F1. Hungary 2023. A fan experience
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By Gavin Huet
After our 2020 European vacation got cancelled by COVID we had put off planning another trip until about a year ago when the planets aligned with a couple of events that worked out well for us – a weekend that would start with watching a Depeche Mode concert in Austria and end with the Hungarian Grand Prix (in Hungary in case you were in any doubt).
Due to the travel we opted for only watching the actual race on the Sunday, so we got up bright and early, well 8am, and headed off into the unknown. Hungarian is quite the language so my ability to translate like I could in Germany was of no use. We did know to buy the special F1 tickets so that is what we did and then we followed every other F1 fanatic and jumped onto the metro. Disembarking to catch the train we had to get off the metro station but not without passing the ticket inspection. I enthusiastically showed them our F1 train tickets to be told in no uncertain terms that these were not valid on the metro so we would have to pay the fine… 30 Euro fine each because we did not get a 2 Euro metro ticket. Now I’m not saying they were milking us idiots but yes, we felt fleeced. They were doing a roaring trade. Amazing that their PayWave worked so well considering how many places are cash only.
Jumping onto the train we headed off into the outskirts of Budapest, jammed in with every full F1 kit wanker and not a window that could open. Oh, did I mention it was hot? No, well it was hot. Thirty minutes of sauna and we were escorted onto busses that finally got us to the Hungaroring.
Just our luck that the busses stopped at the furtherest point from our seats. At this point I may have to mention that Anna was getting a little hot and grumpy but she hid it well, either that or I ignored it well. We will never know. Marching in the sun for what seemed like hours we eventually arrived at our section of the track, at this point I was very thankful for my good decision to pay for the under cover seating on the main straight. If not I think I may be a single man in Europe as Anna would either have left me or would have succumbed to heat exhaustion.
All around the track there are ways designed to seperate you from your money – you want to try your hand in a F1 simulator, how about changing a tyre in a pit stop? Well they have you covered.
Food? Everything you can think off, burgers and hot dogs and pizza and curry and chips and everything else known to man.
Drink? We have water, cold drinks, Heineken by the gallon, cocktails, whatever your heart desires.
Merchandise? Whether you think being decked out in Scuderia Ferrari red or Max Verstappen orange is a good fashion choice may be debatable, but looking around everyone seemed to think these choices were good.
The fans during the race were in good spirits and cheered pit stops and overtakes, I think the only boos I heard was every time Lewis Hamilton’s name was mentioned. There were all the usual characters around us, Dutch Verstappen fans and an American who was mainsplaining F1 to his partner. The crowd was different to the last time I went to a race back on 1998, this time there were young people, both male and female, and families, obviously pulled in by the Drive To Survive show, whereas back then it was almost exclusively male petrol heads. It was good to see this change.
After the race we had to get back to Budapest, therefore we joined the worlds longest bus queue. It literally snaked around the track and standing there with the sun beating down was not a great experience. It took us an hour to get onto a bus which took us through suburbia with a police escort all the way to another train station. The train arrived after about 15 minutes and after a run down the platform we managed to get on, though we had to stand. Luckily it was the express train and 30 minutes later we were in the Budapest city centre. Marvellous, I spent more time on transport than Max Verstappen had to on Sunday.
Would I do it again, hell yes. Would Anna, probably not. I do think that maybe next time I would go to the Saturday events and watch Free Practice 3 and Qualifying, then watch the race on the Sunday somewhere air conditioned with cheap beer and table service.
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