Quote from chanoman315 :

yes to CART (when it was cart ) and A1GP...

Pfft. I liked CART when it was in its heyday, but calling those races grands prix is an affront to real grand prix racing. F1 cars only.

Anyway, my point is that you don't need to get into the paddock to have a great time at an F1 race. In fact I'd rather not pay my way inside - I'll take a free opportunity to do so of course, but otherwise I'd rather sit outside next to the fence in the mud and rain, drinking beer and smoking weed with the rest of the real F1 fans. I've done it twice and it is truly fantastic.

I can't see how FBMW paddock access is going to get you anywhere near F1 drivers. Either he was with a FBMW team and had access to the pitlane during the FBMW races because of that or he spent his entire day lurking around at some access gate or something where all drivers have to pass sooner or later.

But since you think watching the cars on the track is boring maybe that's more your thing.

it's not boring like 100% boring, i havent been on F1 races only the ones i mentioned above, but only seeing cars pass, i wont pay 5000dls on the trip only to see the cars, i want more "action" if you want that word, i want the feeling, the atmosphere around the F1 race you see? maybe i dont get the real atmosphere as an engineer but as a fan inside the paddock seeing drivers, engineers working, artists, etc... all you get inside the paddock.
And he had the pass i dont know how he got it, but he has pictures with some drivers like Heikki, and with miss british, all after the race...

Ah, after race they probably stopped restricting the F1 paddock from the rest of the paddock, but I don't know if that's always the case. I agree that getting to see F1 from the inside would make the trip more worthwhile but as I said, the people working in F1 are again separated from the rest of the F1 paddock. You'll only get to see them when they go from the pit area to the team hospitality. I certainly wouldn't pay or miss the race for that.

Quote from durbster :

or a member of the media.

Two huge cameras hanging around your neck and a silver tongue will get you just about anywhere you want to be sans credentials.

Obviously there are going to be some situations where a legitimate press pass or affiliation will be absolutely necessary, but I've walked right past police, firemen, security guards, event organizers, etc... If you look the part it's usually pretty easy, but F1 seems like one of those events that might be tough.

Since we're talking about fan access and not the actual racing, i hope this wont be flamebait.


Regardless of racing itself, this is one of the areas where NASCAR really shines.

Pit passes are cheap, drivers are more than happy to hang out with fans, and access to the garage areas are even pretty open to general public with the right passes...

Not to mention other activities. I don't know about F1 races (would like to go to one to see) but NASCAR races are full weekend events. Infield and near-track lots fill up on fridays, and its just good fun all weekend long (liquid fun, too). I had infiled passes to Daytona in 2000 ... we were playing a game of football in the grass area next to us... Dale Earnhard Jr joined us about halfway through... had a beer and played a little ball.. Best race I've ever been to, and the cars weren't even on track yet...

Quote from rjm1982 :

we were playing a game of football in the grass area next to us... Dale Earnhard Jr joined us about halfway through... had a beer and played a little ball

I don't really care for NASCAR at all, but that's really cool.

If you're Kylie Minogue or Dizzee Rascal you might stand a chance in the *special* booth somewhere in a garage

Like someone said, you just need to have the guts and act naturally...in the FIA GT race held here, we bought paddock passes and there was a small, openable fence, that separated the paddock from the boxes.

My friend and me walked through it and found ourselves right in the Team Italia box (the small part for VIPs). We were even shown on Eurosport when the car went into pits!

No one ever noticed we had no VIP card around or necks. Since we were there, we were supposed to be VIPS

paddock passes, that was my question...

Same technique, just walk in

Quote from BurnOut69 :

Same technique, just walk in

Not in F1 you don't. Maybe 20 years ago.

I've been to the Melbourne GP paddock.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mickdunn

A tour of the Ferrari pits. It's very tightly regulated - you need to scan your pass at a security point to get in. And there really weren't many VIPs in there either - most of them hang out in the Paddock Club rather than the paddock itself. And having access to one doesn't automatically mean access to the other. The paddock is where the drivers can chill out a bit and not have people crawling all over them every second and where the teams can just get on with their job.

Basically, you need to know someone who knows someone sort of thing to get in.