Fun & Famous

7 THINGS I LEARNED FROM FORMULA 1

On Sunday, I went to a Grand Prix for the first time in my life. I had high expectations and believe me: it was just as exciting as I had imagined, but I learned a lot from my trip. So if you ever go to a Formula 1 race, read on.

1. Be on time

I stayed in a hotel that was twenty kilometers away from the circuit. The race started at 2:00 PM. It seemed excessive to jump in the car right after breakfast, but seriously, I was already stuck in traffic. For an hour. That's quite impressive.

2. Seat cooling

You have to spend some time in traffic, so I discovered something in the Renault Talisman that I had never seen before. Seat cooling. Cold buttocks. Whoever thought of that deserves a statue. And a Nobel Prize. And champagne every day. How brilliant. Especially when it's 29 degrees outside and you're stuck in traffic on your way to a circuit that you can hear and smell, it's so close.

Seat cooling. Cold buttocks.

3. If you're on a diet, you have a problem

Unless you don't eat at all, that's the only option. There's nothing healthy to be found on the entire premises. It's fries, sausages, and burgers all around. Man's work. And beer. Once you switch the button, it's all delicious and very cozy.

4. Earplugs are really not necessary

That's what I thought, and everyone told me the same, but first of all, you get them nicely at the circuit, and secondly, you really don't need them. Or maybe I'm already deaf, that could be it too.

5. Leave your heels at home

Or if you really want to wear them, wear wedges. You're walking through sand and grass, and you know and I know that heels and sand and grass just don't get along.

6. Bring sunscreen

The Grand Prix is the new festival. So a day full in the sun. With a beer and a bratwurst, that could very well be. But in any case, with your nose in the sun. Lovely, lovely, but you need to bring that sunscreen.

The Grand Prix is the new festival

7. The racers are heroes

I have been indoctrinated and immediately brainwashed by my husband. First, he made me like football, and now I am a Formula 1 fan. Because of the stories about what they have to give up and what they earn. Kimi Räikkönen, Sebastian Vettel, the Renault drivers Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer, and of course ‘our’ Max Verstappen. During a Grand Prix, they really come to life. Maybe you see it all better on TV and have the charming Olav Mol explaining it all, but when you're sitting there and they zoom past at 300 kilometers per hour, it does something to you.

8. Make sure you have a credit card with a straight back

Because a little card costs a hundred euros, and you don't have to do anything crazy to find one for four hundred euros.