I have a few hobbies and watching following Formula 1 is one of them. I’ve been doing this since many years with different intensity.
For example when living in Rotterdam we used to combine Formula 1 weekends with Go-Karting and in the most recent years I have been following Max Verstappen closely since he is dutch. And since a few years, Maja and to an extend even Laura have been doing this most race-weekends. Sundays often are spend watching TV and in my case, so are Saturdays and sometimes even Fridays. I must admit I have not been a “complete nerd” and soak in every piece of information, but I appreciate learning about the technology and following the cirkus around the races, drivers and teams.
And with that it’s been a dream to experience a race in real life instead of from a TV. So I booked a “fully arranged” trip by bus with hotel, tickets etc to Spa Franchorchamps this year for Maja and myself. We had a great time. We might not do exactly this trip again (we’re not really bus-trip people I think) but we rather enjoyed the trip. The sounds, the smell, the experience. Loved it. We might plan for race next season, but then another location. I’ll post here if we do go.
What surprised us a lot was the size of the track. We had an idea of taking a walk around the track but one hour later we only passed the first straight after our seats so we returned. I think we have only seen 30% of the track. Also, what was surprising was the noise. Formula 3 was a LOT louder than Formula 1 and the “retro cars” that drove around during some breaks were heard from far far away. Lastly: we had amazing seats. Under a roof (yes, it was raining almost all of Saturday) in a fenced off area with food, drinks and bathrooms, and numbered seats.
So – about the pictures: we saw Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3 and Porsche Mobil1 SuperCup. We were on track Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but missed a few events due to rain, traffic jams and other stuff. Posting in no particular order: