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Next spring, it will be 20 years since I began covering Formula One for the Daily Mail.
In that time, I have covered more than 300 races, at tracks scattered all over the globe. Here, I'm providing my reflections on the venues I liked and did not, the ins and outs of the travelling circus, as I experienced it – ranking all the current grand prix events from 24th to first place.
My recollections include the afternoon a hungover Lewis Hamilton excused himself to throw up in his hotel suite.
And of staying in a B&B that Murray Walker discovered.
This circuit should be binned. Home of a million mind-numbing test days over the years for the satisfaction of engineering perfection, it is a charmless track, a rotting concrete jungle that has not tried to modernise or to put a smile on its face.
It is also nowhere near the city, which is fun – though don’t wear your Rolex there in these days of rampant crime down La Rambla. Your kit is liable to get nicked out of your boot in the track car park.
Rude staff. Boring race. Bring on Madrid – a new circuit next year. It’s worth a try.
23. Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps - Spa, Belgium
We used to stay in a B&B by a roundabout that Murray Walker discovered – Auberge du Père Boigelot. James Allen, who took over from Murray as lead commentator, kept the flame alive there, extolling the little hotel’s virtues. Steve Rider, unflappable TV anchor, was another habitue.
The B&B, where Monsieur cooked and Madame served, has shut down now. A dog barked loudly each morning and woke you up. If you lost your room key, the proprietor would shake his meat cleaver at you. He was bonkers.
But I asked for spinach once. Madame said she had none in stock but would go to the market next day to get some for me to go with the steak au poivre I ordered each night. And she did, and I thought that sweet.
Sacrilege, but the track is overrated – too dangerous, too long. And it always rains. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Roads in are all deplorably clogged. The police are officious. Spa has no place in modern Formula One.
19. Jeddah Corniche Circuit - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Debut: 2021 Grands prix staged: 5
I gulp at the danger of the speedy track – partly modified over the last few years. But the people there are so kind and accommodating, no matter its image in many Western eyes.
Yet I remember that day in 2022 when Houthi rebels hit an oil refinery 10 miles away and lit up the sky. Thankfully, the Jeddah circuit has an anti-missile system protecting it.
Saudi Arabia’s status as the go-to sports venue of the future cannot survive its ban on alcohol, which is rigid, given that there is no widespread indigenous interest in the fare on offer.
19. Jeddah: I remember that day in 2022 when Houthi rebels hit an oil refinery 10 miles away and lit up the sky. Thankfully, the Jeddah circuit has an anti-missile system protecting it
18. Baku City Circuit - Baku, Azerbaijan
Debut: 2016 Grands prix staged: 9
Not somewhere you might ordinarily travel, and only a few flights go there directly.
But Baku’s walled Old City is nice, the race is usually entertaining and it all works smoothly, regularly surprising you by being a better experience than you might expect.
Flavio Briatore, the grand old goat, helped do the deal.
18. Baku: The walled Old City is nice, the race is usually entertaining and it all works smoothly
17. Circuit Zandvoort - Zandvoort, Netherlands
Debut: 1952 Grands prix staged: 35
It is the race they put on to serve Max Verstappen Mania. He is the biggest sports star in the country and his supporters flock to Zandvoort, a seaside resort a 30-minute train ride from Amsterdam.
The trains are called Verstappen Expresses and run every few minutes like clockwork. A beery atmosphere pervades with techno music an inescapable accompaniment.
It’s fun, unsophisticated, Dutch – not meant as an insult; I have a few Dutch friends.
17. Zandvoort: It is the race they put on to serve Max Verstappen Mania. He is the biggest sports star in the country and his supporters flock to Zandvoort
16. Yas Marina Circuit - Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Debut: 2009 Grands prix staged: 16
Great for an end-of-year shindig – or a shootout as in the case of Hamilton and Verstappen in 2021. The drama of that night lingers in the mind and adds to its allure.
As does Hamilton and Nico Rosberg going at it in 2016. Lewis backed up the field. I thought he should not have. Better to have won the race in Corinthian style and lost the title.
It’s not the world’s best track but it offers warmth in the British winter – a lively paddock, if not the most passionate crowd.
With its harbour, it is Monaco transposed to the Middle East, which is not entirely a bad thing.
16. Abu Dhabi: Great for an end-of-year shindig – or a shootout as in the case of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen (pictured) in 2021
15. Hungaroring - Budapest, Hungary
Debut: 1986 Grands prix staged: 40
A handsome city and beautiful people. The first race in the Eastern Bloc, with ‘Bernie Avenue’ once the road into the track. In the lucky years, I stayed in a hotel with curtains that opened on to the Danube. A worthwhile track, usually a good race.
My favourite memory is Jenson Button’s first win at his 113th attempt. Hamilton has won there more than anyone, a favourite venue for him, not least in 2009 when driving a terrible McLaren.
