TURKISH FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX

Had a wonderful time in Istanbul. great sense of east meets west. Transport to and from track was fantastic. excellent facilities. Really was an enjoyable experience. What a great shame that Turkey will not be on the race calender again. The track is very exciting and the action on turn 8 is second to none.

An interesting weekend, however it was soon obvious the circuit had been under funded in many ways for quite some time and the screen in the front of the silver seating was far smaller than i was led to believe.
To enter the silver ticket seating area we had to walk through thick sludgey mud which ruined our footwear, now we understand that when the weather is bad there will be soft ground, but the organisers did little to sort out this problem knowing it was a three day event.
When we think about the amount you charge for tickets it is rather discusting what we had to put up with over the three days.
At this moment in time we have now resorted to watching formula 1 racing from the comfort of our own home it is a lot cleaner and cheaper.
Kind Regards M. Hartley.

great experience, no disappointments

The weekend was unforgettable. Organization of the event was excellent, the facilities were good and the atmosphere - great.
Things to improve - staff didn't speak English, prices for food&beverages extremely high /wondering why?/

My girlfriend and I stayed on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in the Fenerbahce area of Istanbul. It's a nice area, seems to be a good place to stay, not too touristy and there are some very nice bars and clubs if you look for them. As with most of Istanbul, you need to take a cab to most places as it's so big but, I can recommend club Reina - pricey food and drink but a nice place right by the river.
We went to the track on Saturday and Sunday by means of one of the many local buses which are laid on especially to take people there - we got ours from the bus station which is next to where the ferries go to/from. The bus journey takes about 1.5hrs and costs 3.50 Turkish Lira which is really cheap compared to a cab which we found out would cost 100Turkish Lira (one way!) and will probably still take an hour because the traffic isn't great.
I'm afraid I don't have a note of the seat numbers that we had at the circuit but we were really pleased with our seats which gave us a view of the cars speeding down the back straight, round the left and right hand turns (12 & 13) before going round the left hand turn 14 and accelerating down the start/finish straight.
On Saturday after qualifying, we headed to the media tent where we saw and got pictures of the drivers sat down to sign autographs which was pretty cool. Then on Sunday, after the race, everyone is allowed on the track where (if you're quick enough) you can go right up to the pit wall and maybe catch a glimpse of some of the media eg. Jake, Eddie and DC (of BBC F1) or team bosses such as Christian Horner. We did!
All in all, an amazing weekend at a place which I'd definitely go back to again.

Great view from Stand 8 and as usual where most of the overtaking action happens on this track. F1 cars like cruise missiles down the back straight. Only thing to watch (apart from useless as ever turkish police!) is the stands are a bit of a death trap with big gaps under the seats so watch out for falling beer cans, binoculars, small children etc when walking underneath!! :) Stand photos etc on the circuit website don't do it justice, probably the best view you will get for the money at any F1 track, hopefully Turkey will happen next year!

Easy to get to, but a bit price on site, buses available from the city centre, a good cheap starter F1 race to go too, if you have not been before and want to take in other sights over the same weekend. ladies not interested in the race can go shopping in the city centre and feel perfectly safety.

Great access, great view of pits and pit straight, tack opened after race,
Was awesome !

Having read previous years' reviews, we opted for the Silver-8 stand at Istanbul Park, and requested seats as high as possible.

We ended up 3 rows from the very back (once we'd deciphered the bizarre way the Turks had labelled the stand!) and very happy with a brilliant view. We could clearly see the braking zone at the end of the "back" straight (the end of the DRS activation zone!), the complex of bends up to the s/f straight, as well as a good view of the cars disappearing away from us down said straight.
There was a huge amount of action; overtaking, re-overtaking and excitement right in front of us, so much so that at some moments I didn't know where to look!

I really wouldn't hesitate to recommend this as a viewing location and if I/we return to Istanbul Park, we would definitely reprise these seats.

Something to note - if the race is in May again (if indeed it happens again), the weather in Istanbul isn't as warm as one normally associates with Turkey, or Istanbul later in the year. If the sun shines in the day (it mostly did for us) then it potentially is very pleasant (c18-22 degC) but if when the wind gets up it can feel quite a lot more chilly. At night the temperature drops well into single figures, and if it's windy it can feel quite cold, again particularly if the wind gets up, so take hoodies / jumpers / extra layers. And a waterproof jacket, obviously - There was lots of rain forecast, but we were lucky there were only a few showers on the Friday (or was that Thursday???)
Also take these to the track - although the sun was shining, by the time we got to the top of the grandstand we were glad we'd packed jumpers/jackets "just in case", due to the constant, strong wind - you can see all the flags horizontal on the TV footage!

