Chris, Hayley, Nicky and Sinead share their experiences attending the 2026 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
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- The 2027 British Grand Prix will be held on July 1-4
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Hayley from the UK
I recently attended the British Grand Prix at Silverstone with my partner, Ste. We usually go to at least one race every year and really enjoy travelling around the world following F1. This year however we haven’t been able to make it to a race abroad so decided to head back to Silverstone after attending in 2007, 2010, 2012, 2021 and 2023.
Tickets for Silverstone are definitely not cheap and for this reason we decided on general admission. This still cost £350 each! You do need to arrive progressively earlier each day as the weekend goes on to secure your spot but I can cope with a few early starts in the name of F1. We live just over an hour away so saved on accommodation costs by travelling in from home daily. We also saved on parking by booking a spot at somebody’s house near to Silverstone village through Just Park. This did mean a 45 min walk from the car to the circuit but if you are reasonably fit and don’t mind a walk at either end of the day, it’s definitely worth considering.
There was a lot of on track action with it being a sprint race weekend but also F2, F3, F1 Academy and the parade of vintage F1 cars on all 3 days. We are close followers of F2 and F3 so we made sure to watch those and it’s always a treat to see, and more importantly HEAR the classic F1 cars. For those who aren’t so interested in the support series there is plenty going on around the circuit to keep you entertained, from the main stage and fan zone area to the new Made at Vale stage, which was near to where we were based on the bank at Vale. I didn’t actually visit the stage myself but from the sounds of things, there’s a real party vibe there with DJs and entertainment with competitions on stage to win F1 Academy paddock passes amongst other things. If you’re around this area of the track and aren’t glued to the on track action, I would say it’s worth a visit as the main stage is quite a trek away.
Facilities wise, Silverstone is one of the best circuits I have visited. There are tons of food and drink stalls selling a wide variety of foods. They are on the expensive side but nothing worse than I’d expect for this type of event and you are allowed to bring in your own food too. I did notice this year that the drinks stalls seemed to only be selling cans not bottles. There are also loads of toilets dotted around, which are temporary but ones in cabins not portaloos. They were being cleaned frequently and whilst there were long queues at certain times of the day, I never had to wait too long.
We didn’t go to any of the evening concerts as they were too late with us travelling back home each night but I think if you’re camping nearby it’s a good chance to see some of these artists which is included in your ticket price.
Race day was a 4am start for us as gates open at 6:30 and we wanted to be there straight away to get a good view for the race. Silverstone does offer a fast track option (I think around £65) which allows you to enter half an hour earlier. I strongly disagree with this as the tickets are already expensive enough as it is and just seems like pure profiteering greed to me. We got our spot on the bank at Vale with a good view of two big screens and settled in for the day. We both commented that the content on the big screens when there wasn’t any on track action was a bit “meh”. In the past they’ve tended to show clips from classic F1 moments from previous seasons which I feel helps to build the excitement. Nowadays it seems it’s more geared towards the teenage Lando/Drive To Survive type fanbase… or maybe we’re just getting old!
As a massive Fernando Alonso fan, I was overjoyed to see him win the Lego “race”. Definitely the only Alonso win I’ll see this year! Ste, as a Ferrari fan was also thrilled to see Charles win, so all in all a good day for us both. We were allowed onto the track after the race but we chose to hang back a bit from the rush and sat and watched the interviews and podium on the big screen and then went onto the track later on and had a walk around to the pit straight and a nosy over the wall into the pit lane.
Overall, Silverstone hosts a great event but for me, the cost is prohibitive to going every year. We can go to a race abroad and factor in visiting a new place for a similar price to what we would pay to go to a race just over an hour from home.
Chris from the USA
I am a relatively new Formula 1 fan. My wife and I were having a discussion 3-4 years ago about life lists. I’m a huge sports fan generally so I’ve done a lot of large events and been to a large number of arenas/stadiums so I didn’t have a whole lot left from a sports standpoint that I wanted to see, but the Monaco Grand Prix was on that list. So we went two years ago (via a short cruise) and I became enthralled with Formula 1. I’ve now been to Monaco, Las Vegas, Miami and Silverstone and will (hopefully) get to Austin, Qatar and Abu Dhabi later this year.
