Monza 2024

[JustKeepBreathing38]

Hi everyone! Looking for advice really.

My husband will be 40 next year and he loves Formula 1, so I was considering trying to take him to Monza. However, I have a few issues.

1. While I know that some travel agents offer flight/hotel/ ticket packages, I was hoping to get something a bit more special since it's a big birthday. Has anyone ever gotten one of the packages that offer anything extra? (Eg: pit lane walk, guided track tour, F1 Legend appearance, podium ceremony access...etc)? Is it worth it?

1. Only today, my husband was watching the Silverstone practice on TV and was commenting on how much better it is to watch the racing on TV because, in real life, the cars just whizz past and you don't know what position anyone is in..etc. Is he just saying that because he's never been?!!

I'm scared to spend a lot of money on something that is non-refundable that he may not like!

Thank you for any help you can offer

We bought my parents tickets for the Austrian Grand Prix a few years ago, they loved it (apart from the weather, it was 40’c+ all weekend) we bought cheaper tickets so not in the grandstand, but there’s a fantastic atmosphere at any sporting events, and there’s so much more then just the Grand Prix happening. There are fly pasts/air shows, formula 2 and 3 races which you miss out on watching it on tv. There were big screens up at strategic points so you don’t miss out on the action. We bought tickets for the whole weekend, so they could go and watch the practice on the Friday, qualifying Saturday and of course the race on the Sunday. If he’s an F1 I’m sure he’ll love it.

That's really helpful, thank you! It's just so overwhelming with all of the various options and it'll be once in a lifetime so I just want to get it right.

Did Monza on honeymoon (my choice).Sat in the grandstand on the approach to the carousel (where the cars have to slow down ;)). There was a big screen nearby where you could see who was in what order etc. Although generally you remember what order some of them were in the last time they went past.

I wouldn’t have thought upgrading would offer a better experience for an actual motorsport enthusiast. Did corporate hospitality a few times with work at Silverstone and whilst the shade was nice, it wasn’t as good as the experience in the crowd in my view.

@AmITooOldToDoThis Thank you so much, great to know. Did you go to the three days out of interest? What a great honeymoon choice!

Just race day. We only had 2 weeks and toured around.

Husband complained but it kickstarted a love of F1. (I was weaned on it.)

@AmITooOldToDoThis So love blossomed in more ways than one! 😂

As an F1 fan I would say that going to an actual race is a totally different experience to watching it on TV. You can of course see everything that happens on TV but they will have big screens at the circuit so you will see incidents etc. But the experience of seeing these cars roar past at 200mph is something every fan should do at least once.

I would say go for it and if you are going to spend extra money I would forget any of the hospitality stuff. It's just a nice meal at the end of the day, but if you can get paddock access or a pit lane walk then that would be well worth it.

YES! Pit lane/paddock passes are amazing. I was at Silverstone with a VIP (so may have been a different level of access, plus security wasn’t what it is now) and met Jackie Stewart, Hamilton, Coulthard, Mark Webber, Flavio Briattore, Jenson Button, Frank Williams……. It was amazing.

@Aaron95 That's reassuring, thank you! I was thinking the same about the hospitality side but it's cheekily wrapped up with all of the other stuff I mentioned and costs a FORTUNE! It's almost like you can get a basic package or an astronomical one but there isn't anything in between 🤔

@AmITooOldToDoThis That must have been unreal!!!

It was pretty awesome. 😁