FanAmp Fan Guide: Race Essentials
FanAmp is a community hub for Formula 1 fans. That means we give F1 fans one place - one home - for their complete fan experience before, during, and after every race. They use it to connect with fans and F1 creators from around the world, to stay up-to-date with news, compete for points and prizes with race predictions, access race essentials when they’re heading to the track, and so much more. FanAmp and Pit Lane Magazine have teamed up to provide comprehensive guides for Formula 1 and motorsport fans. We want to help you learn how to fan!
FanAmp is a community hub for Formula 1 fans
On-Track Must Haves
There’s nothing worse than showing up to a large event in an unfamiliar city unprepared! Formula 1 race weekends are extremely exciting… if you come to the track prepared. Worried about a dying cell phone? Don’t want to pay $10 for a water bottle? Not excited to sit on hard metal bleachers all day? Expecting rainy weather? Let’s talk about race necessities.
Race necessities
If you have the distinct pleasure of attending a Formula 1 race, it’s important to keep in mind that being at the track is different than any other sporting event or concert you may have attended. It’s an extremely unique and exciting experience, but the days are often long, hot, overwhelming, and slightly uncomfortable. Here’s a list of our MUST HAVES for the track!
Portable Charger
Some of the longest days that you’ll ever spend outdoors will be on a Formula 1 track, especially when considering travel time to the circuit, to your seat, and navigating around massive plots of land. Getting separated from your group is easy and navigating the track can be difficult without your phone. Bring a portable charger!
Water Bottles
As I’m sure most F1 Fans saw in 2023 at Qatar, heat exhaustion and dehydration is a REAL THING. Many F1 races are set during the warmer months of their host cities and countries, and anyone who has attended an event knows that water bottle costs can add up. Bring a refillable water bottle!
*Pro tip* Check the circuit rules about the types and sizes of water bottles that are allowed, and if they need to be empty when entering the track. Most will have free refill stations around the track. If you’re allowed to bring filled water bottles in FREEZE THEM. Not only will your water last longer, but it’ll stay cold longer!
Ear Plugs
Yes, it is very true that F1 cars are LOUD. While we all love the distinct sound of F1 engines, listening to them without ear protection for multiple hours (especially with the echo that occurs at many tracks) is not a great decision. Bring ear plugs or headphones to tamper the sound a bit and protect your hearing.
Portable Fan
For the same reason that you should bring a refillable water bottle (or frozen water bottle), bringing a portable fan is a must. Many portable fans even double as portable chargers! There’s nothing worse than dripping sweat while stationary in the sun, and a fan can make a huge difference.
Security-Friendly Bags
You need something to carry all of these things! PLEASE be sure to check the rules and regulations around bags for the races that you attend, especially at US venues like Miami. For now, here are two options that will work for most if not all tracks.
Comfortable Seating
Whether you have a general admission ticket or a grandstand seat, sitting for hours can become very uncomfortable. For General Admission, we highly recommend bringing a folding chair or stool to sit on. Many of these areas are sandy and muddy, so even sitting on a blanket can be pretty uncomfortable. For grandstand seats, hard benches and folding seats are NOT comfortable after hours of sitting - many tracks sell collectable seat cushions, but to save money, bring your own!
Sun Protection
We may sound like a broken record at this point, but most races are hot and sunny! This also means you have to protect your eyes and avoid sunburns! Don’t walk around the track looking like a lobster (unless you’re in Ferrari Red). Sunglasses and sunscreen are two easy must haves.
Rainy Day Race necessities
Formula 1 fans know that racing in the wet can be some of the best racing that we see on track. That being said, if you’re going to a rainy race (cue Spa or Montreal), you need to be prepared! No one wants to sit soaking wet in the grandstands or sit in the mud for hours, regardless of how much you want to support your favorite team. Here are some of our essentials!
**Note these are IN ADDITION to our Race Day necessities**
Ponchos
Do you still want to wear your new Ferrari Merch or your custom McLaren shirt… AND make sure it doesn’t get ruined? A poncho is going to be your best friend. Luckily there are also a variety of ponchos to choose from that include CLEAR options so everyone can see your fun outfits and merch!
Phone Protection
Something that you may not think about in the rain is something to protect your phone! If you’re at the track all day, you can not assume that your phone will be in your bag all day. Even in your pocket, phones somehow manage to get wet. Purchasing a waterproof lanyard is the best way to protect your phone - and most lanyards allow you to touch the screen without ever taking your phone out.
Sturdy Boots
Most tracks are not located in paved areas (save a street circuit here and there). Even the areas that are paved like grandstands require a walk through dirt… and if it's raining… mud. Having comfortable shoes is of course a must, but having waterproof boots is a necessity on a rainy day at the track. Wet socks? Not fun.
Umbrella
While not all tracks will allow you to bring umbrellas, many will! If you don't want to wear a poncho, or there’s just a light rain, using an umbrella could be the easy solution to protecting your clothing and items.
