Paulo, Todd, Phillipa and Hvoje share their (mainly positive!) experiences attending this year’s Spanish Grand Prix at a very hot Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.
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The 2026 Barcelona Grand Prix takes place from June 12-14
Main Image: Paulo Ferreira
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Paulo from Portugal
I stayed at a hotel to the east of the circuit, and it was a great choice, as I was able to avoid all of the traffic between the circuit and Barcelona. It never took more than 30 minutes between leaving the hotel and parking at the circuit, and vice-versa.
I had grandstand G tickets, right next to Max Verstappen’s “Orange Army.” What a show they put on! As always when I attend F1 races, I took special enjoyment wandering around around the general admission areas, which at Circuit de Catalunya offer plenty of fantastic track views. I normally roam general admission on Friday and Saturday, then sit in my allocated seat only for the race on Sunday.
Despite living in Portugal, it was my first time at this race, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the organization and facilities, having read plenty of complaints from the past few years. There were plenty of shaded areas to eat and rest, and even to watch the track. The lines to water refill stations, food and beverage stands, and toilets, were acceptable. No lines at all to enter the track, and fairly reasonable car parking organization. Of course, nothing is perfect, but for this kind of event, I think it all went very well.
My favourite photo spots were on the outside of Turn 3; at tarmac level, and reasonably close to the track. The speed of the cars was insane! Also through the fence (and trees) at the outside of the fast Turn 9 right hander, with the spectators in the background and using the vegetation in the foreground made for some aesthetically beautiful photos, in my humble opinion. You can also take nice landscape pictures from grandstand G. [Paulo’s photos were taken with a Canon R6, with Canon EF 70-200 f4, EF 300 f4 and EF 24-105 f4 lenses.]
Todd from the USA
In the last few years, I’ve been to five F1 races in person, and I’ve learned the hard way that if I’m going to splurge on anything at a race, it’s going to be on my ticket. I’m going to be in that seat for at least 10-12 hours over the course of the weekend. So, I want my own seat. I want a great track view, and I want the ability to see the race on a large TV monitor as well. So, normally I just get the best grandstand seat that I can, which this year would have been either in the covered principal grandstand or a covered grandstand at either the first or final corners.
For this race I decided to splurge. Luckily, Barcelona offers some of the most affordable hospitality suites on the F1 calendar. I opted for the Garden Village, overlooking the final turn. The Garden Village Hospitality Suite tickets were €1,450 per person, but included a parking pass (which we didn’t use), a seat in Grandstand H, as well as access to a trackside private covered village area that was fully catered. The Garden Village tents had three bars serving beer, wine, and non-alcoholic drinks as well. On Friday, since it’s just free practice and the least attended race day, just the bars were serving, and a few packaged snacks were available.
But on Saturday and Sunday, the suite opened at 9am and there were buffets with three different food setups throughout the day for breakfast, lunch and dessert service. The food was great and the service was friendly and super attentive. A lot of Spanish tapas style small bites, but they also served paella and other dishes during lunch service. Honestly, I thought the overall value of the ticket was well worth the upcharge from what a grandstand seat would have cost. There’s a bit of a sticker shock when you first pay for the ticket, but for my three days at the circuit, I didn’t have to buy any food or drink or wait in a single line for anything.
When purchasing tickets to any F1 race, the circuit website should be your first choice. For Barcelona, this is circuitcat.com. Typically the circuit website will be the most affordable and reliable option for buying your tickets. In this case, it turned out that the hospitality suites were available via licensed ticket vendors a few weeks before going on sale via the circuit. I ended up purchasing the passes from Grand Prix Tickets, and I had no negative issues with them whatsoever.
I wanted to stay somewhere that was accessible for transportation to the circuit, as well as close to the action in the city, and ended up staying in the Eixample neighborhood of Barcelona. It was an easy 10 minute walk to the Passeig de Gracia train station, where you take the green R2 train in the direction of Granollers or Saint Celoni and get off at Montmelo. The roundtrip tickets cost €6.20 and it took about 30 minutes to get there.
A free circuit shuttle bus was available from the Montmelo train station to the circuit, but there was typically a big queue for this. As long as you’re physically able, you’ll likely save time by walking to the circuit, which takes about 30 minutes and passes through the town. Lots of vendors were selling food, drinks, F1 merchandise and souvenirs along the way.
