It appears in their thirst to sell more tickets, the promoters of the Spanish GP held last weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya were negligent. Demand for F1 has spike this season following the incredible title race in 2021 and as demand for tickets kept coming the Circuit de Catalunya added significant capacity grandstands but appear to have failed to consider the impact on the infrastructure of the circuit.
TJ13 reported yesterday the chaos in terms of logistics over the weekend of the 2022 Spanish GP. Trains overfilled, people waiting for several hours to get busses and the almost absence of taxis to get the fans back to their city hotels.
Barcelona fans en masse
Having attended the Circuit de Catalunya in a far flung district of Barcelona, I know well the lack of accommodation in the area. When the teams test here in the winter, it’s impossible to get a hotel room for some 10 miles. So the fans for the race predominantly stay
20 miles away in the centre of Barcelona and commute to the circuit predominantly by public transport.
Monday is similar. Milan is about 30 miles away where fans mostly stay, but their train service over the weekend is generally good. Monza has traditionally had bigger attendances than Barcelona, so with good organisation the logistics can be managed.
F1 threatens organisers of Spanish GP
In the comments section of TJ13’s article posted yesterday, S. Jones had this to say. “We attended Barcelona at the weekend and were appalled at the lack of facilities at the F1. We attended on Saturday for qualifying as struggled to get out of the circuit to the bus or train stations where the waits were four hours, people were collapsing in the queues in the heat with no water available.
“After five hours and an expensive taxi ride we made it back to Barcelona and decided it was t worth taking the risk the next day for the race so our tickets were wasted after great expense. Something needs to be done as fans work hard to earn the money for these races and deserve to be treated well.”
To give up your race day ticket says it all.
F1 and the FIA who approve circuits need need to police better their promoters and ensure this kind of thing never happens again.