He won, and then asked: ‘How many points am I off the championship lead?’ Too many.
15. Budapest: My favourite memory here is Jenson Button’s first win at his 113th attempt, in 2006
14. Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari - Imola, Italy
Debut: 1980 Grands prix staged: 32
A wonderful old circuit in a lovely part of the world. Perhaps the quaintest there is on the calendar.
You can stay well, and eat well, in the area. And visit the hotel room where Ayrton Senna spent his final night: Room 200 at Hotel Castello in Castel San Pietro Terme, a few miles from Bologna.
There is a flat-screen TV there now but most of it was as it was when he left it on May 1, 1994, and never came back.
14. Imola: The track is a standing memorial to Ayrton Senna, who crashed to his death here in 1994
13. Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez - Mexico City, Mexico
Debut: 1963 Grands prix staged: 25
Very atmospheric. The paddock is bursting with vitality, but the drivers feel it can be overcrowded and the fans too entitled, cramping their space. Formula One bosses should deal with this and limit numbers.
As in Brazil, you get a feel for what is happening by the crowd’s loud cheering, or booing.
The run into the first corner is a lottery, but fun. The most intense section of seating is Foro Sol, the old baseball stadium part.
It was called the Inferno Solar in those days – the Solar Hell – with its steep bleachers exposed to searing rays.
13. Mexico City: The most intense section of seating is Foro Sol, the old baseball stadium part
12. Red Bull Ring - Spielberg, Austria
Debut: 1970 Grands prix staged: 39
A nice event. Easy to get to via Vienna, and what a city that is.
You can see the whole track – vivid, undulating, short – from various vantage points in the Syrian mountains.
Organisation is first class. But too many beered-up Dutch fans for total satisfaction.
As the Osterreichring, before it was the redesigned Red Bull Ring, it was known as the prettiest graveyard in the world.
12. Spielberg: You can see the whole track – vivid, undulating, short – from various vantage points in the Syrian mountains
11. Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada
Debut: 1978 Grands prix staged: 44
Apologies for those who have heard this from me before, but the old rule of thumb was that if the place starts with an ‘M’ it is good news. (See below!).
Well, Montreal clings to this theory, though it is not as high in my estimation as when it was one of the rare city destinations.
It is usually a good race, Button’s marathon win in 2011 bearing testament to this.
As for hotel prices, get real. They have gone through the roof. That eyewatering expense, and the practically obligatory service charge on every dinner bill, indicates ‘stay away’, unless someone else is picking up the tab.
11. Montreal: Apologies for those who have heard this from me before, but the old rule of thumb was that if the place starts with an ‘M’ it is good news
10. Miami International Autodrome - Miami, United States
Debut: 2022 Grands prix staged: 4
The Hard Rock Stadium was not the place Liberty Media, the sport’s owners, envisaged as the Miami GP’s home.
Local residents objected on grounds of noise and road disruption to a starrier venue with the Bay as its backdrop.
So it ended up here in a less salubrious neighbourhood, Liberty then hellbent on taking a bigger slice of the American pie rather than concede defeat.
But it has worked well. The first year was a bit sketchy. As with all new venues; they were still applying the paint as the circus arrived in town, and then they settled into their stride.
10. Miami: As with all new venues; they were still applying the paint as the circus arrived in town, and then they settled into their stride
9. Bahrain International Circuit - Sakhir, Bahrain
Debut: 2004 Grands prix staged: 22
Perhaps the best-run of all races. The paddock is sensibly sized, intimate, and thus well-equipped for F1 gossip.
Bahrain were the pioneers of the sport in the region, and hats off to them for that, under the visionary Crown Prince Salman.
The race is often eventful. Well worth a trip, and relatively easy to get to. Just get a luxury hotel, of which there are several.
8. Bahrain: Perhaps the best-run of all races. The paddock is sensibly sized, intimate, and thus well-equipped for F1 gossip
8. Las Vegas Strip Circuit - Las Vegas, United States
Debut: 2023 Grands prix staged: 2
You can love this place or loathe it on the same day. Paying $15 dollars at Starbucks in the MGM Grand when you wake for a black coffee at 5am and some granny is busy with a one-arm bandit?
Well, it’s curious – tilting towards the loathing part of the conundrum.
But the sheer scale of the excess is unsurpassed and it’s (maybe even now) the swankiest, silliest place on the whole planet, and that is its dubious charm.
Returning to Vegas after a few aborted attempts in the 1980s, F1’s presence is a statement of Liberty Media’s ambition – the one race they promote themselves (rather than charge the locals hosting rights).
The schedule runs late into the night. I once did 30 hours awake, when the first day’s practice was delayed by an errant manhole cover.
