Cheapest Grand Prix to travel to from UK

[gabsy]

After my first visit to Silverstone this year I thought about possibly going to a grand prix abroad in 2010.
Does anyone have experience of travelling to a Grand Prix outside the UK, and if so, how expensive/cheap was it?
I'd imagine, Spain/Hungary would be quite cheap because they are cheap to travel to and stay?

[Keir]

Italy

I'm doing the whole lot for £260 this year

Flights £30 (RyanAir)
Accomodation £150 (Hostelworld.com)
Tickets £80 (F1.com)

+ trains to Monza for 3 days.

[Miguel]

You'd be wrong in the case of Spain. F1 has never been cheap here but since Fernando Alonso started getting podiums (2003 meaning an increase in 2004 ticket prices) the prices went higher and higher. Now, a general admittance ticket will cost you aroun 120€ here in Montmelo, the cheapest seat (N grandstand) will be almost 180€ and main grandstand will cost nearly 700€.

Wait! The circuit de Catalunya has an english part and publishes the prices, so you can have a look here. Prices can be seen in F1 Spanish GP -> Tickets 2009 -> scroll down and hit "Official prices". Very expensive for one of the most boring GPs each year. MotoGP is half the price.

For those prices, I'd go to Spa and to the Raidillon.

[zac510]

Spa is not cheap either but you can drive there from Calais easily.

[Keir]

Spa used to be good value but it certainly isn't now.
Turkey tickets are cheap and so is the accomodation, however flights can be expensive.

[WhiteBlue]

France is likely to be cheap if you are prepared to camp instead of an Hotel.

[Scotracer]

As has been said: Magny-Cours is by far the cheapest.

[gabsy]

Thank you to everyone for replying. Monza looks like an excellent idea. I haven't ever visited Italy apart from when I was 1 year old, so might be a good opportunity.

I'm suprised noone has mentioned Monaco

[Principessa]

Spa used to be good value but it certainly isn't now.
Turkey tickets are cheap and so is the accomodation, however flights can be expensive.

Why isn't Spa good value now?? That's just bullsh*t. At Spa, you have some great grandstands where you can really have a good sight on the track and the cars. (and where you can take great pictures without fences) But as I have noticed last year, there are a lot of great green zones as well. Of course you have to go there very early to have a good spot on Saturday and Sunday.

Tomba and I are on Silver grandstand number 4, Bruxelles, and we were there last year as well. We had a great sight of the cars coming straight to us, breaking and going in and out of the corner with a television screen nearby. We bought the tickets for €270 for the whole weekend. We ordered them while there was still a discount, I think that now they cost around €300. Our accomodations cost 80€ per person, breakfast included. Of course there are a lot of other grandstands where you have a great sight of the track. Silver 3, Combes, must be great as well. Silver 2, Spa, offers a good sight of the cars climbing on the hill. There are a lot of good possibilities at Spa .

On Friday, we usually go to the green zones to get some good pictures from other angles than during the race and the qualifying session.

2 years ago, we went to Hockenheim. I think we than paid €220 for the whole weekend on a silver grandstand. I have seen that it's more expensive now and it comes at €270 for the whole weekend as well. I have no idea how the green zones are at Hockenheim as we haven't been to one to check it out. We were sitting at the hairpin so again we had a great sight. We saw them driving up to the hairpin and after that you could follow the cars on the track for quite some time. Accomodations: a hotel 25km away from the circuit and it was 120€ per person and I have to say that it was one of the nicest hotels I've been too. Not expensive at all for what you got. From Belgium, Hockenheim isn't that far by car, just like Nürburgring.

[Steven]

Bahraini tickets are cheap too, but the flight won't be. And of course you'd have to be able to withstand the heat. Same goes for Turkey I guess.

As for Spa, you can get 10% off the ticket prices when ordering early. That's something at least. It's a nice circuit but I have to admit last year they made quite a mess of the pathways for visitors. The organisation have however assured me that this year it will be back to normal. We'll see...

Magny-Cours might be your best choice, but as said already, hotels are a bit distant and hard to find.

[Giblet]

You might be surprised how inexpensive it can be to fly from the UK to Toronto, let alone Montreal.

Tickets are reasonable compared to other GP's, and there is more then enough varieties of lodging in the city, if booked early, could be quite cheap.

[lebesset]

if I had a choice between going to monaco or going to all the rest I would go to monaco

accomodation is expensive locally but there is plenty at reasonable prices around nice , find some near to a train station as the station near monaco is easy walking distance ....I have also stayed over the border in italy and come by train

no good you phone DC looking for a room , apparently he has sold his hotel

cheap flights often available to nice from uk

[Keir]

Spa used to be good value but it certainly isn't now.
Turkey tickets are cheap and so is the accomodation, however flights can be expensive.

Why isn't Spa good value now?? That's just bullsh*t.

You could have made your point without swearing [-X

The price of the Belgian Grand Prix has escalated quite a lot from a few years ago, and as a result I was suggesting the VFM has decreased.
We've evaluated going to the Belgian Grand Prix every year for the last few years and heading off to add to our lap tally at the nurburgring afterwards.
Every year however the Italian GP comes out as better value and we end up there.

[Principessa]

Of course the price of tickets for the Belgian GP went up. The prices of the German GP (Hockenheim) went up as well, just like every other Grand Prix. If you go to the store and buy a bread, the price went up a lot over the last couple of years as well.

You also have to look at the atmosphere of the GP and it it's easily reachable from the UK to answer the question in this topic.

[Keir]

Thankyou I am aware of the concept of inflation.

Which is why I highlighted the fact that we had looked at the prices year on year in relation to others on the calender, not only in relation to the previous years prices at that particular venue.

As has been suggested with Canada earlier in the topic it appears to be a misconception that it will be cheaper to get to a grand prix when it is closer geographically.

For example, it is cheaper for me to get RyanAir flights to Italy and the train to Monza than it is to drive to Spa.