Silverstone bday present for amazing DH! Can anyone help I know nothing about racing.

[elizaregina]

DH is absolutely amazing and at the moment is on the front line of a new kittens poo patrol.

We are not flush but his one main passion is formula one.

What could we get/donfoe for him?.
I was thinking tickets? Or what?

I assume pp meant the Goodwood Festival of Speed or the Revival.

F1 is expensive to watch live. And you see very little of the race vs. what you see on TV. You'll also need to budget for getting there, and it's a closed-market for the food vendors once you're on the circuit.

If you want a budget-friendly petrolhead experience, have you got a local stock car/banger track? It's not F1 - but it's loud, action-packed, you can see the whole circuit, and you'll get a programme of several races of different classes.

I'm looking into goodward but it's his main interest and hobby..

I am looking at basic tickets and actually we are not that far from it he could certainly comfortingly make it there and back on a day but I can't even get ln the sites

Agreed. Parking is very expensive too and there is a lot of walking.

Would he want a general admission ticket? I took DH for his 30th, we had grandstand tickets and both said we'd rather be watching at home than in GA. On race day you need to be at the front of the queue when the gates open to get a good seat. You are at the mercy of the weather; we went 2021 which was a scorcher and were so grateful for our covered grandstand for the shade, but chose a covered grandstand for fear of rain! General admission for Friday could be good, as anyone can sit in grandstands, and if he's interested in the feeder series, they'll have their qualifying then too (potentially F1 qualifying if they have that as a sprint race). You can do it cheaply and bring in food and drink (which we did as the food was all overpriced mass catered crap).

Is there any memorabilia or merchandise he'd like? Is he interested in other races? DH has been to Donnington Park a few times with my dad and brother in law and always had a great day, but he wouldn't go out of his way to see it either.

I think tickets this year are a nightmare with dynamic pricing, so probably more expensive that last year, as I can't see them working to reduce the prices!

Honestly OP, general admission to Silverstone on Saturday or Sunday on his own won't be much fun at all. It is miles of walking carrying a camping chair, totally open-air with no shade apart from the covered grandstands so you get drenched if it rains or burnt if it's hot (ask me how I know), astronomically expensive food and merchandise.

I would wait and save up a bit so you can either both go for grandstand seats or even better, go away for the weekend. For the cost of Sunday grandstand seats for two at Silverstone you could have a decent chunk of the total cost to have a short break in Budapest with tickets for the Hungaroring.

Married to someone who goes to every race for work I would definitely suggest saving to travel elsewhere. DH always feels Silverstone is the most boring.
I am going to Singapore this year right in the city, street circuit easy to visit other stuff and Vegas next year night race down the strip - will be totally crazy.
Monaco is fun, Barcelona is really close to the city. Zandervoort is close to Amsterdam.
To avoid Paul Richard (France) and Spa (Belgium) both in the middle of no where.
DH says Miami was crazy just one big party as is Austin and Mexico.

Otherwise look at team experiences Aston Martin's factory is at Silverstone and they do packages including the factory, the F1 museum and a trip round the track in an Aston. Williams also does some great stuff seeing historic collection. McLaren do if you are part of the Fan club.

My husband is a fan and would be quite miffed to actually go on the day (he says because he couldn't see everything, just bits)
However, as a combined present thingy we drove around the track at Christmas to see all the lights, that was awesome, we combined this with a trip to the museum. Really good fun, especially if you have little kids!

The red bull factory do tours, I bought it for my husband and he said it was really good

@toastofthetown

What happens on Friday please?

I was thinking maybe Saturday, even though some had said it's not that exciting, seeing as he's never actually been I thought that's a good compromise.

With ga he can have a good walk around and see what's what.get the atmosphere...
Hear the roar...I guess just be there? Then he can watch real race at home and if he likes it I can get grandstand seat next year ?
If he doesn't wer don't bother but he's been...

That was my reasoning.

I always found horseracing same...they go by in one second...

Apparently site went wrong yesterday but they still have tickets available.

I was thinking as the Saturday is cheaper I could get him that ticket for bday and look Into other options people mentioned for bday

@Lonecatwithkitten

I would absolutely love to do that but that's way above our finances at the moment.

I just googled Aston Martin at Silverstone and nothing came up? For experience.
Did you book direct or through something like red letter says?

I don't think this is what you want to hear so I will bow out after this, but I'm from a family of huge F1 fans and none of us would want a GA ticket for any day of the weekend on our own, especially since they introduced 'GA Plus' and closed many of the best areas to bog-standard GA ticket holders.

You run the risk of spending nearly £200 on what could be quite an underwhelming experience when you could save that money and put it towards something so much better. Budapest and the Hungarian GP was an excellent suggestion from a pp - it is famously the cheapest GP in Europe and only Japan is cheaper worldwide.

Here you go Aston is tricky as it's had multiple names over the last few years force India/racing point/Aston.

On a standard Friday for F1 there are two practice sessions. Based on this year, though I don’t think it’s confirmed yet but I’d say it’s likely at least one will be there, there will be practice sessions and qualifying for F2 and F3. Not sure if he follows the feeder series but DH does and loved watching them live too. Probably also something like Porsche (who weren’t there when we were).

For a standard Saturday there is another F1 practice session and qualifying. There will also be a sprint race from F2 and F3, which often has some great racing (sometimes better than F1…) and other support events.

A standard Sunday for F1 is the race. F2 and F3 have their feature races also. I don’t t he think there were any other support events, but there are historic cars going around the track during dead time.

When we went in 2021 there was sprint qualifying and so on Friday for F1 there was one practice session and qualifying. Saturday was another practice session and the sprint race and Sunday was the actual race. That won’t be announced until later though. F1 have apparently said they want more sprint races in 2023 but if they’ll have them at the same tracks as before or if they’ll be at new ones is just speculation.

I just looked at tickets and the GA this year doesn’t seem to allow roving grandstand access on a Friday and you’d need a roving grandstand ticket to do that. Personally I think that’s worth the extra cost, and seems a bit cynical of the track to do.

The whole shambles has been cynical from the start. I was looking at going, but with the website not working properly and "dynamic" pricing, I have changed my mind totally. Tickets that I wanted are now 50 more than they were, still no closer to actually being able to buy them.

Will just stay at home and watch it and make a day of it ourselves.

Looking at going abroad for a race next year. these websites have been handy

motorsportrundown.co.uk/the-10-cheapest-formula-1-races-to-attend-by-ticket-price/

f1destinations.com/

Thanks so much to all contributers!

I was locked into a queue from midday to about 8.30pm.

Because of the queue and frightened of being kicked out and finally booking, trying to be discreet next to DH in a dark and bumpy car..I have booked a roving (??)! grandstand seat plus younger dd for free for the Saturday.

The ticket price did seem more expensive but I couldn't check. It was 149 but I paid 179?

I thought I had clicked parking but I'm not sure.

He's never really had what he likes from presents and he's never been to any formula one stuff.
So although it's so expensive...it's worth it.
He may never want to return, but he will have been there!
If he does like "being there" I guess I can look into abroad another time..
I did look at Austria but that's a big project trying to coordinate cheap flights/accmd.
I'm also going to check out goodward and the Aston Martin experience for Xmas and future gift's.

Lots of companies sell packages for abroad races where travel and accommodation is all included, might be worth looking into those to make life easier.

The websites I posted a bit further up provide good info, especially the destinations one

Thank you..

Will see how he enjoys this and can think about different experiences perhaps abroad for next time.

Also looking into the other fabulous suggestions re Goodwood and musuems.

I'm just happy that I have finally tuned in on what he likes 🤣

Any day is good but qualifying is the worst day of the weekend for F1 action. You get one hour of practice and then during qualifying it's a knockout style format so at the end of the hour there's only 10 cars left circulating.

Imo the order is this:

Sunday - Raceday
Friday - Practice
Saturday - Qualifying

Silverstone has massively improved in recent years so don't feel you have to buy a extortionate grandstand ticket

The price changing at checkout is new this year, Silverstone have brought in dynamic pricing ie scalping! Netflix has a lot to answer for!

My OH was looking yesterday and went through the roof

It's disgusting, I joined the queue at 219, they ended up being 299 so even though I had them in my basket I didn't check out as that was far too much.

Will get a better experience at home I think

The queue was bonkers for tickets! My Mum had a fall on Thursday, and was admitted into hospital. We were caught in an ambulance queue at the hospital for 6 hours.

One of our ambo techs (well used to the unfortunate queuing times) had his girlfriend’s iPad, & his phone on the f1 site from the second the booking opened; by the 6th hour & we left the ambulance his phone kept being dumped from the queue, and the iPad had inched slowly to 25% on the loading bar! He was hoping to get weekend & Abbey stand tickets!

(Mum’s fine, no injuries but they’ve picked up an electrolyte imbalance & infection so they’re treating that. Even she was cheering him on with the ticketing lol!).

Personally I prefer one hour of practice and qualifying to two practice sessions. Finding a part of the track where the cars are at their fastest and watching them go flat out is fun, and the tension for the knockout competition feels much more dramatic there than at home to me. Also we follow the F2 and F3 and seeing them race is fun.

OP, I’m sure he’ll enjoy. As above the dynamic price this year is a blatant cash grab, it’s not like the tickets were cheap without it. I’m not sure it’s worth the ill-will it’s caused, but cash is king.

@CentrifugalBumblePuppy

I'm so glad your mum is ok!

I was at my daughter bday meal! My DH kept shooting me disgusted looks because I kept checking my phone.
I hit booking just as Left and was battling with having to do passwords in the dark with DH driving down country lanes reprimanding me and asking why I couldn't wait.

I must admit I did snap at him " I can't wait because I've been holding a vigil of my own all bloody Day"

When pp said dynamic pricing I they were joking or being sarcastic I didn't realise it was actually a thing??

This is why I was confused at check out re 149 / 179 ? I tried to click parking but I don't know if I have itm

It's done now. I think it's a good compromise.

If he hates it it hasn't ruined actually race Day, I'f he loves it he can go back and have a better idea of what he would like to do sit etc.

Silverstone ticketing this year has been a disgrace. I queued all day online, then as the tickets were in my basket 5 hours later, they closed the site. Then again on Friday, I got into the queue the second it opened. 2hrs 30 mins later, I got to the ticket page and they had put the prices up by £70. So queuing for 7.5 hours because their ticketing site took so long meant that I was expected to pay more. Frankly they and their 'dynamic' pricing can bollocks. The tickets are still available now, and they are now £130 more than initially advertised.