I sat in the GE20 grandstand at the Madring Grand Prix circuit for the Spanish Formula 1 race in Madrid.
In this review I’ll share my thoughts on what it’s like to spectatce from this grandstand, a video that shows the views from different seats, my suggestions on where the best seats are in the stand, a full seating plan and information on how I purchased my Spanish Grand Prix tickets for less than half the official price.
GE20 grandstand location
Grandstand GE20 is on the left hand side of the circuit at Turn 15. Directly to the left of this stand is GE21.
Turn 15 is quite a fast left hand corner, but like the rest of the track it’s narrow and hard to overtake here so you don’t actually get to see much on track action apart from the cars flying past in single file, and you barely see them for more than a second or two before you lose them out of sight again.
Zone
GE20 is in the Madring Norte (North) section of the circuit, in the Distrito Fan Zone. This is the largest fan zone at the circuit so theres lots of other activities to keep you busy when you’re not sitting in the grandstand.
To access this grandstand and the Distrito Fan Zone I had to enter via the E gates. I’d actually arrived on the other side of the track near the D gates where I tried to get in but the security wouldn’t let me, so I had to walk about 30 minutes around the outside of the circuit on the streets to get to the E gates which was a real pain and felt totally unnecessary – why they couldn’t just let me enter via the D gates and walk through the fan zone to my stand I don’t know.
The best way to get to this stand would be to get to the Valdebabas train station which is only a short walk from the E gates. Most people tried to leave using that station at the end of the day but the queue to get in was massive, and I couldn’t face it. So I walked to the San Lorenzo metro station instead which was about a 30 minutes walk and when I got there there was zero queue.
GE20 is classified as part of the the Curva 15 Bronze grandstand on the Madring website in Zone E, part of the the Curvas enlazadas area of the track.
But confusingly the Curva 15 stand isn’t just just one stand, it’s made up of grandstands GE20, 21 and 19.
Grandstand tickets - Madring F1
I bought my weekend ticket to the Madrid Formula 1 race for about half the official cost on the ViaGoGo ticket platform.
I bought my tickets pretty late, about 1 week before the race weekend, but ViaGoGo is great for those last-minute purchases as they almost always have a good selection of tickets available right up until the Sunday of the race weekend, even if they appear to be sold out everywhere else.
They also offer have lots of one-day tickets on offer which are cheaper and give you the flexibility to try different grandstands on different days.
As well as for this trip to the Madring I’ve used ViaGoGo numerous times during the past few seasons to buy F1 tickets, including for my other recent trips to the F1 at Montreal and Silverstone. I’ve always had a great experience buying through them and I’ll happily do so again next time I need tickets.
Grandstand details
TV Screens
There’s one big TV screen directly opposite this stand.
Seats
The seats are plastic chairs.
Cover
This grandstand is completely uncovered and there’s no shade at all. It faces South West so the sun will be directly on you most of the day, all afternoon and in to the evening.
It was too hot sitting in this stand in the afternoon. I watched the F1 cars from here but as soon as they were finished I left my seat and headed in to the Fan Zone behind the stand to try and find some shade, as pretty much everyone else did.
Grandstand GE20 seating chart
Below is the seating chart for Grandstand GE20 at the Madring Formula 1 circuit.
The grandstand has 27 rows with Row 1 being at the front and Row 27 being highest up at the back.
If you were stood on the track looking up at this grandstand then the seat numbers would start at 1 on the right hand side of the stand and increase up to 140 on the left hand side.
Accommodation
The map below shows accommodation options near the Madring circuit (blue pin). The track itself is a short way outside of the city, but staying close to it is a good idea if you want to try and avoid the massive queues for public transport at the end of the day.
Alternatively you can do what I did and stay in central Madrid then commute to the track to enjoy the city when you’re not at the GP.
Have a look around the map to see all the different accommodation options and their location compared to the track:
View
On the circuit map below the parts of the track you can see from this stand are shown in green:
Your view from this stand is restricted to just Turn 15. You can’t see anything else other than that part of the track. And directly to the right hand side of this stand is that big Pirelli pedestrian bridge over the track, which means your view to the right is completely blocked.
The further right you sit (the closer you are to the bridge) then more the bridge blocks your view. When you sit further to the left and lower down i nthe stand then at least you have a bit of an angle to see the cars emerging under the bridge slightly early.
But overall it’s a pretty limited view, and I spent most of my time watching the action on the screen rather than looking at the cars on the track because you only see them for one or two seconds before they disappear out of sight.
The video below shows the views from this grandstand. I filmed the clips in this video from the following seats to give you an idea of how the view changes slightly depending on where you sit:
- Seat 10 Row 22
- Seat 60 Row 2
- Seat 68 Row 27
- Seat 83 Row 6
- Seat 95 Row 25
- Seat 128 Row 13
- Seat 133 Row 18
Best seats
I don’t think it makes a huge difference where you sit in this grandstand to be honest, you always have a pretty limited view. I’d try and go for seats in the middle and towards the left hand side to be further away from the bridge, so I aim for seats 70 and up. I’d also choose rows in the top half of the stand, so 14 and up, for a wider overall vantage point.