I didn’t get into Barcelona until Friday morning, but I was able to get to the circuit in time for Free Practice 2. Being the least busy day of the race weekend, Friday presented a good opportunity to explore and to check out the fan zone.
On Sunday, we arrived at the circuit at 10:30am, and the bag and ticket check was fast. We hung out in the Garden Village and then went up to our seats in Grandstand H, which were in the shade and had a view of a large TV screen. The race itself was great. Between the lovely weather conditions, large number of overtakes, varied pit strategies, the late safety car, and great seats, I really enjoyed it.
When the race was about ten laps from being finished, I went down to the closest gate so I could join the post-race track invasion. I got there early enough so I was toward the front when the gate opened and I sprinted with the crowd to get close to the podium. I totally recommend doing the post-race track invasion. However, if you want to actually be anywhere near the podium, you have to get to a gate close by before the race ends.
This year, over 300,000 spectators attended the Spanish Grand Prix over three days. That is a lot of people to cram into a small town. Since many attendees take the train to the circuit, there are huge lines around the station following qualifying and the race. My advice is to take your time leaving the circuit at the end of the day. Do the track invasion and relax a bit in Montmeló before heading to the station. There’s live music and DJs playing to a dancing crowd in the town square. Plenty of food and beverage options were also available to keep the party going. If you wait 2-3 hours after the race, there will be hardly any lines for the train at all.
Wrapping up, attending this race was a wonderful experience. The circuit, crowd, amenities, and Catalan and Spanish hosts were amazing. I loved it.
Philippa from the United Kingdom
We attended the fan forum and fan zone in Plaça de Catalunya, Thursday pit walk and sat in grandstand E from Friday to Sunday. We stayed in a hotel a short walk from Estacio del Nord and the Arc de Triomf.
The fan zone in Plaça de Catalunya was good with a car display and other interactive exhibits. I had tickets to the fan forum but it was challenging for an English speaker because all the interviews were conducted in Spanish. Had I known in advance, I probably wouldn’t have got tickets for the fan forum.
For getting around the city, we bought a T familiar card which provided us with eight journeys for €11.90. We bought two of these as we needed sixteen journeys. We perhaps could’ve used a T casual each which for a little more money allows ten journeys for a single person, but that would’ve meant one each, and as we didn’t know just how much we’d use public transport, it just worked out easier for us with the T familiar.
On Thursday there were no buses running to the track, so we caught the train from Passeig de Gràcia to Montmeló and then walked 1.8km to the track. There were no signs so we relied heavily on Apple Maps directing us at this point. I’ve never seen so many vendors selling merchandise outside of a circuit! It took around 30 minutes on the train and a further 30 minutes to walk from the station to the track. It was challenging in the heat!
From Friday to Sunday, we took the Sagales shuttle bus, which we had bought in advance. It was easy to use, the buses were frequent and you were guaranteed a seat for the whole journey. The journey to the circuit took around 90 minutes on Friday, but we did leave later on this day (around 10:30am). We left earlier on Saturday and Sunday and the journey took just over 30 minutes. On Sunday, there were hundreds of buses waiting for fans after the race. The only downside was the lack of structured queues, so there were lots of queue jumpers.
The experience at the circuit was well managed. There was minimal queuing to actually get in. Thursday was worse as everyone attending the pit lane walk had to go through one gate and the bag checks were very thorough. It took around forty-five minutes to get in on Thursday. The other days felt much quicker, taking around ten minutes to get through bag checks and security.
We had tickets for grandstand E, which had great views of the main straight from the start line through Turns 1-3 and the other half of the circuit too. The grandstands had open spaces underneath which housed two small toilet blocks, a water fountain and plenty of space to hide from the Spanish sun in between on-track events.
Navigating around the track was fairly tiresome and we didn’t make it round the whole way. Some of the steps were challenging due to wobbly railway sleepers (see picture here), and unmarked difficult to spot kerbs in odd places. I’m not sure if the circuit is very wheelchair friendly.
