I sat in the GE22 grandstand at the Madring Formula 1 track for the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid.
In this review I share my thoughts on sitting here, plus I’ve included a video that shows the view from different seats, my top tips on where the best seats are in this stand, a seating chart and some info on how I bought my tickets for the Spanish Grand Prix at half the official price.
GE22 grandstand location
Grandstand GE22 is on the left hand side (outside) of the track right at Turn 16. It’s directly adjacent to grandstand GE21 which is to the right.
Turn 16 is s a slow, tight, 90 degree right hander. Leading up to that is the long, faster Turn 15. Despite Turn 16 being slow, this isn’t an easy place for cars to overtake (like everywhere else on the Madring circuit..!) so don’t expect to see that much overtaking here – I didn’t!
Zone
GE22 is in the Madring Norte (North) half of the circuit, located in the Distrito Fan Zone. This is the biggest fan zone at the track – and it’s huge – so theres a lot of other stuff to see and do here when you’re not sat in the stand.
To access this grandstand you had to enter via the E gates, which was a pain for me as arrived on the other side of the circuit near Turn 10 where there were the D gates. I tried entering via the D gates, because then I could have just walked inside the track to get to the stand, but the security didn’t let me. So instead I had a 30 minute walk on the streets to get round to the E gates.
The best way to access this stand with public transport is to use the Valdebabas train station in the morning. But leaving, the queue for that was MASSIVE. So instead at the end of the day I walked to the San Lorenzo metro station, about 30 minutes away, where there was no queue.
GE22 is shown as the Curva 16 Silver stand on the Madring website in Zone E, part of the the Curvas enlazadas area.
Grandstand tickets - Madring F1
I bought a 3-day ticket for around half what they officially cost using ViaGoGo where you can often find a bit of a bargain.
I also left it quite late to buy my tickets, about 1 week before the Grand Prix, and ViaGoGo is great for last-minute purchases as they usually have a great selection of tickets available right up until the Sunday of the race weekend, even if they’re sold out elsewhere.
They also offer single day tickets which are cheaper and mean you could try different grandstands on different days.
I’ve used ViaGoGo loads of times in the past few seasons for buying my F1 tickets, including for my other recent trips to the Montreal and Silverstone for the F1. I’ve always had a great experience with them and I’ll happily use them again next time.
Grandstand details
TV Screens
There’s one large TV screen directly opposite this stand, easily visible from wherever you sit.
Seats
The seats are plastic chairs.
Cover
There’s no shade for this grandstand, you’re left to bake in the hot Spanish sunshine. The stand faces South-East, so you’ll have the sun on your face for most of the day.
I’ll be honest, in the afternoon it got way too hot to sit here. When the F1 sessions were done the grandstand completely emptied as everyone, myself included, went to find shade in the Fan Zone.
Grandstand GE22 seating chart
Below is the seating chart for Grandstand GE22 at the Madring Formula 1 circuit.
The grandstand is 27 rows high – Row 1 is lowest down at the front, Row 27 is highest up at the back.
Seat numbers begin at 1 on the right side of the stand and increase up to 128 on the left side (if you imagine you’re standing on the track looking up at the grandstand).
View
On the circuit map below I’ve highlighted the parts of the track you can see from this stand in green:
Where you sit makes a big difference in this stand. If you’re in the lowest seat numbers on the right hand side, you will only have a view of the cars coming around the final part of Turn 15 and heading in to Turn 16, where you’ll lose them out of sight at the apex.
But if you sit towards the left hand end, then you are diretly in line with the straight bit of track that goes between Turn 16 and 17, through a short tunnel under a bridge. Get the right rows (middle rows are best) in those seats and you can see all the way down towards Turn 17 as well.
The video below shows this better than I can explain it. In the video I’ve filmed the view from the following seats to show you how your view changes depending on where you sit:
- Seat 1 Row 4
- Seat 1 Row 27
- Seat 38 Row 22
- Seat 51 Row 11
- Seat 72 Row 17
- Seat 100 Row 9
- Seat 128 Row 27
- Seat 128 Row 2
Best seats
I’d go for the highest rows possible to be less obstructed by the safety fence. I’d also try and get seats as far to the left as possible to see as much of the cars going around Turn 5 / Turn 6 as you can.
Accommodation
Here are some accommodation options near the Madring circuit during the F1 weekend:
