British Grand Prix travel arrangements

[Vertigo]

Well the gf, bless her, has gone and won a couple of silver class tickets to the British GP in just over a week's time

Now, not having ever been to this before, I'm hearing all kinds of horror stories about how long it takes to get in and out of the place. The tickets are for all three days but I'd not be going on the Friday as I can't get the time off work anyway so it'd only be Saturday and Sunday.

Can anyone who's done this recently give me any ideas on how long I'm looking at queueing to get into and then out of the place? What are the best times to show up to minimise the hassle? What time does it all end on Saturday? Any other general tips you can offer?

 

[PsiFox]

Does this include grandstand seats? If not and you are standing on the banks I always used to be there for about 4AM on race day.

 

[austinpowers]

Well, you see i have an idea.

Why don't you give the tickets to me and i can see what it's like, then next year you'll be fully prepared

 

[Firestar_3x]

Well, you see i have an idea.

Why don't you give the tickets to me and i can see what it's like, then next year you'll be fully prepared

Two tickets

 

[Vertigo]

Does this include grandstand seats? If not and you are standing on the banks I always used to be there for about 4AM on race day.

4AM!?!?

From what we've been told over the phone they're tickets for the uncovered grandstand at Farm (with numbered seats) but we're not counting our chickens until they arrive, hopefully tomorrow, as for all we know they're actually basic ones without seats.

Assuming they are numbered seats then there's no issue with getting there early to grab a space to sit, just when is best to beat the traffic (at least as much as possible).

 

[Vertigo]

Any other input on this?

I transpires that we only have numbered seats for race day and are just roving on Saturday. Do we stand no chance of getting any decent viewpoint without leaving stupidly early. If we stand no real chance of seeing anything then frankly I'm not sure I can be bothered going and we'd just go on the Sunday so I'm after some ideas of the latest I should be looking at getting there if I want to be able to see owt.

When does all the action kick off on Sat btw?

 

[el_dazza]

Now, not having ever been to this before, I'm hearing all kinds of horror stories about how long it takes to get in and out of the place. The tickets are for all three days but I'd not be going on the Friday as I can't get the time off work anyway so it'd only be Saturday and Sunday.

Can anyone who's done this recently give me any ideas on how long I'm looking at queueing to get into and then out of the place?

Me and my dad had tickets for just the sunday, left 11pm on the saturday night and were queueingup for about an hour to get in, so have fun

 

[Vertigo]

Well we have seats for Sunday so the only issue is how long it takes to get into the place. We're not going to leave in the middle of the night just to avoid the queues to get into the car parks. What time of the morning would we need to be leaving to avoid the worst of it.

The problem is Saturday. Are you say that, unless we leave at the crack of dawn we're not going to find anywhere to watch from?

EDIT: I don't understand these damn tickets. They say they're Silver ones, with the following info on them:

Grandstand: FARM ENCLOSURE
Seat: G***

Includes Roving Seat
Friday and Saturday

So what does that mean exactly? Do we only have the specified seats for the Sunday? What is a "roving seat" exactly, is that just sit where you like, i.e. you're on the grass? Me is confoosed

 

[House]

The lad sitting next to me at work is currently dancing around like a 5 year old cause his wife has got him 2 tickets to the new corparate center bit to be wined and dined for the whole day, He even gets a helecopter ride there.

I'm considering mugging him on the way out of the office.

As for traffic go as early as you possibly can and if you have to be anywahere afterwards cancel it. My mate here says it tooking him 4 hrs to get home lastime and he lives 14 miles from the track.

Come to think of it hes got to drive further to catch his helecopter than it is to the track.

FYI from what i understand you can "roam" during the fir/sat to watch the other stuff.

Im sick with envy here.

 

[Nozzer]

I believe they are running buses from Northmapton, it may be worth looking in to that. It took us about an hour and a half to get out of the circuit last year. We'd parked just outside the track.

 

[Ev0]

I wouldn't worry abotu Saturday, I can't imagine it's as bas as Sunday, surely??

I've got free tickets for the Saturday for the Renault Grandstand, where ever that is (think it's on the entrance to the start finish straight).

 

[el_dazza]

We had no problem getting out, it was getting in that was the sod. Getting out, soon as the race was over, got to the car at luffield complex and out in about 5mins, tops. Seriously, getting in, you need to leave plenty of time. If you turned up at 9am you'd be lucky to get in for the race.

 

[Nozzer]

So what does that mean exactly? Do we only have the specified seats for the Sunday? What is a "roving seat" exactly, is that just sit where you like, i.e. you're on the grass? Me is confoosed

You can sit anywhere you like on the first two days, grandstands included.

 

[Nexus]

Friday is fairly quiet, good for having a look around at the other stuff going on, merchandise stalls etc.

Saturday a lot busier, but you can still easily get a seat in any of the grandstands, and you won't have to get there really early or anything. I'd imagine traffic won't be too bad getting out, as a lot of people will stay for the football.

Sunday, unless you have grandstand seats with an allocated ticket space, you need to be there stupidly early to find a spot on the grass banks. Sunday although the busiest day I found to be the quickest que to get through two years ago. Mainly because they do such a good job of policing and directing traffic on the Sunday.

 

[Vertigo]

Ta for all the info guys, think we will try to get there for 9-10am on Sat and around 8am on Sunday as we have allocated seats for race day and 4 hours should be enough time to get in!