Food and drink prices at the track were extortionate, and food was mediocre at best. It cost €9-11 for a burger/ ham roll. €5.50 for a small bag of chips. €5 for a 500ml bottle of soft drink and €4 for a Calippo iceblock! It’s difficult when you’re limited in the amount of food/ drink you can take in though, combined with the high temperatures. I was trying to moderate how much I drank, which left me feeling unwell. There were huge queues for water fountains. They had some water fans around, including in the pedestrian tunnels, but there could have been more given the high temperatures!
It was nice to have F2, F3 and Porsche Supercup on track, although we didn’t see all of the support sessions and races as it was just too hot in the grandstand. Some more demos of historic cars might’ve been good, given the fact it was F1’s 75th year.
The fan stage behind the main grandstand had lots of appearances but they placed a large gazebo in front of it. Because it was so busy, many fans were forced to stand on the wrong side of the gazebo, meaning you could hear the main stage but not see anything! Colapinto fans were very loudly chanting away during all of the main stage events too, which made hearing things even more difficult, even when other drivers were on stage.
The other fan zone area with an F1 outlet store was really far away from the main stage. We walked over there on Friday, but they had barely any stock so I was quite disappointed. It seems people who went on Saturday had better options.
I loved the fact they were giving away Amex radios. It’s difficult to hear the trackside speakers otherwise when the cars are nearby. The commentary was in Spanish, French and English which made it easy to keep up with track action.
Hrvoje from Croatia
I have already been to Barcelona three times, each time for motorsport. I attended the F1 race (2008), the WRC (2017) and F1 winter testing (2020). Since I always had a great time, I decided to book another trip. My friend Dino decided to join as well, and we booked Vueling flights from Dubrovnik to Barcelona in September of last year. We booked a two-room apartment through AirBNB, which was located between Plaça d’Espanya and the main Sants train station.
Tickets for the race went on sale via the official website in October. I waited a bit, hoping for a Black Friday discount. This didn’t happen, so I bought a three-day general admission ticket. Unfortunately, there were no one-day tickets available at the time, and I didn’t want to spend too much money considering that I’m going to three races this year. To research the trip, I used the Barcelona Grand Prix Travel Guide and Facebook Group from f1destinations.com, as well as the Grand Prix Travel subreddit.
We flew in on Saturday afternoon, packed in like sardines on the Vueling plane, our luggage under the seat in front of us. Dino carried two bags, one of which carried his camera with two lenses. We landed on time and took the Aerobus to our apartment. After checking in, visiting the supermarket and having a beer on the balcony, we visited Placa de Catalunya, where the F1 Festival was being held that week. Unfortunately, we arrived half an hour after it closed!
Our options for getting to the track on Sunday were to take the train (cheapest), Sagales bus (more expensive) or taxi (most expensive). Of course, we decided on the train, which takes half an hour to Montmeló. The crowds were bearable. We met an American couple on the train who joined us for the walk to the track. There is also a free bus from the station to the track, but walking was a better choice for us. We arrived in Montmeló at around 10:30am and enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the town. There are plenty of stands with merch, food and drinks along the way. We tried to walk in the shade as much as possible because the sun was brutal.
We entered at Gate 6 (near Turn 3), because our new American friends had tickets for grandstand N. In front of the entrance is a large, expensive restaurant that we bypassed in a wide circle. We didn’t smuggle anything in like in Imola, and alcohol is prohibited inside the track. It wasn’t like that in 2008… damn! We arrived for the start of the Porsche Supercup race and everything was good, except for the heat.
Around 2pm, we started looking for a place in the shade to watch the race. We found it between Turns 8-9 (before grandstand S). There was already a huge crowd, most of whom had been there all day already, but we found some space, and we could also follow the action on a big screen. The race started and the atmosphere was good! Alonso was fighting and trying to overtake in impossible places.
I told Dino that I was going off for a wander, and that he shouldn’t follow me because I didn’t know where I was going. We agreed to be in touch via text, and off I went, exploring, taking pictures and enjoying the buzz. Barcelona is always good for general admission views. I found a spot near the fence at Turn 5. A few seconds later, I reached for my phone in my pocket and it’s not there! Maybe I’ve fallen victim to pickpockets, which everyone warns you about in Barcelona. I retraced my steps and found my phone on the ground about 20 meters away. It had fallen out of my pocket. After that stress, everything else was easy.
A message came through from Dino that he was in grandstand J on the start-finish straight. Maybe I could sneak into a grandstand as well? It was easier than I thought, maybe because the security guards had already gone to help with the post-race track invasion. I checked out the views from the covered grandstands L and M. The former had exceptional views of two sections of the track and I was happy to be in the shade.
I sat on the steps of grandstand L and watched the race unfold. There was a safety car period due to Kimi’s retirement. After the restart, Alonso worked wonders again, Max was having a blast, and Hulk overtook Hamilton to the total delight of the audience. The race was over.
The track invasion was well organized. A map showed the entrance points to the track. Memories of the craziness of the track invasions at Imola and Monza flashed before me, but I needn’t have worried. It was all quite orderly. I didn’t make it in time for the podium ceremony, but that’s OK. The heat and sun were overwhelming and it was at this point I wished I had worn my sunglasses as well as my hat.
I found Dino in the fan zone behind the main grandstand, then we walked back together to Montmeló. There was a band and DJ taking turns to play in the main square, and the atmosphere was really lively. We had a few drinks and enjoyed seafood paella for dinner while waiting for the train queues to die down. We finally boarded a train bound for Barcelona at around 10pm.
We found that supermarket, cafe and restaurant prices were cheaper than in Croatia. At the track, it cost around € 9-11 for a burger, €5 for fries, €5 for half a liter of soda. It was expensive and the food wasn’t great quality. Merch was expensive, the cheapest you could find was an old cap for €20 or a T-shirt for €30. Otherwise, all the current year merch was selling for over €50. Next to the track (Gate 6), there was a big restaurant with a huge outdoor grill, which was also terrible. A half liter of (real) beer cost €10.
But in Montmeló, everything was more reasonably priced, even if the prices had been increased a little for race weekend; €4-5 for half a liter of beer, €3-4 for juice and €6-8 for a sandwich. At a local restaurant, we paid €18.50 for a large paella and €11 for a bottle of wine. Our meals in Barcelona cost around €25-30 per head for a multi-course meal with a bottle of wine.
Cost Summary
Return flights: Dubrovnik-Barcelona with Vueling (carry on luggage only) = €85
3-Day General Admission race ticket with fees = €189.50
Three nights in a good two-room apartment for two people via airBNB = €250 per person (€500 total)
Aerobus return ticket = €12.85
Metro card with 10 rides = €12
Return ticket to Sitges = €10
Train to the track = €6 (return free)
Total = fixed costs of approx. €565 per person.
We were very satisfied with the trip (9/10)! If you have the opportunity to attend, I highly recommend doing so. Positives were the excellent general admission areas (grandstands even better), affordable prices in Montmeló and the solid organization. On the downside, it was too hot at the track, no alcohol was available, and there was some overcrowding in the general admission areas.
This is an edited & shortened translation of Hrvoje’s original article in Croatian, which you can read here.
In Brief (The Good & Bad)
The Good
Bella: Everything was just perfect. And let me tell you, the Sagales buses, just superb. I have never experienced better organization of any event I have attended. Fantastic!
Gregory: What a great weekend! Much improved organisation from the circuit and transport compared to last year, made it even better. Last year we queued three hours for a train – this year it was forty five minutes to one hour, with the shuttle buses reliable too and far more staff to help everything run smoothly. Got to see lots of great battles on track and thank you to Kimi for his service for that late safety car.
John: Race Great seats in Grandstand J… incredibly hot weekend, especially race day. An amazing weekend for our first ever F1 Grand Prix after following Formula 1 for 40 years.
The Bad
Saffron: I do not recommend driving, we hired a car for this year and it took us 1.5 hours to get out on the Saturday and 2.5 hours to get out on the Sunday. Genuinely one of the most unorganised event parking I’ve ever been to. Not one single staff member there to help with traffic control.
Stevie: 1 hour 50 minutes to get out of the car park. No marshalls anywhere until about 1 hour 45 minutes of going nowhere!
Claire: Suffered from pickpockets. Ensure your valuables are well buried in your bags and nothing easily accessible or easy to remove from you.
Karen: Beware of the BBQ stall near Gate 6. It cost €95 for sausage and chips, ribs and chips and two beers (only one liter beers were available, apparently). My husband didn’t ask about the prices before ordering!
The above quotes were taken from readers in our Barcelona F1 Facebook group, which has over 4,000 members and is full of tips and advice for those considering attending the race in Barcelona.