**Please, make sure that you check the track rules to ensure that you can bring an umbrella**
Tickets
Where to buy F1 tickets?
Tickets are naturally the most important part of your Grand Prix experience. There are three very important things to note when it comes to tickets:
There are hundreds of sites to buy Grand Prix tickets - not all of them are legitimate or trustworthy.
You can print your tickets, but most circuits will prefer digital tickets.
Many tracks will not have cellphone service or it will be limited.
At FanAmp we have partnered with P1 Travel to offer a seamless ticket purchasing experience to fans without the stress or uncertainty of purchasing tickets from unverified vendors or resellers for all 24 races on the 2024 F1 Calendar. You can purchase tickets for every race directly in FanAmp through P1 Travel and save them to your FanAmp wallet (that can be accessed offline and is extremely useful for tracks with limited internet service).
Travel Tips
Formula 1 is an extremely global sport with races held in 24 different cities across the globe. That being said, many fans travel to countries that they have never visited and cities that are unfamiliar to them. This lack of knowledge can lead to being lost when making travel decisions. FanAmp has published circuit/city guides, travel tips, accommodation guides, and even where to eat/drink/ and celebrate with friends. For some of the races that FanAmp has attended as a team, we have even compiled ‘travel diaries’ about our track experiences, recommendations, travel time, accommodations and more.
Check out our Tracks page for guides to every single track on the calendar!
Tools
Your essential resource at the track: FanAmp
Connect with other F1 Fans!
Our singular goal is to help fans effortlessly connect with each other by streamlining your Formula 1 fan experience.
We will keep you up to date on all things motorsport with our daily Fast Five news alerts and our interactive news feed. You can connect with your favorite F1 creators in their Bases (our name for communities) or discover new ones, such as Fan Behavior, Coffee Corner, Mania Onboard, James Coker, and SO many more. Make race weekends more fun by chatting with fans from around the world and make weekly ‘picks’ to score points (you can even win AMAZING prizes). There are race essentials, track guides, race tickets, and so much more… with even more coming.
Track Maps and Guides
We have a handful of features that are intended for your time at the circuit including maps, comprehensive guides and much more!
When you’re in FanAmp, navigate to “more” in the bottom bar and click “Event Info”. From there you will be able to access track maps, the race weekend schedule, written articles covering everything you need to know such as pop-ups and events at the circuit.
Pro tip - You can and SHOULD download the map and schedule from FanAmp because most circuits will have little to no cell reception!
Tickets
Another ultra-important feature that you will need on the track is our ticket wallet. Navigate to “more” in the bottom bar and click “Tickets”. Your wallet (and any tickets you have added) will appear at the top of the page.
As we said above, most circuits will have little to no cell reception and you don’t want to be caught at the gates or at your grandstand without access to your ticket! We offer the ability to upload your ticket for safekeeping and this can be accessed while offline.
Grand Prix Travel (GPT)
The Grand Prix Travel Reddit is one of the premier online destinations for everything you need to know about grand prix’s all over the world. The main goal of this community and its founder Adam was to:
Host discussions for races and special events
Organize group chats for race-day meet-ups (at the track or elsewhere in the world)
Centralize travel questions and answers
Early in 2023, FanAmp partnered with this massive online community to bring Know Before You Go sessions, a FanAmp base and chat, and host meetups at races. If you’re going to a race during the 2024 season, look out for a FanAmp x GPT meetup in the host city. You can meet new F1 friends, share a drink, some food, and decompress after a long day at the track!
Join their community discussion in FanAmp for up to date conversations about each of the tracks, meetups, and more!
F1 live timing/radio app
Most Formula 1 fans do not know until they have attended the race that even with a giant screen in front of your seating arrangement, it’s difficult to follow along! F1 offers a number of live timing and radio apps so that you can follow along with each session on track. While you can always access your regular Sky Sports or F1 TV app to follow along, the F1 official live timing app is the best way to follow all on track action as each session progresses.
**Pro tip: As we have stated, cell service is practically non-existent at most circuits. Go into your phone settings and change your data frequency from 4G to 3G to better load this live timing app. **
Track apps
Many tracks offer apps that are specifically designed for the race weekend. This may seem extremely convenient however there are some glaring drawbacks:
These apps only function when you have cell service (which is rare)
Most apps are only offered in one language
I.e. Mexican Grand Prix app is only in Spanish, if you don’t speak Spanish you are out of luck.
Many apps are very basic and do not offer anything beyond the map and schedule
You can’t use it to connect with other fans and you cannot save your tickets offline
While these apps do the bare job that they should, using FanAmp will allow you several layers of added value and functionality at the track (see above).
FanAmp
Check out FanAmp’s Amazon Storefront for more race essentials! Download FanAmp to buy and save tickets, view full guides of EVERY track on the calendar and join the community of F1 Fans and creators from around the world!