Although I am not a tennis person at all, I do love Wimbledon. So I was fortunate enough to get Centre Court tickets through a work contact and we visited on Friday before Silverstone on Saturday and Sunday.
I would say that overall, Silverstone is a fantastic experience. It certainly got a little crowded, but with the record-breaking crowd, fan traffic flow across the venue seemed to be moving very well. In addition, the organizational process to move traffic in and out of the venue was absolutely fantastic. I took a train up from London to Milton Keynes and then hopped on one of the shuttle buses to the circuit. The entire process (taking the tube from Whitehall to Euston Station, with a transfer to change lines) and the train from there to Milton Keynes, plus the bus from there to the circuit, took about two hours on the nose both there and back, which I consider remarkable given the record crowds. And because the circuit gives priority to bus entries and exits, there were little to no traffic issues on the roads around the circuit that I saw.
Signage throughout the circuit was excellent and I saw plenty of staff at key points across the venue that were available to help out and answer questions.
Our seats were in the Hamilton Straight B grandstand, just past the start lights. We had an excellent view of the front stretch and the pit lane/garages, although I might have preferred to be slightly higher up for a better look into the garages, as we were in the fifth row.
The only complaint I have (and it isn’t a small one) is that the TV video boards on the façade of the garage/Paddock Club building (the Silverstone Wing) are far too small. Even if you were fortunate enough to sit directly across from one, I think the size would have still been a significant issue. I tend to think video screens are rather important for Formula 1 in particular, since you really can’t see the majority of any circuit from any grandstand that I’m aware of.
While I certainly realize there are space constraints, given the Paddock Club, Silverstone needs to figure out a way to make those screens much larger for grandstand ticket holders, or how to add several more screens. It was a significant challenge to see what was going on elsewhere on the track and the running order graphics were almost impossible to read.
Other than that one negative, I found it to be an extremely well-organized and excellent venue overall and would certainly recommend the trip to any F1 fan.
Sinead from Scotland
My mum and I had been planning to attend a Grand Prix for a while, but when looking they all seemed too unaffordable. We knew a few people who attended Silverstone in 2025 and asked how they went about it. They recommended Caledonian Travel who offer grandstand tickets, travel from Scotland to England, travel to and from the track, a hotel stay and breakfast and dinner at the hotel. It all seemed a bit too good to be true, but we went ahead and booked it and thank god we did!
We arrived at the Hamilton Bus Station at 6am on the Friday morning, very excited for the weekend ahead. Although the travel time meant we would miss FP1, we were just happy to be attending. After what felt like a long journey we arrived at the track with a few hours to spare before Sprint Qualifying. We were seated in the Vale Grandstand so we just slowly made our way there, whilst checking out the stores and food options on the way. I wasn’t expecting our seats to be that good, but we were over the moon when we got to them! We had a great view of the Landostand, and Club Corner. After qualifying was over we headed back for the bus as we were on a pretty tight schedule. We got back to our hotel in Coventry around an hour after leaving the track, which we thought was pretty good.
On the Saturday we woke up at around 6am, so excited for the day ahead! We are big Williams fans and we had been planning Williams themed outfits, as my mum’s lucky number is 23 and mine is 55 (we even have them tattooed). In the morning we spent some time at the Main Stage and watched Damon Hill. After that there was about an hour before the sprint race started so we started making our way to our grandstand, visiting the +44 pop up store, grabbing a few drinks and some food on the way. After the race we sat and stayed for the F2 sprint, which was fun to see. We then headed out of the grandstand and up towards the Landostand again where we visited the Landostore and I bought a tshirt. We then headed back to our grandstand for the qualifying, this is what I had been looking forward to most!
After qualifying finished, we decided to head back to the mainstage as the Mclaren, Cadillac, RB, and Williams drivers were due to be doing some interviews. We bought a few drinks and found ourselves a comfy spot on the grass ready to watch the interviews as we had some time to spare before we were due back at the coach. Whilst we were sitting, a man with a clipboard and some headphones approached us and asked if we’d like to join Alex and Carlos on the stage and play a game with them. Of course we said yes! Completely in shock at what was about to happen we grabbed a few more drinks for courage and headed to the door at the right of the stage to meet the crew. They took us backstage and we got to go on and meet Alex and Carlos! We were absolutely buzzing and had such a great time. We never expected anything like that to happen so we were very grateful to have been picked. The bus was leaving at 8, so once we were off stage we pretty much had to leg it back to the bus where a few people who were travelling on our coach recognised that we had been on the stage!
