This is my review of the Madring Pelouse area, which is the cheapest way you can get access to the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid.
The Pelouse General Admission zone doesn’t get you seats in a grandstand, instead you had quite a limited view of the track whilst sat on dusty steps.
Is the Pelouse area worth it at the Madring? Well the view of the track wasn’t the best, as you’ll see further down this page.
Madring Pelouse location
There is only one designated area for Pelouse ticket holders to view the track from at the Madring circuit. This area is on the right hand side (inside) of the circuit between turns 14 and 15, either side of grandstand GE24.
The Pelouse viewing area is shown as the blue sections on the maps below:
Zone
The Pelouse area is in the Madring Norte (North) part of the circuit, and is in the Distrito Fan Zone. You can only access this zone, you can’t go in any other zones with a Pelosue tiket. But Distrito is the biggest fan zone at the circuit so there’s lots of food, drink and others things to do when there’s nothing happening on track.
On the Madring website this area is also called the Entranda General Pelouse (General Admission Pelouse).
Getting there
To access the Pelouse area you had to enter though the E gates. I initially tried entering via the D gates but security wouldn’t let me, so I had a 30 minute walk around the outside of the track on the local streets to get to the E gates.
If you’re using public transport to get to the Spanish GP at the Madring the easiest way to get to the E gates is by taking the train to the Valdebebas station which is only a 5 or 10 minute walk away. But be ready for huge queues of people trying to get in to that station at the end of the day.
I couldn’t face waiting in those massive queues so I walked for 30 minutes to San Lorenzo metro station where I could get straight on a train without having to wait.
Tickets - Madring F1
I bought my tickets to the Spanish GP at the Madring on the ViaGoGo ticket platform, and managed to get them for about half the price of the official tickets.
I bought them quite late on – around 1 week before the race – but that’s when prices tend to come down before the Grand Prix, and ViaGoGo always has a great selection of tickets available right up until the end of the race weekend, even when they’re sold out elsewhere.
They also have one-day tickets which are generally cheaper, a good option if you’re only going for one day, and if you’re going for multiple days then you could change it up by watching from a different stand each day.
I’ve bought tickets through ViaGoGo lots of times over the past few seasons, including for Madrid, Silverstone and Montreal. I’ve never had a problem using them, and I’ll happily buy through them next time.
Pelouse details
Seating
There is no designated seating in the Pelouse area at the Madring, it’s first-come first served. And there are no actual seats, instead you sit on large steps covered in dusty gravel which you can see in the images below.
These weren’t that comfortable, and were very dusty, so you need to bring something to sit on to stop yourself getting filthy.
TV Screens
There’s only one TV screen visible from the Pelouse area. It’s on the other side of the circuit behind / above the GE19 grandstand.
How much of the TV screen you can see depends on where you sit. If you sit to the right of GE24 but to the left of the pedestrian bridge, you can see it:
If you sit the other side of the pedestrian bridge over the track at Turn 15, however, you can’t see it at all:
The best view of the TV is from the left side of GE24:
Shade
Shade in the Pelouse area was very limited. It faces East so the sun moves around behind you later in to the day, but it’s still very hot. Too hot, to be honest, if you were sat in the sun. Make sure you bring a big hat and suncreen, and something to protect your neck with the sun behind you.
The only shade came from the shadow of the grandstand for those sat on the left side of it, and we found ourselves continually moving as the shade moved across:
Food & Drink
There were a few food and drink vendors directly behind the Pelouse viewing area, where I got some sub-par fried chicken and chips from. I managed to find a spot on the steps in the shade to eat.
But because you have access to the whole Distrito fan zone, it was better going for a walk back across to the other side of the circuit to find a bigger range of food vendors.
Accommodation
If you’re travelling to Madrid for the Spanish Grand Prix and need some accommodation, the map below shows hotels and apartments around the circuit (marked by the blue pin).
The circuit is a little way outside the centre of Madrid itself. But staying near the track makes the trip back each evening much easier, as you can avoid the huge crowds and delays at the train stations.
However, I chose to stay in central Madrid and took the metro to and from the track each day. It’s a bit more travelling but you get to enjoy the best of the city’s restaurants, bars and nightlife when you’re away from the track.
Have a scroll and zoom around the map to see all the places to stay near the circuit:
View
The Madring Pelouse area has views of Turns 14 and 15 but, to be honest, not very good ones.
On the map below I’ve highlighted in green the parts of the track you can see from this area, but this depends on exactly where you sit:
The biggest problem with viewing from here was the massive pedestrian bridge over the circuit at Turn 15. This MASSIVELY impeded the view of the cars coming around that corner, as you can see in this Instagram post I made:
I feel like this was a massive oversight from the organisers, as that massive yellow Pirelli bridge basically rendered half of the Pelouse area useless because you couldn’t see anything at all from there. I hope they’ll change it for the next race, but you never know.
The higher you could go up the steps the better your view and the less the bridge obstructed it, but most people had the same idea so the higher rows were pretty full.
Sitting to the right of the grandstand, the best view you had was actually of the cars once they’d passed under the bridge and headed through Turn 15:
If you sit to the left of the grandstand, then you only have a quick glimpse of the cars as they head through Turn 14.
I’ve put together the video below give you a more detailed idea of exactly how much of the Madring circuit you can see from the Pelouse area
Is Pelouse General Admission at Madring worth it?
This is the big question. I was really disappointed with how much of the view you lost because of the big bridge over the circuit. And only having one designated viewing area felt really restricted, as did not being able to enter any other zones. Other circuit give you free reign to walk around the whole of the track to find different spots to view from when you have General Admission tickets, but not here. Plus having to sit on dusty gravel was not ideal.
Personally I wouldn’t recommend getting Pelouse tickets. They might appear cheaper than all the other options, but if you do what I did and buy your tickets on ViaGoGo then you’ll probably be able to find a grandstand seat for the same amount, which will give you a better view and will be more comfortable with a proper seat.
