I sat in the GC05 grandstand at the new Madring Formula 1 circuit for the Spanish GP in Madrid.
I’ve put together this review to help anyone else sitting here in the future. I’ve included a video showing the views from different seats, my tips on where the best seats are, a seating chart and information on how I purchased my tickets for the Spanish Grand Prix at about half the official price.
GC05 grandstand location
Grandstand GC05 is on the left hand side (outside) of the track just as Turn 4, the sweeping right hander, turns in to Turn 5, the tighter chicane. This stand is directly next to GC04 which is to its right.
It’s very close to the edge of the track, both as it passes in front of the stand and to the left of the stand around Turn 5.
Even though the cars slow down a decent amount for Turn 5, not much overtaking seems to happen here as it’s a narrow, difficult part of the track to overtake on. Just like the rest of the circuit!
Zone
GC05 is located in the Barrio Fan Zone which is in the Madrid Sur (South) half of the circuit. This is one of the smallest fan zones at the track, and all there was to do here was to buy some overprices F1 merch, get some food and drink or stand for ages queuing for a tiny arcarde. Annoyingly you weren’t allowed to access any other fan zones, so it feels like you missed out a lot being stuck here.
The best way to get to this grandstand is using entrance Gate C2. But I messed up and got off the metro with most other people at the Feria de Madrid station, and because the security on the gates wouldn’t let me enter through gate C1 I then had to walk about 45 minutes on the streets to get to C2.
The best way to get to gate C2 would be to use the Mar de Cristal metro station instead which is only a 20 minute walk away.
GC05 is part of the Zone C Alta Velocidad Bronze stands, and somewhat confusingly is shown as stand number 5 on the map on the Madring website, which is also called Curva 5 Bronze.
Grandstand tickets - Madring F1
I bought my tickets about 1 week before the Grand Prix using ViaGoGo. I bought a weekend ticket for around half the official price, saving myself a few hundred Euros. Plus ViaGoGo offer lots of single-day tickets which are usually even cheaper and mean you could buy different grandstand tickets for different days for some variation.
Buying different stands in different zones on each day would be a good idea to see more of the Fan Zones!
When tickets are sold out everywhere else ViaGoGo is the best option. I’ve used them loads of times in the past for buying F1 tickets, including on my recent trips to the Montreal GP and Silverstone F1. They’re the best and usually only way I’ve found the get tickets when I’ve left it late and they’re sold out elsewhere.
They will usually have tickets for sale right up until the Sunday of the Grand Prix weekend. I’ll happily use them again next time!
Grandstand details
TV Screens
There’s one big TV screen on the other side of the circuit, on top of a big hill that’s easy to see from all seats in this stand because it’s pretty close.
Seats
The seats are plastic chairs.
Cover
There’s no cover over this grandstand, so no shade. It faces East so you’ll have the sun on your face in the morning and it will slowly move around behind you as the day draws on.
But it was too hot in the late morning and afternoon, so between the F1 track sessions I had to leave the stand and find some shade in the fan zone otherwise I would have burnt to a crisp.
Grandstand GC05 seating chart
Below is the seating chart for Grandstand GC05 at the Madring Formula 1 circuit.
The grandstand is 24 rows high – Row 1 is lowest down at the front and Row 24 is highest up at the back.
Seat numbers begin at 1 and increase from left to right (if you imagine you are standing on the circuit looking at the grandstand).
View
On the circuit map below I’ve highlighted the areas of the track you can see from this stand in green:
From this grandstand you have a view of the cars coming around the final part of Turn 4 where they start slowing down, and then you’ll be able to see them enter Turn 5. You lose them out of sight pretty quickly after that, so will struggle to see them go through Turn 6 in to the tunnel unless you are sat in the seats on the extreme left hand side of the stand.
Sitting lower down means the safety fence really obstructs your view, especially as you look to the left and right along the track. So the higher rows have a clearer view of the circuit, and are easier to see the TV screen from.
In the video below I’ve filmed the view from a number of different seats to show you how it changes depending on where you sit.
The clips in this video were filmed from:
- Seat 1 Row 10
- Seat 33 Row 1
- Seat 54 Row 14
- Seat 60 Row 7
- Seat 92 Row 24
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:
