I sat in grandstand GC01 at the Madring circuit for the Spanish F1 Grand Prix weekend in Madrid.
My review of this grandstand is based on my experience sitting here. I’ve included a video showing the views from different seating positions, my tips on picking the best seats, a full seat plan and info on how I bought cheaper tickets for the F1 weekend in Madrid.
GC01 grandstand location
The GC01 grandstand is on the right-hand side of the track (inside of the circuit) along the straight that runs between Turns 3 and 4. It’s directly adjacent to the GC02 stand which is to the right of this one.
It’s close to the edge of the track so you do get a great sense of speed and noise as the F1 cars (and the even louder F2 cars) accelerate past you at full speed.
But don’t expect to see any overtaking here. Turn 4 which follows this straight is still quite fast, so this isn’t a place where cars can try a passing manouve. Instead they tended to just fly past in single file.
Zone
This grandstand is in the Barrio Fan Zone which is one of the smallest zones at the track. Annoyingly at the race I went to you weren’t allowed to transit between different zones (which needs to change) meaning you were limited to just the activities in this zone, and limited you were.
This grandstand is easily accessed via gate C1, which is a short walk from the Feria de Madrid Metro station. That’s definitely the easiest way to get here if you’re using public transport. Just expect huge queues at the end of the day as tens of thousands of people try to leave using the same metro station.
Grandstand tickets - Madring F1
I bought my tickets about 10 days before the race using ViaGoGo. I bought a weekend ticket for around half the official price, saving a few hundred Euros in the process. Plus, for even cheaper options, on ViaGoGo you can also get single-day tickets which not only cost less but mean you could try different grandstands (and zones) on different days.
ViaGoGo is the best option if tickets are sold out elsewhere, and that happened pretty quickly with this race weekend. They’ll usually have tickets for sale up until the start of the Sunday of the GP weekend. I used ViaGoGo for tickets for this trip, and I’ve also used them on my other recent Formula 1 trips to the Canadian and British GPs, and will happily do so again next time.
Plus their ‘FanProtect’ policy is there to protect your tickets and money – that gives me extra peace of mind when booking with them.
Grandstand details
TV Screens
There’s a single large TV screen visible from this stand. It’s directly opposite, on the other side of the track, and is most easily visible from the central (left to right) seats in the stand, but can be seen from everywhere.
Seats
The seats are plastic chairs.
Cover
This grandstand has no cover, so you are in the hot Spanish sunshine all day long which actually gets too hot to be honest. It’s South-West facing so the sun will be in your face as the day draws on.
I had to seek shelter in between the F1 sessions in the fan zone shade, as did pretty much everyone else in the stand.
Grandstand GC01 seating chart
Below is the seating chart for Grandstand GC01 at the Madring F1 circuit.
As you can see the grandstand is 20 rows high. Row 1 is the lowest row at the front, Row 20 is the highest row at the back.
Seat numbers increase as you go from left to right (if you are standing on the circuit looking up at the grandstand).
View
On the map below I’ve highlighted the areas of the track you can see from here in green:
All you can see from here is the F1 cars going at full throttle along the straight between Turn 3 and Turn 4. You can’t see the exit of Turn 3, nor can you see the entry to Turn 4.
If you sit in the lower seat numbers to the right hand side of the stand, your view down the straight to your right is actually blocked by the adjacent grandstand. So go for seat numbers 75 and above to avoid this.
Overall your view of the circuit from here is quite limited. Even when the cars are coming past right in front of you it’s difficult to see them properly, especially from the lower rows, because the safety fence is quite obstructive when you look to the left or right. The big TV is crucial to keeping up with what’s going on, and most easily seen from seat numbers in the 120 – 170 range.
In the video below I’ve shown the view from this stand, taken from a number of different seats to give you an idea of how the view changes (or doesn’t change much in the case of this grandstand).
I filmed the clips in this video from the following seats:
- Seat 6 Row 18
- Seat 23 Row 12
- Seat 42 Row 20
- Seat 57 Row 4
- Seat 96 Row 1
- Seat 119 Row 9
- Seat 162 Row 16
- Seat 185 Row 2
- Seat 200 Row 19
- Seat 208 Row 6
- Seat 225 Row 20
Best seats
You want to avoid the lower seat numbers on the right hand side of this stand as your view there is blocked by the grandstand to the right.
If I was sitting here again I would probably aim for seats as directly opposite the screen as possible, so would go for rows 10 and up in seats 120 – 170.
