I sat in grandstands GE14A and GE14B at the Madring circuit for the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix in Madrid. Both are part of the Recta 13A Silver section.
I’ve covered both stands on this page because they sit right next to each other and are basically two parts of one longer grandstand split in two, although each half has its own seat numbering.
On this page you’ll find a video of the views from each stand, a seating plan for both, how I got my tickets for around half the official price, and my advice on which seats to go for.
GE14A & GE14B grandstands location
Grandstands GE14A and GE14B are on the left hand side of the Madring circuit, on the exit of Turn 12, the high-speed banked corner ‘La Monumental’.
From here you watch the cars come off the banking and head down the straight towards Turn 13. Grandstand GE15 is directly to the left of GE14B.
Zone
Both stands are in Madring Norte (North), within the Distrito Fan Zone. This is the biggest fan zone at the circuit, so there’s no shortage of food, drink and things to do when there’s nothing happening on track or you want a break from sitting in the sun in the stand.
On the Madring website, GE14A and GE14B are sold as part of the Recta 13A Silver section (not the 14A and 14B Bronze section, confusingly!) Recta 13A Silver also includes grandstand GE15, so if you book that section, check your ticket to see which of the three stands you’ve ended up in.
To reach these stands, the best way is to enter through the E gates. Valdebebas train station is the nearest public transport stop to those which is only a few minutes’ walk away, but be prepared for very long queues to get in to the train station after the racing finishes. I didn’t want to wait in those huge queues so I walked for about 30 minutes to San Lorenzo metro station, where I could get straight on without having to wait.
Grandstand tickets - Madring F1
I paid about half the official price for my Madrid Grand Prix tickets by buying them on the ViaGoGo ticket platform.
I left it quite late to buy my tickets, roughly a week before the race weekend. Prices actually tend to come down a week or two before the Grand Prix, and ViaGoGo always has a good choice of seats available right up to the Sunday of the race weekend, even when there’s none left elsewhere.
It’s worth checking their one-day tickets too. They’re generally cheaper, and if you’re going for more than a single day, you could change it up a bit by watching from a different grandstand each day.
I go to lots of F1 races to keep this website up-to-date, and I’ve bought tickets through ViaGoGo many times over the past few seasons, including for Madrid, Montreal and Silverstone. I’ve never had a problem with them, and I’d use them again happily.
Grandstand details
TV Screens
There’s one TV screen directly opposite these grandstands on the other side of the track. You get a good view of it from both GE14A and GE14B.
The first image below shows the view of the screen from 14A, the second image is from 14B:
Seats
The seats are plastic chairs.
Cover
Neither grandstand has a roof. They face north west, so in the late afternoon and into the early evening the sun is right in your face.
It got pretty hot sitting here. A hat, sunglasses and sun cream are a must, and you’ll probably want to find some shade in the fan zone between sessions which is what I had to do.
Seating charts
GE14A
GE14A has 33 rows. Row 1 is at the front and Row 33 is at the very top.
It’s 37 seats wide. If you were standing on the track looking up at the grandstand, seat 1 is on the left hand end of the stand and seat 37 is on the right, next to GE14B.
GE14B
GE14B also has 33 rows, with Row 1 at the front and Row 33 higher up at the back again.
It’s the wider of the two at 56 seats. Seen from the track, seat 1 is on the left next to GE14A, and seat 56 is on the far right.
Accommodation
The map below shows hotels and apartments around the Madring circuit (marked by the blue pin) for anyone travelling to Madrid for the Grand Prix.
The circuit is a little way outside the city. Staying nearby makes the trip back each evening much easier, as you avoid the huge crowds and delays at the train stations.
I chose to stay in central Madrid instead and took the metro to the track each day. It’s a bit more travelling, but you get the best of the city’s restaurants, bars and nightlife once the track action is over for the day.
Have a scroll around the map to compare all the places to stay near the circuit:
View
On the circuit map below the parts of the track you can see from these two grandstands are shown in green:
As these two stands are right next to each other, the view from the two is pretty much the same.
You can see the cars exiting the fast banked La Monumental corner, and then you’ll see them head down towards Turn 13 on your left. You’ll be able to see them brake for Turn 13, but you won’t be able to see them go around the corner as the pedestrian bridge over the track blocks your view of that. This was taken from GE14A showing the bridge blocking the view of the T13 apex:
The one thing to note is that GE14A sits a little bit higher than GE14B. That meant that in seats 1 – 15 of GE14B, your view to the right of La Monumental was actually blocked by GE14A next to you. The image below was taken in seat 8 of GE14B, and I was standing up rather than sitting down, but you can still see the hand rail blocking your view. When sitting it was even worse.
To give you a better idea of the view from each stand I made a video showing what you could see from different seats in each.
The video below shows the views from the GE14A and GE14B grandstands, and the clips within it were taken from the following seats:
- GE14A Seat 4 Row 1
- GE14A Seat 6 Row 30
- GE14A Seat 10 Row 20
- GE14A Seat 19 Row 4
- GE14A Seat 24 Row 14
- GE14A Seat 31 Row 5
- GE14A Seat 37 Row 33
- GE14B Seat 7 Row 16
- GE14B Seat 23 Row 8
- GE14B Seat 28 Row 24
- GE14B Seat 31 Row 2
- GE14B Seat 52 Row 32
- GE14B Seat 56 Row 16
Best seats
I definitely preferred the view from GE14A. It was slightly higher, so didn’t get blocked at all by GE14B. It also has a clearer view of La Monumental, and also a better angle to see under the pedestrian bridge down towards Turn 13 a little clearer.
I like the higher rows in this stand, so would suggest anything above row 20 is a great choice.
