Daily Star Assistant Editor Richard Brown finally got to experience the thrills and spills of F1 first-hand, spending the entire weekend at Silverstone, and came away with a fresh appreciation for the sport
A few minutes before midday on Saturday, I found myself standing inside McLaren’s pit lane garage, feet away from their team of skilled mechanics, filled with anticipation.
As the seconds ticked by, a mixture of feelings overwhelmed me, but the most prominent by far was simply “how have I ended up here?”
Straight ahead was the start line for the sprint race of the British Grand Prix, somewhere vaguely to my right, Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz was broadcasting to the nation and there I was, surrounded by it all and trying to take in my new surroundings.
Then the lights went out, the sprint race of the British Grand Prix began and every single thought immediately vanished out of my head in a whirl of roaring engines.
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
I’ve been an F1 fan for years. It’s the ultimate test of skill, endurance and nerve. But as I now know, the experience of watching it on TV is very different to seeing it live.
In a true bucket-list moment, I spent the entire weekend at Silverstone, witnessing things most people don’t get to see and the excitement of 564,000 people.
Thanks to the fine people at Allwyn – a multi-national lottery and gaming company who also partner with F1 and the McLaren team – I was able to watch the whole event unfold from the glitz and glamour of the Paddock Club, a luxurious air-conditioned suite overlooking the pit lane and Abbey corner.
It was a pretty eye-opening place, to say the least. Alongside an unlimited supply of champagne, beer, lobster, Wagyu beef and plenty more, there were race car simulators, a fully-functioning hair salon and make-up station and a live DJ operating pretty much around the clock.
But aside from the opulence, the experience gave me the chance to really explore and understand what makes the British Grand Prix – and F1 more generally – one of the most engaging live events going.
I got to wander round some behind-the-scenes areas, walk along the pit lane and watch teams practising pit stops and doing some fairly vigorous warm-up exercises.
I hung out in the McLaren team hub, spoke with development driver Matteo De Palo, and even spent a bit of time indulging in some celeb-spotting (Stuart Broad, Mollie King, Jack Grealish, Jackie Stewart and David Coulthard in case you were interested).
And as mentioned, I had an out-of-body experience watching the sprint race in the team garage.
Running through all of it is a ripple of excitement. The British Grand Prix is a real sensory overload, comparable only to the first time I went to Glastonbury. Everywhere you look are thousands of punters lugging camping chairs, decked out in their team’s merch, all waiting to see what the weekend will bring.
The entire weekend builds and builds, eventually culminating on Sunday afternoon.
Back in the Paddock Club, cooling down from the blazing Northamptonshire heat, I stood on the terrace and as the Formation Lap – which Allwyn is the lead partner of – began, a nervous energy fell across the track.
It is the purest form of anticipation possible, the calm before the 52-lap storm where fractions of seconds, and a tyre being a few millimetres out of line can be the difference between joy and despair.
And it makes sense. Allwyn understands similar feelings of anticipation, and whether it’s waiting with bated breath with your lottery ticket in your hand before a draw, or watching Lando Norris flying down a straight at almost 200mph, the rush is the same.
Luckily, the race lived up to expectations across a wild and dramatic 90 minutes which saw Kimi Antonelli’s car falter as he chased down the lead and Max Verstappen crash out as he hunted down Lewis Hamilton in second place.
And just in case the excitement on-track wasn’t enough, there were chances to win prizes off it too. The new Allwyn League fan engagement competition allows F1 fans to enjoy the anticipation too by predicting the results of the race weekend, with a chance to win prizes including Paddock Club access.
Unfortunately, only one of my picks for the podium proved correct (unlucky Lando) but to be honest, I think I’d had plenty of thrills already for one weekend…