Every F1 Race I’ve Attended, Ranked by a Fan: 8 Grands Prix From Worst to Best

Quick verdict: Interlagos for the atmosphere | Spa for the circuit | Monza for the Leclerc win in front of the tifosi | Zandvoort for the party | Skip the hype on Miami.

Updated June 2026 · 11 min read

How I Ranked These (and My Drivers)

I have now been to eight different Grands Prix across five continents, and people always ask which one they should go to. So here is my honest ranking of every F1 race I have actually attended — judged purely as a fan: the circuit itself, the racing, what you can see from the grandstands, and how loud the crowd gets. Where I went around the race barely factored in.

For context, my drivers are Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton — so a podium for any of them bumps a weekend up in my memory, and I will be honest about when it did. (Handy footnote: since 2025, Hamilton drives for Ferrari alongside Leclerc, so two of my three are now team-mates in red.)

Two housekeeping notes: I have been to Miami twice (2025 and 2026), so I count it once; and I have not been to Madrid yet, so it sits at the bottom as the next one to tick. Here is the countdown, from the one I would skip to the one I would fly back for tomorrow.

#8 — Barcelona 2023: Circuit de Catalunya (Spanish Grand Prix)

This was my first ever Grand Prix, so it is special — but I am ranking on the racing, and Barcelona is the most forgettable lap on this list. In 2023 Max Verstappen took a grand chelem: pole, fastest lap, and led every single lap. That is the definition of a processional Barcelona, where every team has tested so much that nothing changes from lights to flag. The one bright spot for me was Lewis Hamilton coming through to second (with George Russell third for a Mercedes double podium), so I did get a Hamilton podium at my very first race. Leclerc, meanwhile, had a weekend to forget and finished out of the points.

Two honest warnings if you ever go: the logistics are rough. The parking was a genuine shambles — fans queued off the motorway for over three hours — and the crowd is loud enough that my Apple Watch flashed a “Loud Environment, 90 decibels” warning from the grandstand. Bring ear protection wherever you go.

Fan verdict: The best first race — easy, comfortable, and I got a Hamilton podium — but the worst pure-racing lap I have seen. Fitting that Spain hands its slot to Madrid in 2026. Full Barcelona guide here.

#7 — Mexico City 2025: Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (Mexican GP)

The Foro Sol section is the reason to come: the track threads through an old baseball stadium, the podium is staged inside it, and it is the single loudest grandstand in Formula 1. Add the altitude — you are at 2,200 metres, the air is thin, the cars run their skinniest wings of the year and the engines gasp — plus a Día de Muertos backdrop, and the energy is unreal.

2025 gave me a Leclerc moment, too: Lando Norris won (McLaren’s first Mexico victory since 1989), but Charles Leclerc finished second, a Ferrari on the podium right in front of us, with Verstappen third. Hamilton came home eighth and Piastri fifth. The catch is the rest of the lap — outside the stadium it is mostly flat with average sightlines, so the crowd carries it.

Fan verdict: Go for Foro Sol, the noise, and (if you are lucky) a Leclerc podium; temper expectations for the rest of the circuit.

#6 — Austria 2025: Red Bull Ring, Spielberg (Austrian GP)

The Red Bull Ring is tiny — a lap takes barely over a minute — which is exactly why it is great for fans: cars come past constantly and from one hillside grandstand you can see huge chunks of the circuit, all set against the Styrian hills with proper elevation change.

And honestly, as a fan of my three drivers, 2025 Austria was the best result of any race I have attended: Norris won after a nerve-shredding wheel-to-wheel scrap with Oscar Piastri, who finished second; Charles Leclerc took third; and Lewis Hamilton came fourth. All three of my favourite drivers in the top four, with Verstappen taken out at Turn 1. The McLaren intra-team fight was the race of the year. The only thing keeping it this low is that the lap is so short it can start to feel repetitive over a full distance.

Fan verdict: Best sightlines on the list and gorgeous — and for a Piastri/Leclerc/Hamilton fan, the best grid-to-flag afternoon of the lot. Full Austria itinerary here.

#5 — Miami 2025 & 2026: Miami International Autodrome

As a circuit, Miami is spectacle over substance: a temporary layout looped around the Hard Rock Stadium parking lots, a famously fake marina, walls everywhere, almost no elevation, and brutal heat and humidity. But I have been twice, and 2025 is where I watched Oscar Piastri win — a dominant McLaren 1-2 over Norris, Piastri passing Verstappen on lap 14 and never looking back, his title charge in full flow.

