I sat in grandstand GE15, which is part of the Recta 13A Silver section, at the Madring circuit for the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix in Madrid.
This is my review of sitting in this grandstand to hopefully help anyone else who has, or is thinking about, getting seats here in the future.
It includes videos showing the view from different seats, a full seating plan, details of how I got my tickets much cheaper than they should have been, and my tips on the best seats in this stand.
GE15 grandstand location
Grandstand GE15 is on the left hand side of the Madring F1 circuit between the exit of the Turn 12 ‘La Monumental’ banked corner and the braking zone for the tighter left hander of Turn 13.
You can’t actually see the braking zone for Turn 13, or the corner itself, because there’s a big pedestrian bridge directly to the left of this stand (more info in the View section lower down). Instead, you can see the cars exiting the high speed banking of La Monumental to your right.
Don’t expect to see much overtaking here, however. The cars just flew past one by one, and you could only see each of them for a few seconds.
Zone
GE16 is in Madring Norte (North) in the Distrito Fan Zone which is the biggest fan zone at the circuit. There were lots of places to eat and drink, and loads of other things to see and do in this zone when you weren’t sat in the grandstand.
The way these stands are named is slightly confusing when booking tickets. This specific grandstand is called GE15, but when you look on the Madring website this stand is actually shown as being part of the Recta 13A Silver section. But strangely, Recta 13A Silver is made up of GE15 and grandstands GE14A and GE14B.
The best way to get to this grandstand when arriving at the track is using the E entrance gates. To get to those gates using public transport the best method is to use the Valdebabas train station which is only a 5 – 10 minute walk away. However, expect there to be huge queues to get in to the station at the end. There were when I left the track, and I didn’t want to stand and wait, so instead I walked half an hour to the San Lorenzo metro station where there was no queue.
Grandstand tickets - Madring F1
I bought my tickets for the Grand Prix in Madrid for about half the official price on the ViaGoGo ticket platform.
I bought my tickets last minute, just one week before the race weekend, but that’s when prices seemed to be lower and ViaGoGo has a good selection of tickets for sale right up until the Sunday of the race weekend, even when they’re sold out everywhere else.
It’s also worth looking at their one-day ticket options as they’re probably a bit cheaper and if you’re going for a few days then you could try different stands on different days.
To keep this website updated I go to a lot of F1 races, and I’ve used ViaGoGo numerous times now over the past few years to buy tickets, including for this trip to Madrid and my other most recent trips to Montreal and Silverstone for the Grand Prix. I’ve always had a great experience buying tickets through ViaGoGo and I’ll happily use them again next time.
Grandstand details
TV Screens
There are two screens visible from this stand. Which one you can see easiest depends on where you sit.
Both screens are directly opposite on the other side of the track. One is easier to see for those sat on the left hand side of the stand, and one is better for those on the right.
Seats
The seats are plastic chairs.
Cover
Grandstand GE15 doesn’t have a roof. It faces North West, so the sun isn’t too bad in the morning but as you get in to the later afternoon you will have some sun on you.
It got a bit too hot to sit in the sun all day in the stand, so in between F1 sessions I left my seats and went to find shade in the fan zone.
Grandstand GE15 seating chart
Below is the seating chart for Grandstand GE15 at the Madring Formula 1 circuit.
The grandstand has 33 rows – Row 1 is at the front and Row 33 is highest up at the back.
The stand is 198 seats wide. The seat numbers start at 1 on the left side of the stand and increase as you go to the right (if you’re standing on the track looking up at the grandstand, that is.)
Accommodation
If you’re travelling to Madrid to watch the Spanish Grand Prix and need somewhere to stay, the map below shows all the accommodation options surrounding the Madring circuit (the blue pin). The track is a little way outside of the city, but if you want to try and avoid the long queues for train stations at the end of each day then staying close by is a good idea.
Alternatively you could do what I did if you want to make the most of the trip and stay in the centre of Madrid itself. There you can enjoy the city’s nightlife, bars and restaurants when you’re not at the track, and use the metro to commute to and from the circuit each day.
Pan and zoom around the map below to see all of the available accommodation options around the Madring circuit:
View
On the circuit map below the parts of the track you can see from this stand are shown in green:
As the map shows, from grandstand GE15 your view is mainly of the cars exiting La Monumental corner (Turn 12) and heading down towards Turn 13.
Unfortunately there’s a massive pedestrian bridge over the circuit directly to the left of this stand which really blocks your view of the cars as they head towards Turn 13. The further to the left you sit in the stand (higher seat numbers) the worse this is:
I also found that if you sat in the seats furthest to the right in seat numbers 1 to 30, regardless of which row you were in then the grandstand directly adjacent to this one also blocked your view of the cars exiting La Monumental:
So it definitely seemed that sitting in the middle of the grandstand was the best idea, as then you could see under the pedestrian bridge slightly and also had a clear view of the final part of La Monumental.
In the video below I filmed the views from this grandstand from a number of different seats to give you an idea of how the view changed depending where you sit.
The clips in this video were filmed from the following seats:
- Seat 10 Row 15
- Seat 39 Row 17
- Seat 66 Row 3
- Seat 80 Row 25
- Seat 112 Row 33
- Seat 156 Row 24
- Seat 198 Row 18
Best seats
I’d definitely suggest that the best seats in grandstand GE15 at the Madring F1 circuit are seat numbers 50 – 130 in rows 15 and up. Being in those middle seats means the bridge doesn’t obstruct your view too much to the left, and the grandstand to the right doesn’t obstruct your view of the cars exiting La Monumental. And the higher rows give you a slightly wider vantage point, and mean the safety fence isn’t in your way as much when you look left or right.
