Fans are being let into ‘the inner sanctum’ of F1 – for a price
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Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton takes a picture with a fan in the paddock ahead of the 2024 Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo Nazionale Monza in August. Clive Rose/Getty Images
With just 20 driving spots up for grabs, the vast majority of motorsport enthusiasts will never know what it’s like to sit behind the wheel of a Formula One car. Yet, for a price, the public can get closer than ever before.
F1 Experiences – the sport’s official experience, hospitality and travel program – vows to bring both new and seasoned fans as close as possible to the action via a range of race week offerings.
“We want people to come to Formula One – that’s our job,” F1 Experiences president Keith Bruce told CNN ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix in December.
“It’s great to watch it on television or streaming on your phone, but ultimately, our goal is to make you want to get on a plane, get in a car, get on a train and come to a Formula One race anywhere around the world.”
From Australia in March through to Abu Dhabi in December, packages are offered for all 24 races that will span 21 countries across the 2025 season.
A ticket to the Grand Prix itself is the cornerstone for most of them, but the activities that accompany it can vary widely, with more than 20 experiences offered across race week.
Many are focused on bringing fans behind the curtain: Pit Lane Walks, typically run on the Thursday or Friday of a standard race week, offer guests the opportunity to walk past all 10 team garages and peer in at mechanics – and sometimes team principals and drivers – as they scuttle to ready the cars.
As a result, garage crews have grown accustomed to working in front of a crowd.
“It’s a real eye-opener for them (the fans),” Aston Martin Team race coordinator Joe Micklewright told CNN.
“When they come behind the doors and have a look at the Formula One car for themselves up close, they love it.”
The walk is often accompanied by a photo opportunity with the championship trophy and a guided track tour, which sees as many as 60 fans board a flatbed truck to take a lap of the circuit.
“It’s one of my favorite experiences, because it gives you a pure perspective of what it’s like to be on the Formula One track,” Bruce explained.
“You get to see the chicanes, you understand the curvature of the track, you really get an appreciation for the elevation and also the technicality that goes into managing 60 to 70 laps around a Formula One circuit.”
Backstage pass
The more expensive packages can secure passage into what Bruce dubs the “inner sanctum” of F1: the paddock.
Guided Paddock Access sees groups of up to 12 fans escorted on a 30-minute journey around the truck trailers and hospitality suites which dot the area behind the garages that is strictly restricted to teams, sponsors, media, F1 staff and invited celebrity guests. The most premium packages include full-day paddock passes, allowing guests to come and go as they please.
It marks a stark change from the more guarded approach adopted before US media giants Liberty Media assumed ownership of F1 in 2017, says PA Media’s F1 correspondent Phil Duncan.
“Perhaps in the Bernie Ecclestone era, the idea was you wanted to keep that shield around the paddock,” Duncan told CNN. “It was that mysterious element – ‘What’s going on in there? We want to go in but we can’t.’
“Liberty Media have opened that up, so you have a lot more of not just VIPs, but fans in there – taking pictures with drivers, selfies, all that sort of stuff that we didn’t really have in the past.”
It’s part of a growing trend in other sports, too.
In 2017, English Premier League giants Manchester City unveiled The Tunnel Club, a hospitality package that promises “the most immersive experience in world football” through its five-course fine dining glass suite situated within the tunnel that leads onto the Etihad Stadium pitch.
Also including heated seats directly behind the manager’s dugout, Tunnel Club packages for their league fixture against Chelsea at the end of January start from £2,650 ($3,350) per person.
The NBA runs an Experiences program for various events on the basketball calendar. Its most expensive offering for the 2025 All-Star game in San Francisco, California, offers tickets, access to a pregame NBA Champions Club, lunch with an NBA legend and more for $12,599.
F1 Experiences says the sheer number of big names in such close proximity means it is “very rare” for fans to not meet anyone noteworthy during the paddock tour, yet for those seeking to maximize their odds of brushing shoulders with the stars, the Paddock Club is a surefire bet.
Situated above the garages, with a panoramic private suite view of the finish line, Paddock Club packages grant fans a taste of what Bruce describes as “the ultimate VIP center,” with all-inclusive menus complemented by an open bar.
Several teams, including Red Bull and McLaren, offer spots in their own personalized suites as part of tailored packages for some races that include team garage tours and merchandise.
Personalities from the sport also make guest appearances in the Paddock Club, with 2009 World Champion Jenson Button, former Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer and broadcaster David Croft among the names drafted in for Qatar.
“When they (fans) get to take a selfie with them or get an autograph or spend just a couple minutes with them asking questions, that’s that kind of insider access and that unprecedented exclusivity that we offer,” said Bruce.
Great expectations
Of course, such exclusivity does not come cheap.
Packages for November’s Qatar Grand Prix, for example, range from $799 to $10,899, which does not include the price of accommodation. Bookings can be customized to include stays at “premium” hotels pre-selected by F1 Experiences, which launched in 2017.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Monaco is among the priciest destinations.
A three-day Paddock Club package aboard a trackside yacht will set prospective buyers back $15,600, rising to $103,520 should they add on a four-night stay in a track view room at the five-star Hotel de Paris Monte-Carlo.
Packages do not cover travel costs, a potentially significant extra cost for the roughly 80% of F1 Experiences customers that venture upwards of 500 kilometers (310 miles) to attend a race, according to Bruce.
But he insists that the range of packages means there’s something for all budgets.
“We want to make sure that regardless of your economic status, you have the opportunity to come to a Formula One race,” Bruce said.
“We have customers who save up all year to go to a Formula One race, and we make sure that we deliver on that expectation.”
By and Bijan Hosseini, CNN
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