I had fun
Thursday the pitwalk and I could see all the cars from pretty close.
Friday I attended both free practices, but I made the mistake of parking on the event parking places. I had to endure 1.5h of traffic jam to get in, but the way back was much worse. I was ****ing stuck at a parking place for 3h without moving at all, while the highway was at 500m or so
You couldn't bring metal or glass bottles into the event. There was one dude who had to throw away his fancy looking alu can, but instead of doing that, he slipped it back into his packback. Unnoticed, he thought. Wrong. He was picked out, his entry ticket was invalidated and he was kicked off the terrain. Not sure if only for the day or for the entire event.
Saturday I devised a new strategy: I loaded the bike into the car and took an exit before the circuit, went up to some industry terrain with no soul in sight and plenty of parking space and parked at 2.5km from the circuit. From there I took the bike and arrived w/o problems or delays (but with a sore bottom).
I watched the Formula W race and it was boring AF. There was hardly any overtaking done, I literally saw one. It was a line of cars doing laps.
The qualification is better watched on TV. Really. You have no clue who is fast and who is not, the only thing I could see was the 1-10 classification by name, but no idea of their times, the differences. I had no idea who dropped out of Q1, other than by checking who were starting Q2. Watching qualy on TV is much more exciting imo
Sunday I left on time and could enter the terrain before a queue had built up. I watched the F3 and F2 races, which were quite amusing and lotsa overtaking and safety cars. One guy binned it in F3 in the tires right before my nose. F3 cars make the most noise of all, but still no needs for earplugs. Unfortunately, I do not follow F3 and F2, so I don't recognize the drivers by their car. For F3 that doesn't make a difference, because they don't pit and it is clear who is leading. But in F2, after some pitstops, I had no clue whatsoever about who was who and where they were in the race lol. But I enjoyed quite a few battles.
For the race it was jampacked. There was no empty seat in sight. My seat was Grandstand L (which is tier 2) and I got randed pretty high up, so I had a good view. I could see the turns 4-6, but not the start of turn 4 where Max and Carlos went off. Also I could see the end of the main straight, but primarily the chicane after the main straight. So I saw all the DRS overtakes, the VER-RUS battle, the Stroll spin etc.
I enjoyed the race and could follow it decently, although sometimes you were wondering where somebody was after they pitted. It is pretty tough to distinguish the two drivers of the same team, but you could usually know who was who and if not, some neighbour would help out. I can follow F1 from phone, but the 5G coverage was horrible over there and I couldn't fire up the app, or I could have watched the race with live comments.
I had no idea of Verstappen's DRS woes, so I didn't get why he didn't blaze past George really quickly, it was evident he was much faster.
Montmeló cannot handle 100+k attendance though. Horrible organization. It is a pain to get out. people were going out 20 minutes before the race ended, just to be able to get out in less than 3h.
it was ****ing hot. I drank 3-3.5l of water per day and still no need to pee. The water went out before it could reach my bladder
All in all it was very enjoyable. It is not something I would travel for, though. I like the comfort of my home chair, action repeats, and full overview of all the live standings. F1 is EXPENSIVE (my seat was 420€) and if you have to travel and lodge as well, it becomes a hobby that is too expensive for me.
Last edited by Gabethebabe; 05-23-2022 at 03:22 AM.