The flip side was watching my two Ferraris implode in the same afternoon: Leclerc seventh, Hamilton eighth, after an ugly, very public team-orders mess that played out over the radio — Hamilton called it “frustrating,” which was putting it kindly. So Miami handed me a Piastri win and a Ferrari headache at once.

Fan verdict: A great event and an easy first race for US fans, a mediocre track — rescued in my memory by a Piastri win. What Miami is actually like.

#4 — Zandvoort 2023: Circuit Zandvoort (Dutch GP)

Now we are into the races I would happily do again. Zandvoort is built into the dunes on the North Sea, it is tight and undulating, and it has those famous banked corners — Hugenholtz and the Arie Luyendyk banking — that let the cars carry ridiculous speed and look spectacular. It is compact, so you see a lot.

2023 was wet, red-flagged chaos, and Verstappen won it on home soil for his record-equalling ninth straight victory — the Orange Army absolutely lost it. Hamilton finished sixth, and a rookie named Oscar Piastri scrapped his way to ninth and into the points; fun, in hindsight, to have watched a future race winner cutting his teeth. The only thing holding it back is that the track is narrow and genuine overtaking is hard.

Fan verdict: Best atmosphere of any European race I have been to; just do not expect an overtaking masterclass. Dutch GP train itinerary here.

#3 — Monza 2024: Autodromo Nazionale Monza (Italian GP)

The Temple of Speed runs the highest top speeds of the year down endless straights into heavy braking zones, through the Curva Grande, the Lesmos and the legendary Parabolica. It is fast, historic and a flat-out blast to watch — but the reason it is this high is what happened in 2024.

Charles Leclerc won it for Ferrari on a perfectly judged one-stop, holding off Oscar Piastri in second — two of my three favourite drivers first and second, in front of a tifosi crowd that completely lost its mind (Hamilton was fifth for Mercedes). The post-race track invasion, tens of thousands of fans flooding to the podium under the start-finish straight, is one of the best things I have ever witnessed in sport. If you want to know why I started chasing races, it is this afternoon.

Fan verdict: A flat-out circuit with an atmosphere that rivals Interlagos — and a Leclerc win at Monza is about as good as a fan day gets. First-timer’s Monza guide.

#2 — Spa-Francorchamps 2025: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (Belgian GP)

Spa is, by common consent, the greatest circuit in Formula 1, and in person it lives up to it. Seven kilometres carved through the Ardennes forest with enormous elevation change, and the cars genuinely look fast here in a way they never do on TV. Eau Rouge into Raidillon — flat out, uphill, blind — is even more absurd from the hillside than on a broadcast.

The weather is its own character, and 2025 proved it: a wet-to-dry race with a delayed, rolling start that Oscar Piastri won, passing Norris early, with Charles Leclerc completing the podium in third. Hamilton charged from sixteenth on the grid to seventh. Another Piastri win and a Leclerc podium, live — the only thing keeping Spa off the top spot is that the crowd, while big, does not match the wall of sound in Brazil.

Fan verdict: The connoisseur’s race. If you only ever see one circuit in your life, make it this one — and pack a poncho. Spa trip itinerary here.

#1 — Interlagos 2024: Autódromo José Carlos Pace (São Paulo GP)

Number one, and it is not close for me. Interlagos is short, anticlockwise and old-school, built into a natural amphitheatre so you can see enormous stretches of the lap from a single seat — the plunge through the Senna Esses, the long climb past the pits, the Reta Oposta back straight. Nowhere else lets you take in this much racing from one grandstand.

And 2024 delivered an all-time classic: a soaking, chaotic race that Max Verstappen won from 17th on the grid, widely called one of the greatest drives of the modern era — and I watched it live, in the rain, from the stands. Leclerc came fifth, Piastri eighth and Hamilton tenth, but the story was the conditions and a crowd that simply never stopped. Brazilian fans are the most passionate in F1, full stop.

Fan verdict: The best pure fan experience I have had at a Grand Prix — amphitheatre sightlines, the loudest crowd in the sport, and racing that delivered. Full Interlagos guide here.

Up Next: Madrid 2026 (the new Spanish GP)

The one I have not done yet. In 2026 the Spanish Grand Prix moves from Barcelona to Madrid — the new “Madring,” a hybrid street-and-permanent circuit at the IFEMA grounds, complete with a banked corner. I am set to go, and with Leclerc and Hamilton both in red for Ferrari now, I know exactly which garage I will be watching. I cannot rank it yet — but I have a feeling it slots in higher than Barcelona did. Check back after.

Want more? See which F1 circuits are worth the trip, the cheapest F1 races for Americans, ranked by cost, and how much an F1 weekend actually costs.

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