I sat in the grandstand GE17 at the Madring circuit for the F1 Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid.
This is my review of this grandstand to hopefully help anyone else in the future who has or is thinking about tickets to this stand. I’ve included a video showing the view from various seats, info on how I managed to get my tickets really cheap, a full seating chart and my tips on the best seats in this grandstand.
GE17 grandstand location
Grandstand GE17 is on the left hand side of the Madring circuit between turns 13 and 14.
Turn 13 is a tight 90 degree left hander, and from here you can only see the exit of it. Turn 14 is a faster sweeping right hander, but is an unlikely place for cars to be able to take (like most of this circuit…!) So don’t expect to see much on-track overtaking here, instead the cars tended to go through this section of the track single file.
Zone
GE17 is in the Madring Norte (North) half of the circuit. It’s in the Distrito Fan Zone which is the biggest fan zone at the track which is a good thing as there’s a lot of other things to see and do when you’re not in the stand.
The easiest way to access this stand is to use the E entrance gates, which are only a short walk away. The best way to get to those gates is to use the Valdebabas train station, only a 10 minute walk away. However the queues to get in to the station at the end of the day were MASSIVE, so instead I walked for 30 minutes to the San Lorenzo metro station which where there was no queue at all.
On the Madring website grandstand GE17 is shown as the Recta 14A Bronze grandstand in Zone E which is part of the Curvas enzaladas section of track.
Grandstand tickets - Madring F1
I bought my ticket for the Formula 1 race in Madrid for around half the official list price on the ViaGoGo ticket platform.
I bought my tickets quite last minute – just 1 week before the race – but ViaGoGo is great for last minute purchases as they always have a good selection of tickets for sale right up until the end of the Grand Prix weekend, even when they’re sold out everywhere else.
It’s also worth checking out their single-day tickets which are cheaper and give you flexibility to try different grandstands on different days of the race weekend.
I’ve used ViaGoGo loads of times over the past few seasons to buy F1 tickets, including for this trip to Madring and other recent trips I’ve taken to watch the Montreal and British Grand Prix. I’ve always had a great experience buying through them and I’ll happily use them next time.
Grandstand details
TV Screens
There are actually two screens visible from here, one at either end of the grandstand. So depending where you’re sat, you’ll either have to look to your left or to your right to see a screen.
Seats
The seats are plastic chairs.
Cover
This grandstand is uncovered so you’re in the hot Spanish sunshine all day long. It faces South West so you’ll have the sun on you for most of the afternoon and in to the early evening.
I found it got too hot here in the afternoon, so I had to leave the stand and find shade in the fan zone when the F1 cars weren’t on the track.
Grandstand GE17 seating chart
Below is the seating chart for Grandstand GE17 at the Madring Formula 1 circuit.
The grandstand has 23 rows – Row 1 is at the front and Row 23 is higher up at the back.
The stand is 231 seats wide. Seat numbers increase from left to right if you are standing on the track looking up at this grandstand.
Accommodation
If you’re heading to Madrid for the F1 and need accommodation, the map below shows all the places to stay (hotels & holiday lettings) surrounding the Madring circuit itself (blue pin). The track is a short distance outside of the city, but staying close is a good idea if you want to try and avoid the big queues for train stations at the end of each day.
Alternatively you could do what I did and stay in the centre of Madrid, then commute to and from the track each day. That way you can enjoy the best of the city’s nightlife, bars and restaurants when you’re not at the GP.
Have a look around the map below to see all of the accommodation options and their location around the track:
View
On the circuit map below the parts of the track you can see from this stand are shown in green:
From this grandstand you view is of the cars leaving Turn 13 and heading through Turn 14.
If you’re in the highest seat numbers on the exteme left hand side of this stand (seats 200 and above) then the big pedestrian bridge over the track directly to your left blocks your view of Turn 14, like in this image taken from seat 231 in the back row:
Sitting further to the right in the lower seat numbers actually gives you a better view to see the cars head under the bridge at Turn 14:
However if you then sit too far to the right the structure holding the TV screen blocks your view of Turn 13:
So it seemed that sitting in the middle of the grandstand gave you the best balance.
In the video below I’ve filmed the view from this grandstand from a number of different seats to give you an idea of how the view changes depending on where you sit.
The clips in this video were filmed from the following seats:
- Seat 12 Row 1
- Seat 18 Row 22
- Seat 46 Row 19
- Seat 82 Row 10
- Seat 126 Row 3
- Seat 184 Row 13
- Seat 231 Row 22
- Seat 231 Row 5
Best seats
I’d go for sits towards the middle of the grandstand to get the best balance of seeing the cars coming around Turn 13 as early as possible, and also getting a good view of them heading under the bridge at Turn. So in grandstand GE17 at the Madring F1 I’d suggest the best seats are seat numbers 70 – 170 in rows 10 and up.
