to Milan. Unless you find a really dirt cheap flight to Rome, I think I would consider Rome an option. But you could probably figure something out to get out there for cheaper or more efficient than flying into Rome.
Yeah, I'd agree. In the evening, what are, for the restaurants you mentioned in Imola, is it places that you can just walk up and get a table, or is it something you wanna make a reservation at?
[00:58:52] F1Destinations: I think you can do both. I certainly did both. I remember on a Friday night, I'd been working all day. My colleagues were staying in Bologna and I said, “See you later,” and five minutes later I was sat down at a restaurant with a beer in my hand and a pizza on order. So yeah, probably there's some better restaurants in Imola itself where you would wanna make a booking. Also on a Saturday night last year, I met some Italian fans, some friends, and they made a reservation at a restaurant outside Imola, which was really cool. Like in a village, but yeah, it was Saturday night is probably worth making reservation.
[00:59:42] AdamR46: Cool. Some other things to do out there that are really cool. As I mentioned, the Ferrari Museum it's not very far to Maranello, but it's definitely worth a stop. Either, yeah, but it's something that you should definitely buy tickets for ahead of time. They have the factory tour in museum, and then I believe the, if you do the factory tour, they take you around the, what's the circuit called, Fiorano?
[01:00:03] F1Destinations: Fiorano.
[01:00:04] AdamR46: Yeah. And the museum tour was like 20 Euros. Spend a few hours there, saw some mint condition Ferrari F40. It's like, when are you gonna see that?
[01:00:21] F1Destinations: Maybe in Miami [laughs].
[01:00:21] AdamR46: Yeah, a white one. Actually, I saw a white Testarossa in Miami [laughs].
[01:00:24] F1Destinations: Also, I've been to the Ferruccio Lamborghini Museum just outside Bologna. That's the founder of Lamborghini. So there's a more modern museum for all the new supercars, but this was a bit different. It had, he started out making tractors and it had a Pope Mobile and things like that, but I loved all those classic old Lamborghinis. But there're just a couple of the museums. There's also several other race tracks, Modena, I think Fiorano, we talked about. Yeah, huge, huge motor racing history and lots to see in that part of the world.
[01:01:02] AdamR46: Yeah, in Bologna, the Ducati museum's there as well. They have different rates and different experiences. They have a museum, which is just a bunch of the older bikes on display, but then they also have a factory tour, we can see them building bikes and motors, things like that. It's pretty cool to see.
[01:01:19] F1Destinations: There is a website, I think it's motorvalley.it where you can see all of this. You can read about all the museums, racetracks, factory tours, all that kind of stuff in this region.
[01:01:33] AdamR46: Sweet. Anything else we want to cover about Imola, or do we have any listener questions we want to go through?
[01:01:48] Join_FanAmp: I think that was it.
[01:01:49] AdamR46: Yeah.
[01:01:54] Join_FanAmp: No, I should ask, compared to Miami, which we talked about a $600 ticket, it sounds like in Imola it's what, maybe like 400 [Euro] for a grandstand, you could still get a good view. How does the price compare if someone's looking, and obviously you have to accommodate flights.
[01:02:11] F1Destinations: Yeah. Well, something that is worth noting if we talk about general admission, Imola is one of those races where you can still buy a three day general admission ticket for a hundred dollars or a hundred Euros, which is pretty good value in anyone's terms for a three day event. I don’t know how good the general admission is at Imola, or how many fans they will sell tickets to this year. But if you show and maybe you decide to camp near the track or stay in a hostel in Bologna or something, you can do a race weekend for probably well, south of $500. You can't do that in Miami, of course [laughs]. There's only a few European races that are still have that level of affordability.
[01:03:03] AdamR46: So I think they are gonna have a token system. I think it's looking pretty likely, and so I think it'd be good if you're attending to buy a few extra whenever you do get there, just in case there is the Monza incident happening, just to try to get ahead of it. But I know they did have tokens last year and it wasn't as chaotic as Monza. But I know that there was less people. But you could still go on and buy tickets to Imola right now. They're still available and some, I just hope it's not an oversold event similar to Monza.
[01:03:40] F1Destinations: Fingers crossed. We always say every year maybe they'll learn, but not.
[01:03:46] AdamR46: We're checking.
[01:03:40] F1Destinations: Exactly.
[01:03:46] AdamR46: Yeah. I think that's just part of the territory. You just need to set your expectations a little low and just be willing to go with the flow and… Like you said, just don't get upset if things don't go to plan. Just be flexible and willing to adapt and take what you're given.
[01:04:10] F1Destinations: Absolutely.
[01:04:11] Join_FanAmp: Two very different weekends.
[01:04:15] AdamR46: Yeah. Which that's why I like talking about this stuff because it's still F1, but you get to experience completely different cultures going from Florida to Miami. I mean, from Miami to Italy. It's completely different.
[01:04:32] F1Destinations: And even the race beforehand, it's a back to back with Baku to Miami.
[01:04:37] AdamR46: [laughs] Yeah. Which I feel, if you got to work both of those, I feel bad for you.
[01:04:44] F1Destinations: I'm not, but I have colleagues that are.
[01:04:46] AdamR46: Yeah. Zoey, what races are you working this year?
[01:04:50] ZoeyERacing: So confirmed, I'm working Miami, Vegas, Austin, and Mexico. Hopefully some other European races, it's not confirmed yet, but we'll see. So I'll definitely have plenty of advice on Vegas. They're just throwing me into the first time. First time Miami, and then first time Vegas this year. So we’ll see how…
[01:05:13] F1Destinations: Luckily, it's the first time for everyone, so everyone will be confused.
[01:05:15] ZoeyERacing: Yeah [laughs].
[01:05:16] AdamR46: Yeah.
[01:05:18] Join_FanAmp: Hopefully not a bad place to be sent. Like, I’ll sign up.
[01:05:20] ZoeyERacing: Yeah, yeah.
[01:05:21] Join_FanAmp: If you don’t wanna go tell me.
[01:05:22] ZoeyERacing: I'm not complaining, but it will be interesting. So I'm excited to see how that event actually plays out. We'll see how it goes.
[01:05:33] AdamR46: Yeah. I'll be at the main grandstand there, right towards the end by pit exit. Should be good.
[01:05:37] ZoeyERacing: Okay, cool.
[01:05:39] Join_FanAmp: It's a five day ticket, right?
[01:05:42] F1Destinations: Four day.
[01:05:43] Join_FanAmp: Four day. So there's a welcome thing or something?
[01:05:45] AdamR46: I guess. I haven't seen details about it. They quietly updated my ticket zone to a four day ticket, and so I have a feeling it's going to be an invite to the opening night event, but they haven't released details on it or anything yet. I was talking to somebody in the subreddit who did get in touch with some of the people. I think the person I was speaking to has Skybox tickets and they said they don't have a start time on it, but it could start as early as 4:00 PM on that Wednesday, which just seems early for an event like that.
[01:06:17] F1Destinations: They should tell everyone because people wanna book flights already.
[01:06:21] AdamR46: Yeah. Well, I have flights booked…
[01:06:22] Join_FanAmp: Hey, you better book that now. It's $2,500 round trip from New York to Vegas if you wanna go anywhere in that date [range].
[01:06:28] AdamR46: What would it normally be?
[01:06:32] Join_FanAmp: $700 on Delta, which is a nicer airline.
[01:06:34] AdamR46: I flew with Delta to Vegas last month and I think I paid like 220, 240 (USD) from Austin. This time, well for Vegas I was looking at flights with Delta from Austin, and they were like $1500. So I ended up finding a cheap flight to LA for $200 mixed with I think I paid like 180 one way, and points the other way. And I found a rental car for $400 for a week. So we're flying to LA for cheap and four hour drive or whatever it is.
[01:07:05] ZoeyERacing: Yeah, that's smart. Same from Phoenix, it's four hours, so…
[01:07:09] AdamR46: It's not bad.
[01:07:10] ZoeyERacing: Yeah. And those drives aren't too bad.
[01:07:12] AdamR46: Yeah. Well, I live in Texas so I'm used to just like, sometimes for work I got to drive six hours and I'm still in Texas and Yeah.
[laughter]
[01:07:22] AdamR46: Yeah. All right. So anything else we wanna touch on? I think that we wanna wrap this up before it drags on a little.
[01:07:31] Join_FanAmp: I think that's it. I think the one thing to flag for everyone would be, the next one we'll do will be Monaco, Spain. So we'll get the date out for everyone soon.
[01:07:41] AdamR46: Yeah, sounds good. All right guys, this is…
[01:07:44] Join_FanAmp: Thanks everyone.
[01:07:45] AdamR46: Yeah. I'm AdamR46. We've got, I guess give you guys a second to how to follow you. Greg.
[01:07:53] Join_FanAmp: Just jump on the app, send me a message. I'd love to hear from you.
[01:07:58] F1Destinations: You can find F1Destinations on the web and on socials. Give us a follow, we've got lots of really detailed information about traveling to the races.
[01:08:09] ZoeyERacing: Yeah. And then ZoeyERacing on all platforms. The races that I do go to, I vlog. I try to vlog my event weekend and what's going on inside the paddock. So it's super fun.
[01:08:23] Join_FanAmp: And if you need a racing tour, Zoey's your girl.
[laughter]
[01:08:29] ZoeyERacing: Yep, track tours, you got me.
[01:08:32] AdamR46: Photo safari.
[01:08:35] ZoeyERacing: I haven't done a photo safari, but all my friends do it and they love it.
[01:08:40] Join_FanAmp: Yeah. That's cool.
[01:08:41] AdamR46: Cool. All right guys. Well, I guess we'll see you on the next one.
[01:08:45] Join_FanAmp: Sounds good.
[01:08:46] ZoeyERacing: Yeah, thank you.
[01:08:47] AdamR46: Bye.
