The Catalan circuit has not seen as many spectators as the Spanish Grand Prix will gather this weekend, but now the country has once again seen a rising interest in Formula 1, explained by the success of Ferrari and the podiums of Carlos Sainz . In addition, the Spanish driver of the Scuderia wants to fight at home for his first win.
But even on Thursday morning, a certain number of tickets remained on sale – thanks to the fact that several temporary additional stands were installed at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the first time in many years. But actually everything was sold out in advance – by the way, just like all other European tracks.
“On Sunday there will be more than 100,000 spectators, that’s for sure,” said José-Luis Santamaria, director of the circuit. – Most tickets are season tickets for all three days of the weekend, and personally, if I were the fans I would have arrived at the track by 8am.
Usually most of the crowd arrives closer to the start of the Grand Prix, but we will have a lot of interesting things on other days of the weekend – for example the W Series, F2 and F3 races will be held on Saturday, not count towards the Formula 1 qualification. And those ticket holders who have our season ticket can enter the pit lane on Thursday, when the teams’ pits are already open.
There have been no such sales statistics since 2008 or 2009, but the record was set in 2006 or 2007, but then the economic crisis started and the number of visitors dropped.
Judging by the information we have, tickets through the autodrome website were mainly bought by citizens of Spain, while the proportion of foreigners was slightly less. The British, French and of course the Dutch dominate there, so there will be a lot of people in orange in the stands. But there will also be stands filled with red and blue depending on the fans of the team.
The easiest way to get to the circuit from Barcelona is by bus or train – shuttles run from Montmelo station. And for those who are going to drive their own car, you should know that if you have not bought a parking ticket in advance, there is nowhere to leave the car and you have to park quite far from the autodrome.
This year we have decided to do away with sandwiches and other fast food typical of sporting events and to focus on Mediterranean cuisine, as well as barbecue and rice dishes. But the prices will be reasonable, not too high. All places selling food are under awnings as warm weather is expected this weekend.
In addition, it is also important that the five-year contract for the Spanish Grand Prix gives us the opportunity to participate in a phased reconstruction of the circuit, the second phase has already been completed and in December we will move on to the next one – it involves significant investments in the rail power system. It will be upgraded, we will install new equipment, mainly solar panels and batteries. †
Source: F1 News
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