On the Sunday, we were still buzzing from the previous night and couldn’t believe we had another full day to go! We headed to the track for the race and couldn’t wait. When we got to the track, we headed to one of the AMEX stands to grab a free race radio (which are available to all American Express cardholders), and a lot of the Silverstone branded merchandise was on sale so we spent some more money on t-shirts and keyrings. We were planning to spend the full day at the grandstand to see the historic cars and the drivers parade. Before we knew it the grid was full and they were ready for lights off. The race felt like it was only 10 minutes long, it was so quick in real life! As we were in the Vale grandstand we had track access for the podium, so when the 49th lap started we left our seats and headed down to the general admission area ready to run. Before we knew it the gates were open and we had to run, this was so fun and we were so full of adrenaline we didn’t mind. We made it to the podium just in time to witness it all. After that we walked down the track (picking up some rubber along the way), and exited at the end of the straight ready to head back for the bus. We arrived back at the hotel, and fell asleep pretty soon.
On the Monday, it was time to head back to Glasgow! We left at around 9am and arrived back around 3pm. Considering we were pretty apprehensive when booking, we are so happy we did! It truly was an amazing experience and we would do it again in a heartbeat. We felt like we got to see everything we had planned to and have no regrets.
And that wraps up my British Grand Prix experience, one which I hope I can do all over again next year.
Nicky from the UK
As a long-time Silverstone attendee – this being my 14th visit – the lead up to the British Grand Prix never gets any less exciting. From the supermarket stock up for the weekend to the journey down south to Silverstone, the first week of July is always a lot of fun. 2026 was no different, and this year’s British Grand Prix was one of my favourite trackside experiences to date.
First things first: the on-track action. The new 2026 regulations may be controversial and I totally get the disappointment with them. However, it makes very little difference to the experience when you’re there in person. Racing is racing! Similarly, this was the first Sprint event at the British Grand Prix since 2021 and I feel that having a Sprint race adds value for fans watching at the circuit. I’d much rather watch a qualifying session and a Sprint race than two free practice sessions.
Having been able to purchase tickets in the American Express pre-sale before dynamic pricing saw ticket prices increase, I paid £269 for my General Admission ticket this year. I still think it is good value. If I compare the single-day breakdown to concert tickets, for example, there’s very little difference in the price of those two things. At Silverstone, you get three days of racing action from four different series, plus nightly concerts. I understand if concerts aren’t your thing or if you have little interest in the feeder series that it’s a heavy price tag just to watch Formula 1. But I personally have never felt short-changed.
A major positive from this year at Silverstone was the upgrade of the trackside 5G network. The internet was available throughout the weekend, which meant it was possible to follow the live timing on the F1 app throughout qualifying and the Grand Prix. I had always presumed that the app’s timing was in real time, but this weekend it was 10 seconds behind. Not that it mattered, but I thought it was an interesting quirk.
A couple of other positives: the entry process was faster than ever in 2026. Gone were the maze-like entry fences which had become a bane of my Silverstone experience in recent years. We arrived at the track at 6:20am on Sunday, just before gates opened to regular ticket holders, and didn’t have to queue for very long at all. In fact, the regular queues were moving quicker than the premium ‘fast track’ queues. If I had paid a three figure sum for the privilege of standing in a slower moving queue than the regular access queue, I probably wouldn’t have been too impressed, to put it lightly!
The new flagship F1 store near the Main Stage was a cool new addition, even if my wallet was slightly lighter after visiting. I have to say too that owning an American Express card is worthwhile at Silverstone – queue jumping, cashback discounts and free race radios are very useful benefits.
My only real complaint is about the lack of large TV screens. I was at Brooklands, and the angle that the screen was at made it very difficult to see, especially with glare from the sun. I’ve been saying this for a few years, but there is a nice gap between the two Luffield grandstands which would give a much better view for fans in one of the most popular general admission vantage points.
Even after all of these years attending, there remains something very exciting about seeing the F1 opening titles on the big screens across the track at the start of each session. It’s a tangible reminder of where you are and what you’re about to witness. I’m already excited for my 15th visit next year!
