Lights out, and away we go, with the kids!
We landed in Barcelona on Tuesday so we had a few days before the race weekend kicked off. To our surprise, we discovered that the circuit de Barcelona were having a free pit walk for anyone with weekend tickets on the Thursday evening. Our base in Pineda de Mar was only 35 mins drive to the circuit, so we packed the car with the kids and off we went. We enjoyed a little bit of shopping in the busy town of Mataro on route and arrived at the circuit for the Thursday afternoon and joined the excited fans in the queue to enter the pit lane walk. It was the first experience of a circuit for the kids and to add in walking down the pit lane watching the mechanics at action with some of the drivers making an appearance, it was amazing for all. Soon we were back in the car and before long having a swim in the pool back at Camping Enmar.
We had the weekend general admission tickets, so made the most of them and travelled up to the circuit all 3 days. Practice on Friday, same again Saturday for qualifying and then the race itself on Sunday. The Friday and Saturday is a good time to experience the Fan Zone and even the Grandstand without the larger crowds. The Fan Zone allows you to experience racing simulators, pit stop challenges, driver interviews and team merchandise and lots more. General admission ticket holders can use any grandstand on the Friday only. We were also able to check out the different viewing points that we could use to view the race on Sunday.
We had an early start on Sunday morning with gates opening at 7am. Traffic was notable heaver, but a large police present meant it flowed very well. We parked up and arrived at entrance gate for 9 but we were amazed at the numbers already at their viewing points. We found a good spot and settled down for the day ahead. Race day was a hot one but there were super facilities at the Kids Zone to entertain the children, bouncy castle, outdoor games, and crafts and this got us out of the sun for a bit too. We were well prepared with our freezer bag stocked with ice cold drinks and snacks.
The race itself was very exciting and a great experience for the kids to see the drivers and cars up close. To top off this amazing holiday, we even managed a day trip into Barcelona before our later evening flight back to Dublin. So, if you are a family who love the formula one and would like to experience it, I couldn’t recommend Barcelona enough. It’s a short flight from Dublin with loads of amazing resorts to stay and enjoy before or after the grand prix. It’s also one of the cheaper F1 tickets on the calendar. The circuit management has some work to do, improving the waiting times and queues but I’m sure that will be done. And yes, Formula one and kids do mix!
Next up for us is Monza…….