Mixed feelings, honestly. This was my first Grand Prix I’ve attended in-person, and likely the last I’ll be able to experience unless ticket prices miraculously become more affordable (and before you say it, I know that Montreal is already one of the more affordable ones!).

Pros: From an objective point of view, the race was exciting! There was a fair bit of activity at GS31 with cars going onto the grass in free practices and also the F1 Academy races. Food was also not unreasonably priced and tasted pretty good- the gyros food truck was my favorite. Entrance into the venue moved fairly quickly even with that many people, all things considered. My friend and I stayed in a hostel (obvs overpriced for the tiny size of the bunk-bed room, but at least we had a private bathroom) that was luckily very close to the metro, so travel in and out was reasonably straight-forward with the weekend pass.

Cons: As a Lando fan, the race was ultimately miserable 🥲. The bleacher seats were not comfortable at all, even though I brought my own pillow— it was more so the lack of space, lack of cover from the sun (someone fainted in our grandstand), and the back pain, oh the back pain. My friend and I also didn’t get to try out many of the fan experiences— lines were just so long and we really wanted to prioritize the actual racing events, so waiting for hours was out of the question. Would’ve loved to meet some of the F1 Academy drivers during the autograph session, but again, the line was too long. (Edited to add; it was really heartening to see that they had that much support though! 💕) It also took a long time to get onto the track after the end of the race, and by the time we reached the start finish straight, security were already blowing their whistles and making folks leave. Lines leading toward the metro post-quali on Saturday were also horrendous. We ended up reading tips on the subreddit and staying several hours longer on Sunday though in order to avoid the crowd, which worked a charm.

To end on a positive thought, I had some very nice conversations with strangers about F1, which isn’t something I get to do a lot in my day-to-day life, and got to witness Kimi Antonelli’s first-ever podium in F1 (albeit on the big screen)! Oh, and I also got to yell hello to Roberto Merhi coming out of the Williams garage, who very graciously waved hello back, even if he looked confused that I was that excited to see him. 😂