Monza had a record crowd for the 2022 Italian Grand Prix with 337,000 in attendance over the race weekend. However, many fans left the circuit unimpressed with the organisation of the event.
Monza celebrated its centenary at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, attracting a record weekend crowd of 337,000. The partisan tifosi saw Charles Leclerc take pole position on Saturday, but he was unable to prevent a dominant fifth successive win for Max Verstappen come Sunday.
It was a momentous weekend on track across Formula 1’s support series, with Felipe Drugovich crowned Formula 2 champion, Victor Martins sealing the Formula 3 title and Dylan Pereira securing the championship win at the final race meeting of the year for the Porsche Supercup championship.
A record Monza crowd
With a weekend attendance of 337,000, the Italian Grand Prix slots in as the fifth best-attended race of the season so far, behind Australia, Britain, Belgium and Canada. An estimated 125,000 were in the grandstands and general admission areas on Sunday alone.
The record number marks a good recovery from last year, when half capacity restrictions and inflated ticket prices saw less than 25,000 people attend on race day. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the Italian Grand Prix attracted 200,000 fans over the 2019 race weekend. The 2022 figure is 137,000 up on that.
Fans unimpressed with Monza organisation
Unfortunately, many fans were left unimpressed with their experience at Monza. Comments left by racegoers on the F1Destinations website highlight the disorganised nature of the race weekend, with long queues in and out of the circuit each day, excessive waiting times to purchase food and drink due to a flawed token system, plus a lack in availability of free water points.
Their comments are backed up by fans taking to social media to share their displeasure. Video footage shows the extent of queueing issues for shuttle buses to the circuit on Sunday morning, while further photos show even longer queues at the circuit entrance.
A reduced fan zone offering
Prior to the race weekend, there were issues with the proposed fan zone. With Monza situated on protected parkland, the local government rejected plans to place a large Ferris Wheel in the area. The fan zone remained closed on Thursday and Friday, but was open to the public for the remainder of the weekend, albeit with a reduced offering to what was originally advertised.
The Italian Grand Prix is not the first race this year at which fans have complained of poor organisation. The Spanish Grand Prix in May was also blighted by organisational issues. On a scorching weekend in Barcelona, long queues and a lack of food and drink options were deemed “not acceptable” in a statement by Formula 1. F1 is yet to offer an official comment on issues encountered at the Italian Grand Prix.
Monza’s contract to host the Italian Grand Prix has another three years left to run. The circuit will likely need to commit to improving the trackside experience for fans in order to remain on the calendar beyond 2025.
F1 attendance likely to surpass five million in 2022
The six remaining Formula 1 races this year are almost completely sold out. Next on the calendar are the Singapore and Japanese Grands Prix, which will run for the first time since 2019. The latter will have little in the way of international visitors, as Japan is not yet open to independent foreign travellers.
From there, F1 heads to the United States and Mexico, which were the two best-attended races in 2021 with weekend totals of 400,000 and 371,000 respectively. The final double header takes the sport to Brazil and Abu Dhabi in November. The Sao Paulo race sold out earlier this year, while Yas Marina Circuit added grandstand capacity to cater for demand. Total weekend attendance figures in 2022 are likely to exceed five million – around three million up on the 2021 total.
I sold my tickets on Sunday and didn’t bother to go. That says it all.. First time GP experience and this was my last one at Monza. So disappointed and gutted.
A highlight for me was when my flask got confiscated at security because “it could be used as a weapon”, only for me to enter the circuit and visit the Monza shop which was selling branded flasks….! Madness.
From my experience, the shuttle bus was great. Other than that, I’ve been to a few GPs and this one is BY FAR the worst one.
I’m not returning to any of the Italian GPs until they fix the issues and mainly the joke with the token system and the water points.
People had to wait for 2 hours to get some tokens!!! And some of them they couldn’t even get as they were sold out.
Also, it is impossible to follow the race and other sessions with a general admission ticket, even though some of us had Sky Sports F1 and live timing, and we could follow the action with some delay, but most of GA holders had no clue on what is happening and.
I think others will comment on queues and token system (if you want me to explain more on those I can do though!) my biggest bugbear was the grandstands:
Both days we got to the stand and people were in our seats. On the first day one of these people moved and sat on the steps, the other stayed so everyone had to squeeze up! Sunday though was much worse because the people in our seats refused to move, despite the best efforts of everyone around us shouting at them, stewards begging etc they would not budge. We were on the back row so ended up watching the race stood on the benches with these people stood in front (where our feet would normally be).
Not to ignore the positives – I firmly think these people are just idiots (and I don’t think it’s uncommon), but the locals around us really didn’t have to get involved and went out of their way to help us, shouting so much in Italian in scared me and I wasn’t the one in the wrong!
The aisle in this stand was full of people sat there who don’t have grandstand tickets – they are not checked on entry and everyone just walks in. I am amazed that people not only try it in the first place, but insist on staying somewhere where they are clearly unwelcome by everyone! I get the impression this happened all over.
Worst Grand Prix I’ve ever been to. Shambolic is a good way to describe it. Here’s some of the issues we faced:
Ridiculous queues to get in. Took 3 hours on race day to get from the bus drop off to out grandstand at turn 1.
Whole set up having stalls and bars along the main walkway area creates bottle necks.
Token system was a joke.
Smaller things like no tannoys (couldn’t hear national anthem) and no commentary.
Couldn’t really see a big screen clearly from stand 6B having spent over €500 on a ticket.
Bus system and trains were chaotic – worse on the Saturday taking almost 4 hours from leaving our grandstand to getting back to central station.
Some of the many issues. Absolutely gutted but fair to say we’ll never be back to the Italian Grand Prix.
The organisation at Monza this year was appalling. Huge queues for shuttle busses, long queues for tokens – some people queued for an hour, only to be told they had run out. And they ran our of beer on Saturday! Simply put, they just weren’t geared up for the record attendance – but they knew in advance approximately how many there would be. Some simple things could have been done – simply running taps/standpipes for drinking water – they do this at festivals, it’s really not that difficult. Such a shame as it was a great atmosphere. It was Monza’s 100th year – I bet it was miles better organised in 1922 than in 2022. Won’t be going back :(
I had GA tickets and didn’t see a single F1 car on track all weekend. Terrible viewing access and horrendous organisation. There were long queues and a ridiculous token system – stalls ran out of food and drink by the afternoon, restrictions on bringing in water and sunscreen (what!?) cars driving on the same roads as pedestrians, poor organisation either end of the shuttle buses with people herded and kept in pens like cattle (worse at the railway station). I have been to many F1 GPs – I have never seen such appalling treatment and disregard of fans. Never again shall I return to Monza. Shame on you to the organisers of this event.
Perhaps some of the f1 organisers should try a general admission ticket on a Sunday to witnesses just how bad it was. People spend a lot of money to travel to support f1 only to be let down by terrible organisers.
Not sure if this review is in the right place or not but here goes.
First the good bits.
I attended with my son, and this was his first experience of a live Grand Prix. The racing was good throughout all the marques. F2, F3, Porsche and F1. Other than Friday morning (damp) the weather was warm hot and dry. The people of Milan were warm and welcoming and our accommodation was clean and in a nice quiet area. Everything was as expected in relation to the racing and track events. I particularly enjoyed the Porsche super cup. Nice and loud like F1 used to be and lots of action. 3 cars into one corner clearly does not work !! I also saw one car become airborne over a kerb. F2 and F3 were as expected. More backfiring from the cars than I expected but good racing overall. Particularly liked the Alfa Romeo classic cars. Would have been good to see some classic Ferraris as well.
We also enjoyed our interactions with fellow enthusiasts from around the world. Great conversations and lots of fun moments. I did hear of what I think was a bunch of Dutch ? supporters who attempted to build there own stand, priceless
Now for the bits which need to be addressed before next years Grand Prix.
Firstly the Trenord site was incorrect. Yes you pay for a train ticket which includes the shuttle bus but when you arrive at Monza station the shuttle bus staff refuse to believe you have paid up front so you have to buy another ticket for the shuttle. Nice little earner there then. Also The lack of train availability to and from the track (and strikes) was unbelievable. A 1 hour train service from Garibaldi to Biasommo-Lesmo was unreal.
We arrived at the drop off point and it is a little way from the actual entrance to the circuit. Took us about 20 minutes. It is bizarre that you have to remove the top from your water bottle when entering otherwise it is subject to seizure, but you can purchase a bottle inside the circuit complete with a top!! We met people who had their water flasks seized even though the information stated these were ok to take into the circuit. We also noted that power banks were being removed from customers and piled onto the tables. This may be a safety issue for families who use their phones heavily during the event. This may prevent them from contacting each other because their phones run down, and this is a large park / circuit.
We also heard of stewards at the gates removing sun cream and sanitiser from customers at the entrance gates. This is definitely a safety issue.
The token system was a complete shambles. They ran out of tokens. On the Friday they were not ready. The wrist bands were temperamental due to the website not working. There were horrendous queues to purchase them. Then once you did you had to queue again to exchange for food or drinks. This system has not been thought through at all. I would strongly recommend removing it. What is wrong with contactless?
Just a bit of perspective if everybody who attended, which I believe over the weekend was approx 330000 had one token left at the end this works out at approx €495000 free to the operators of this system.
Many more water taps need to be provided. Once again the queues were very large. This again is a safety issue especially in weather such as we had at the event, 25 to 28 degrees. The outlets were also single fill with either still or sparkling water but the sparkling water took much longer to fill bottles. I personally had to stand in the heat for 45 minutes to fill my bottle. Unacceptable.
The fanzone was in my opinion not fit for purpose. It was basically a few outlets and very loud music. Nothing like other circuits I have attended.
The stewarding of the stands was quite good until Sunday when our stand appeared to be very oversubscribed. The stewards didn’t appear to know what to do. We had many customers sitting on the stairways and also some people refusing to move from seats which were clearly not theirs and the stewards suggesting that people simply move together to make room. I would say that some of the stewards looked very young to be undertaking such an important role.
I would like to make comment on the crowd control methods. I was horrified to see customers being herded into very large crowds in quite small spaces. Particularly gate B. There were also large crowds in poorly lit underpasses ( Lesmo ). Have the organisers of the event never heard of Hillsborough or Heysel.
There were also many cars and motorbikes moving around the circuit. Some with no regard for the fans.
I felt particularly for the GA customers. I did hear of some real horror stories for them.
Lastly I was once again disappointed to hear booing of the winner of the Grand Prix ( Max ). Also the wanton destruction of the advertising hoardings around the track. I hope and pray that we are not descending to the level of tribal football idiots.
I have had to reassure my son that this level of chaos is not normally what I would expect at such an event, but I have been led to believe that Imola and Spain were similarly afflicted. However we will not be back to F1 in Italy until these problems are addressed and common sense returns. All in all a great event ruined by petty inexplicable rules, inadequate food and water outlets, poor quality sanitary availability, badly managed crowd control.
As they say if you think safety is expensive, try having an accident. I firmly believe unless they ( the promoters, F1, authorities etc ) change, then it will happen.
Thanks for reading and I hope I have not bored you or worse still put you off attending other F1 events
Stay safe.
Jim, thank you very much for sharing your experience, the good and bad. I really hope that changes are made next year at Monza, sounds like it was a terrible experience for many fans.
I was there with my father, it was our first Grand Prix, and we are very disappointed.
First of all, we hand grabs stand tickets nr(5) and we where very unhappy with the positioning of the drink and food carts. The “walkways” where small for no reason making the long ques block both directions of travel when people are trying to get somewhere. Even on Friday after queuing for coins for cirka 2 hours, it took us nearly 30 min to walk 50 meters back to our grandstand. There where no directions of travel at all.
The ques to enter where way to long, and the people cutting in line did not help. The marshals did nothing.
People with ga tickets sat at grandstands and the marshals yet again did nothing.
People where actually at the point of dehydration because they had no bottles which had bees seized at entry. They than had to que for 2 hours for coins, so that they could que for half an hour to buy a drinking cup, to than que at a water filling station.
There where way to few buses taking people from and to the train station. And the train strikes on Friday was also not a welcoming surprise for a first time visitor.
How I don’t currently have every disease known to man after this crowded weakens is a god given miracle. We are definitely never coming back here.
Can only add very similar experiences to the above on my first, but probably last, visit to Monza.
Shuttle buses – seemed OK on Friday but looked like buying tickets online was worth doing so tried this on Saturday but couldn’t get registered with the third party agency handling that (MyCicero) so ended up queueing for tickets on the day. My queue didn’t seem to be moving and it turned out that I’d inadvertently joined one for card payment only, but there was no indication of this distinction. Resolved the third party issue by Sunday but found that by then it would have been quicker to buy on the day rather than joining the scrum of a ‘pre-queue’ on the online side of the pens! The buses themselves seemed well-organised, with a good route to the circuit, but I still decided to walk back instead after the race, which allowed access to the other side of the station….
Circuit entry – chaotic, with obviously insufficient capacity and no respect for the basic principles of queueing, maybe more of an issue for the British fan!
Catering – the less said the better. I stood for ages waiting at one of the token stations watching three guys struggle to reload the dispenser with tokens from a split polythene bag, which in other circumstances I’d probably have found amusing, but the idea of having to queue three separate times for tokens, then food, then drink, was way beyond a joke, when taking nearly two hours. As I left a bar area on Sunday lunchtime, hearing the staff explain they they’d run out of beer, I genuinely felt sorry for those further back in the queues. Would definitely endorse the earlier comment about poor positioning causing bottlenecks.
Grandstand ‘stewarding’ – non-existent but yet they took great delight in trying to scan tickets when *leaving* stands? Blocking aisles is clearly a safety hazard but blind eyes were turned all weekend. I was under the impression that grandstand tickets had roving access to other stands on Friday but if this was the case, nobody told the ‘stewards’….
Good afternoon,
I would like to take this opportunity to feedback with regards to our visit to the Italian grand prix held on Sunday 11th September 2022. We travelled from the UK. This was originally organised for the 2020 race but due to the covid pandemic it was cancelled. So finally this year we could. Firstly the black line shuttle bus service was excellent and was very happy with that. The token system that was in place was a very time consuming affair just to get something to eat and drink and waiting for a considerable time just to get a bottle of water.
We were unable to purchase any grandstand tickets earlier in the year due to there shortage and were sold out in minutes so were only able to buy general admission. It was an absolutely pointless ticket to purchase. There wasn’t a single part of the general admission area where you could view the race. The free standing area at the parabolica was closed by 8am. Due to the sheer numbers of people there you could not gain any access to see the track and as a consequence none of us were able to see a single part of track or any of the race cars. You could only hear them. So all the planning to get there turned into a massive disappointment. We have been to other F1 events enjoying grand stand and general admission tickets and have at other circuits always been able to see the track and the cars but the Italian grand prix for general admission tickets is appalling. Unless your the first to the fence you can forget about seeing anything. Yes it’s the cheapest ticket but the paying public should at least be able to experience some of the race. The giant screens are the only way of monitoring the race and why that maybe good we might as well just watched it on TV. I have seen the Italian grand prix from a grandstand seat in the past but would have expected some enjoyment even with general admission but sadly to say It was the complete opposite and very dissapointing. I really think these viewing issues need attending to make it worth coming to Monza in the future.
Kind Regards
Simon Pordage
First f1 it was awful general admission customers treated like rubbish herded dangerously into small spaces too many people jumping queues and allowed to do so by inept stewarding very limited viewing areas for ga customers token system led to unnecessary queues no free water points people getting water taken from them also sunscreen wtf it was almost 30 degrees, the whole experience was horrendous from the trains to the buses the queues if was paid to do it again I would turn it down I don’t want to be my one and only experience of f1 as this was bucket list stuff for me and my family but leaves a bad taste ,monza you are a disgrace in the way you treat paying guests to your circuit I won’t be back.
I’d echo pretty much everything mentioned above. First GP for myself and my son, we were in the stand with the Ferrari clubs. To get the positives out of the way first: the atmosphere was amazing, fans of all teams were able to mix together and I did not see one incident of trouble. The racing was fantastic to see, there was plenty on (if you had time to see it) and Monza itself is a great location.
And now for the negatives. This was our first GP, so I’ve no yardstick to compare against other events, but I do know what is and what is not a well organised event. Here’s the main things we encountered:
Public transport did not seem to have any additional services put on for the weekend from our bus station (Sesto San Giovanni) up to Monza. Queue management was non-existent and people just walked up to the top of huge queues. There was utter confusion with drivers seemingly not knowing whether the buses were going to Monza station, or all the way up to the racetrack. We queued about an hour each day to get on absolutely packed buses, and on the Sunday the driver decided to stop at gate A even though the route should have brought us up to our gate (which was B) as the bus driver on the Saturday did. I can’t understand how additional buses were not put on the route which was clearly going to be way busier than usual.
Queue to get into the venue was huge also, another hour just to reach the next queue for bag check. No stewards anywhere outside to answer questions, direct people etc..
Once through that queue, we had to queue for bag check. Airport style scanner was used one time, never again. Totally inconsistent and not sure what the point was. Bag check completely random, I saw one desk where they were taking caps of water bottles that people were bringing in (not sure what that was all about), so I went to a different desk and brought in two full bottles of water with caps no problem. Taking caps off bottles in near 30C heat is ridiculous.
So once beyond the queues for the buses, the queues to get into the security check area, and the queue to actually go through security and ticket scanning, we thought we must be through the worst of it. How wrong we were!
There was no information about tokens, first we found out was when we were looking to get lunch on Saturday (as we’d spent so long getting in that it was now time to eat) – we realised that cashless wasn’t an option and we had to get tokens from this tiny little desk with 6 cash points (2 of which didn’t seem to be operating most of the time). After queuing for an hour and making little progress (not helped with queue jumpers and zero organisation of the “queue”, we decided to leave the venue and get lunch outside at a food truck type setup near gate B, as we were worried we’d miss qualification if we stayed (we still would have had to queue for food and drinks after getting the tokens). That worked out well, was a bit cheaper than the food in the venue and no queues.
As an aside, using tokens (and no hand sanitisers at the portaloos) when we are still dealing with Covid is an absolutely ridiculous situation. Tokens handled by lots of different people who haven’t been able to wash their hands, when you are about to eat something….. say no more. F1 should haul the Monza organisers over the coals for this alone, aside from the queues.
Checking people when entering the stand seemed to be ok on the Saturday, I was scanned each time – but come Sunday it was a complete free-for-all. There were people sitting on steps in our stand, not one steward in sight. It was a complete joke, and for the price we paid for our tickets, it was a rip off to be honest.
Eventually got tokens on Sunday after queuing for over an hour, and spent another hour getting lunch (burger for 9 euro) and a drink for 4.50 – bought with the tokens. Walked into stand without being checked (which would explain all the extra people who should not have been there).
Race was 3pm, decided to get a beer before race so left my seat at 2.15pm to queue. Eventually got to top of queue just before 3pm (tiny little bar with 3 taps) to be told they had run out of beer. Nobody was going to leave their place at that point and eventually they managed to get another keg sorted out so got a beer after 45 mins in the queue there.
Overall I reckon I spent probably 4 hours per day purely in queues, and each day we walked back to Monza town afterwards, so we didn’t even bother trying to queue for a bus after each day.
For a first GP experience, I was shocked at just how badly the whole event was run, it really was amateur night stuff. Completely understaffed, under resourced (not enough of ANYTHING), ridiculous token system and a joke of a “security” system. Will be reluctant to ever to to Monza again.
I attended Saturday and Sunday with my friend. The positives first: We were sitting in the Vedano Grandstand at the beginning of the pit straight which offered a great view of the action all weekend. We saw practice, qualifying, drivers’ parade, the race and the Porsche Supercup. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the on track action. The park itself is beautiful and the track walk after the race rounded Sunday off nicely. The best thing was getting to meet fans from all over the world and share a laugh as well as our struggles…
Having read up reviews of previous Italian GP’s, I was braced for the worst. Much of what my friend and I experienced has been said above. Waiting two hours in line for tokens on Saturday was unacceptable. The quantity of tokens available was low considering the volume of people in attendance. The cashiers would frequently leave to collect tokens from the bars and foot stalls. Then you’d have somebody order 200 of them at once, which backed things up even more.
On Sunday, we brought our own food with us. We even got water bottles through no problem, but on such a hot day, you need to stay hydrated and buy more. Even with our tokens, we were about an hour queuing for drinks. Got back 15 min before the race start – others weren’t so lucky because they had to choose between staying hydrated and watching the first lap.
Much of the weekend was spent queuing – at the train station, for the shuttle bus, for food, drink and tokens, and for security and a fair bit of walking to get to the circuit. There were some serious bottlenecks. As young, healthy twenty somethings, we were able to manage. But for kids, the elderly and other vulnerable people it wasn’t safe.
This was my second GP after Monaco 2013 (an incredibly well organised affair). Most of the fans we talked to, including my good friend, were attending their first GP. As a long time fan of the sport, Monza had been a bucket list item, and I’m still thrilled that I got to go and see a great racing spectacle. It almost compensated for the off track shenanigans. I will be going to GP’s in the future, but I fear for a lot of people, their experience at Monza may have put them off for good.
Having said that there were fans who had largely positive experiences. One in particular, stayed in an Airbnb by Lake Como, drove to the circuit early, (said traffic was fine), got a stand ticket, ate a big breakfast before arriving and got water in past a lax security check. These people cannot be the exceptions and the Italian GP organisers must be held accountable ahead of next year’s edition.
I have many of the same complaints mentioned above and certainly do not plan on returning to Monza for another F1 event unless there are major changes to the train, shuttle bus, bag check/ticket entry and concessions operations. While I enjoyed the action on the track, every other aspect was a disaster.
On Saturday I left my hotel in Milan at 10am planning to take a train from Milano Centrale to Monza and a shuttle bus to the track. It took me 3 hours to get to my seat on the main straight – just in time for FP3. 3 hours!
The trains to Monza were full and it was very tricky navigating the platforms to find the right train to take. Once at Monza it was fairly easy to get on a bus but it took over 30 minutes to get to the track drop-off point. Apparently the buses are not offered a special route to the track as we got stuck in traffic.
Inexplicably the shuttle bus drops you off at a point where it is a 25 minute walk to the closest gate which is G. It took me about another 15 minutes to get to Gate A and then I had to wait in a line for about 30 to 45 minutes to get inside the facility.
I did not bring a water container and was unaware of the token requirement. I stood in line for tokens for over an hour and did not move. I gave up. Even if I did get tokens the lines for concessions were so long that it would of taken another hour to get food and drink. Finally, I used my hands to cup water in the bathroom sink. That’s how bad it was on a hot day.
The trains from Monza to Milan are few and far between with little to no direction from anyone at the Monza train station regarding which platform to use.
I left my seat after qualifying at 5:30pm and made it back to my hotel in Milan at 8pm – utterly exhausted and frustrated. Never again.
Hi guys,
pls let me write couple things regarding GP Monza as it was my second GP visit, the first one was also in Monza in 2007 where we came at 10am on Lesmo 2 with GA tickets and found great spot on the grandstand to watch. This time, it was just a dream.
Starting on Saturday, waiting 2 hours for tokens and then no tokens at all. Employees brought tokens from the bar in the plastic glass. Souvenirs shops without clothes by the 2PM, bars without beer before the race ends… We came early on Sunday on the track to catch any place but it was overcrowded at all at any spot of the track.
Nevertheless, for those who plan to visit Monza in the upcoming years, let me tell you how I get the great view on the Lesmo 2 just in front of the TV screen and 3m from the track.
As you know, there is one big grandstand with tickets just on the Lesmo 2 with quite expensive tickets. It is assembly scaffolding stand raised about 2m from the ground. On the back side it is covered by tarpaulin. As the racing time get closer, I cut it off and passed under the stand and came just by the fence. Couple hundreds people followed me and security persons could do nothing to dispel us. So we watched GP like VIP persons and saw Vettel 1m away when he walked to the pits. What an amazing experience that was.
But, honestly all this mess around track and poor organization are charmy a bit. We are in Italy right?
Almost I forgot, we made dozen sandwiches in nearly Lidl and Eurospin, plastic bottles covered at the bottom of the bag. Securities have no time to investigate each person in details. You have to be just a bit adroit, that is all it takes.
Overall, don’t be so negative with the comments.
Cheers!
Mario,
I don’t think anybody wants to be negative with comments, but I suggest you re read the comments above along with comments on other forums.
The organisation of this international event was not only negligent but extremely dangerous. Removal of items which are required to keep us healthy ( water, sun cream, sanitiser, power banks ) is unforgivable. I cannot think of any rational reason for this action.
The “ queues “ at one of the entrances I saw brought back some very vivid memories of an event where 96 people died due to crush injuries.
You seem to be suggesting that this complete lack of organisation is somewhat part of the charm of being in Italy. I disagree intensely. The people of Italy deserve much better.
You have also indicated that you cut into a cover at the rear of a stand to get a better view. Are you suggesting we resort to criminal damage? and that because there were a couple of hundred people who followed you it makes it ok. I agree that the stewarding of this event was woefully lacking, but we have a duty to not exacerbate a poor situation.
I have been to other GP’s and have never come across such a disorganised debacle. I had to apologise to my son as it was his first GP as I felt so guilty that he had to endure this sad spectacle.
If other venues can provide safe, secure and relatively comfortable experience then why not Monza?
I am afraid to say that this will be our last visit to Monza until the event promoters and local authorities can provide a safe and secure environment.
Maybe it needs to be removed from the F1 program to enable a period of reflection on why it provided such a poor experience for many of its very loyal followers.
I would re-iterate my point above that the people of Italy deserve better as do everybody who paid hard earned money to attend this event and were let down.
Jim,
I completely agree with you. Except the part of removal items at the entrance. I saw plenty of folks with sun cream, bottles, power banks. On my example, I could take in my bag anything I wanted, just covered on the bottom, but I hold one bottle in my hand and remove the cap to satisfy procedure. I repeat, security guys have no time to explore each bag,
I am not proud for actions I did, but I repeat, in this poor organization environment, If you ain’t gonna do anything, you’ll feel sorry for lifetime. We didn’t broke any security standards, there were double fence, and people on the stand behind us and we didn’t cover them to see the race and TV panel.
The people of Italy deserve much better, that is truth, but we also deserve much better. So my action is an act of demonstration for the organization on the lowest level.
You just described everything wrong with your country.
I attended the Italian Grand Prix this weekend – my 9th time. I concur with a lot of comments by fellow attendees – the key points that ruined my experience (and I had not experienced on my 8 previous visits)…. the token system – did not work; long queues/ tokens not available when you got to the front of queue (of 1 hour 20 mins) and then the need to join another long queue for food and drinks. Missed so much track action to do this. The queue management into the circuit was inadequate, slow and dangerous – also rules on what could be taken in appeared overzealous – no water over 1 litre, but still lots of flares in the crowd I notice! I sat in the stand at Variante – the tannoy worked when the annoying DJ came on (clearly when there was no track action, but there were TV feeds that were live and a faux atmosphere was required…), but it did not work in any of the sessions or races, so without watching on phone, i had no idea what was happening with the race. I have been spectating at F1 GPs for 45 years, this was the worst I have experienced, and as much as I love Monza and the people, I will not be rushing back- a new GP location for me next year!!!
Monza 2022 (aka the Fyre Festival of sport). What an absolute shambles – honestly felt like I was in a natural disaster site, the only difference being there was no foreign aid to provide me with water and food, but rather I had to starve myself of any nutrients all day until I got back to Milan in the late evening thanks to the diabolical token system. The Monza water gods decided to have even more fun after the race, as my friends and I discovered a truck full of water bottles as we walked out of the park which was desperate to unload all the bottles for free after being unable to sell them to the severely dehydrated racegoers during the course of the day.
Don’t even get me started on the numerous stampedes I had to endure throughout the day, the most notable of which involved about 1000 people trying to jam their way through a two-person doorway onto the track straight after the race, whilst simultaneously also trying to avoid a man who had a stroller with a baby in it (a real gold star in parenting there – RIP bambino).
If anyone’s interested, I’ll be starting a rehab group called “Survivors of Monza”, which hopes to alleviate the PTSD all GA ticket holders suffered at this years event.
Thank you Monza for not killing me.
I left my thoughts on twitter with pictures. I was hit by a car, had my phone stolen as well. Will never return and will tell everyone about my experience to keep others from wasting their hard earned money. Check out my pics/vids on twitter @dontgotomonza
Read all the reviews, agree with everything written. No one touched on the unsanitary toilets. I was at the track in Thursday , no water in the porta cabins, and that continued all weekend. They weren’t cleaned from fay to day and by Saturday I was using a wood at the back of parabolica , the toilets were so bad and woods felt safer to use. Poor show as a female to have to do this.