One last piece of advice - if you do go to Istanbul for a subsequent race then stay for a few days to look around. It's a wonderful city with amazing things to see and an amazing history, even by European standards!
The Taxim area is a good place to stay for eating/drinking out at night (and a bus to the track), and only a short tram ride from the old city and the Bazaars/Mosques etc to see there. Oh - and if you like rock/metal music, check out the DO-Rock bar in Taxim, great music, a band every night and the cheapest beer in the area :o)

Organizers are nice, the easy access, in general wonderful weekend in istanbul

this was my 4th visit to this race only down side this year which has not been a problem in the past was the local bus company getting to the track departure time was 7am or when bus was full it left at 7.30 the next day they used bigger busses so left at 8am, and leaving the track was worse reall badly organised but other than that all good hope they do come back next year they say it needs more promoting think if it did ever get busy it would struggle to cope with larger crowds , drinks expensine coffee £4 can of beer £6 bring own food and drink to the track, its also a shame thry do not let you try different viewing on Fri & Sat even if you have gold they wont let you in silver or bronze stewards a bit clueless most of the stand exits not open but then they have (I counted) 9 stewards checking tickets and bags getting in each others way, I have got use to it but it could be better, would recoment the gold ticket as along with platinum it has a roof

What a fantastic week-end. Great seats and views and overall a wonderful experience. Food and beverages were a complete rip off, as were the merchandise shops (selling team T shirts for around £80 when they can be purchased on line significantly cheaper)

The position on the circuit afforded some excellent views, but the TV screen was too small to see. The bus service to the circuit was disorganised and badly staffed. The facilities at the circuit were adequate, but food and drink was overpriced and poor quality. We did enjoy the weekend, but it could be much improved.

We really enjoyed the experience, the atmosphere was exciting and the race did not let us down. Hamilton and Button overtaking each other down the straight past our stand was what we wanted to see. A strange security process was in place where you could not take a bottle of water into the stand with a lid on, they removed the lid from you which means you are carrying a bottle of water around without a cap. I am sure you will find ways round it like we did on day 2 & 3.
Our advice to would be Istanbul G.P. attendees would be ,
1. Make sure you have enough warm clothing if you are in the covered stand, the wind whips down the straight
2. There are plenty of small businesses in Istanbul offering a shuttle bus to and from the circuit, a bit more than using the local buses but you wont have to stand for 2 hours getting back, they were packed and the traffic jams were horrendous. Don't forget to haggle, if you take the shuttle buses do not pay what they are advertising, your hotel concierge can help!
3. There is a bus terminal down by the Ferry boats on the European side.
4. Take plenty of Euro's, all prices were quoted in Euro's not Lira.
5. Finally, Don't forget those ear plugs!!

Shame the race is not supported more, but meant access by car was very easy and a very relaxed chilled out weekend as not being jostled for space constantly. Good toilets and OK food facilities. Big screens could be bigger!

We had a fantastic weekend at the GP!! There wasn't a big turn out so there weren't long queues for food, toilets, merchandise stands etc... There were however only 3 grandstands on sale so ours was fairly well filled with plenty of atmosphere! There were absolutely no queues driving to the track unlike other gp's we've been at. We drove straight into the car park which was less than 5 mins walk to the main entrance. We had a great view from Silver 8 as we could see the last 3 corners and also up the start/finish straight as well as the pit entrance. We saw loads of overtaking!

I wouldn't advise driving from Ataturk airport to the track as the drivers in Turkey are a bit mad! It was a hair raising journey and we only relaxed when we gave our car back to the rental company! I would either use public transport or fly to Sabiha Gocken airport with Easyjet and stay close to the track. Driving out of the main city is fine!

Booking F1 were great. Our tickets arrived in plenty of time!

Overall a fantastic weekend and we would definitely go back.

NO TV AT THE "GENERAL ADMISSION" AREA
BIG TRAFIC TO CAME BACK FROM ISTANBUL PARK

Istanbul traffic a nightmare. Good directions to circuit from motorway. No camping facilities. No real atmosphere, been to Silverstione and Hungarian F1 and both events had a carnival effect as well as the race weekend. Prices very high 10tl (£4.00 for a can of coke from an official sponsers' stand ) 75tl for most official baseball caps, I thought long and hard before paying £20.00 for one last year at Silverstone. High level of security, good, but having to go through 3 check points, each with a queue to get to our chosen stand seemed excessive. The security checks were not very stringent, just a show and hold up, also why remove all bottle tops from drinks this seemed rather silly and inconvienient.

This was our second visit to the Turkish Grand Prix..again we stayed on the Asian side in Kadikoy and were not disappointed with our choice, fantastic hotel and an english speaking concierge..we used public transport to and from the airport (£3.50 each way for a 40 minute journey) a trip across the Bosphoros to the European side cost £1.75 and public transport to and from the circuit (again about £3.00 each way). Not sure what happened this year but the journey back to Kadikoy after the race this year took 3 hours which was definetly a turn off, though we had a great bunch of French and Turkish lads on the trip who kept us entertained. Oh forgot the race...not the result we wanted being Brits but still good atmosphere, good company around us..great weather..not sure why it doesnt attract more Brits as it is cheaper to attend this one than Silverstone and you get time to visit the mosques and can acquire a brand new wardrobe of clothes from the Grand Baazar! Would definetly recommend a visit to the Turkish Grand Prix (if there is another one) you never know who will be on your flight Jake Humphreys was on the way out...also got autographs on the return flight from Petrov and Alguershari and Sam Bird GP2 driver......not the only ones to fly Easy Jet!!!

Excellent value for money - fantastic seats - slightly disappointed with lack of merchandise stands (and choice) and cost of food/drink - but appreciate this is not issue of F1.com but more of a "Bernie issue"!!
Slight moan (again not an F1.com problem) but the amount of people that were allowed into the grandstands who were permitted to stand in aisle ways blocking the view of those who wished to make use of the seat they had paid for - secuirty seemed more interested in taking tops off drinking bottles!