The programme has moved forwards a few hours after the casino owners, who run the place, coming to an accommodation on that front. It has produced two very acceptable races so far.
8. Las Vegas: The schedule runs late into the night. I once did 30 hours awake, when the first day’s practice was delayed by an errant manhole cover
7. Circuit of the Americas - Austin, United States
Debut: 2012 Grands prix staged: 13
I was shown around the then new circuit by its owner Bobby Epstein on the eve of its introduction in 2012, seeing for the first time that fine, steepling first bend, a spot of so much drama.
Bobby and I were sitting in the lobby of the Four Seasons when Bernie Ecclestone rang me. ‘How does it look?’ he asked. ‘All in order,’ I reported back to London. I liked the people and Austin from day one.
F1 travellers of a bygone age compare Austin to Adelaide, two smallish cities with a merry vibe. Austin was the favourite of Button’s late father John. He got there days early to imbibe the fun.
It’s lively (on Sixth Street especially, or zanier Rainy Street); you can eat well, or bump into drivers running along Town Lake as dawn breaks, or dining at Eddie V's, the celebrity-strewn steak joint. I once saw Brad Pitt cross the floor there to discuss F1, the movie launched this year but still nameless then.
But Eddie V's has got nothing on Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken, and that comes in under budget.
7. Austin: I was shown around the then new circuit by its owner Bobby Epstein on the eve of its 2012 debut, seeing for the first time that fine, steepling first bend, a spot of so much drama
6. Autodromo Nazionale di Monza - Monza, Italy
Debut: 1950 Grands prix staged: 75
The Temple of Speed is one of the sport’s great venues. It nestles in the tree-lined royal park. It has a special fervour, never better expressed than as the Tifosi throng the start-finish straight under the podium at the end of each race.
Memories for me: Hamilton’s great win in 2018, at the absolute peak of his powers, beating the Ferraris on a day he had no right to. Further back to Michael Schumacher announcing his retirement after the 2006 edition, a moment of sporting history.
I like Hotel de la Ville, where senior Ferrari personnel stay. Fans wait at the gates for autographs.
I say Ferrari stay there – of the current drivers Charles Leclerc does; I don’t believe Hamilton does. He wants to escape the hoopla and slips off to his motorhome.
6. Monza: The Temple of Speed is one of the sport’s great venues
5. Silverstone Circuit - Silverstone, Great Britain
Debut: 1950 Grands prix staged: 60
The beating heart of Formula One. Authentic, but updated (a tribute to Stuart Pringle, the chief executive).
A fine track, reliably a good race, regardless of the weather. In fact, its near-guarantee of decent action exceeds expectations anywhere else.
Even the roads into the estate aren’t usually as jammed as they once were. And this roads obsession is British self-flagellation – I have been delayed on the way into tracks all over the world.
Silverstone, Sao Paulo and Monza have the most passionate fans. The campsites, not my bag, are loved by thousands of diehards.
5. Silverstone: A fine track, reliably a good race, regardless of the weather. In fact, its near-guarantee of decent action exceeds expectations anywhere else
4. Marina Bay Street Circuit - Singapore
Debut: 2008 Grands prix staged: 16
What a spectacle. I remember that when the sport’s first night race was staged in 2008, and Fernando Alonso’s Renault team cheated themselves to victory, a strange new phenomenon struck us: under the lights you could see the drivers’ eyes through their visors.
I also remember that night sitting next to Renault’s technical director Pat Symonds at the bar of the Novotel in Clarke Quay. He sipped a lager on the stool at the end.
Next day that Alonso win was fixed and Symonds was up to his throat in the subterfuge. Little did I suspect.
There’s no litter and it all functions like clockwork. A smattering of autocracy goes a long way.
4. Singapore: There’s no litter and it all functions like clockwork. A smattering of autocracy goes a long way
3. Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace - Sao Paulo, Brazil
Debut: 1973 Grands prix staged: 42
A pal once wrote that the best bit of Sao Paulo’s sprawl was the road to the airport and out. Take his passport away!
The giant city houses the great Interlagos track – undulating and exposed to capricious weather. It houses a lively and knowledgeable crowd reared on Senna, who was born, and is buried, down the road. It can be dry one moment, and then the sea falls out of the sky the next.
Even the danger on the journey to the circuit adds electricity. The last bit of the drive is past a favela. Police guard it every few dozen yards. The trick, I think, is not to stand out. Use an ordinary taxi, not a chauffeured limousine.
I was in the executive floor lounge 26 storeys up at the Hilton, Morumbi, after qualifying 15 years ago when Jenson Button came into the hotel with his manager Richard Goddard and trainer Mike Collier.
They had just been held up at gunpoint, but their driver got them out of bother. It made 600 words on deadline, ad-libbed in the lobby for the Mail on Sunday.
Button had known a great high in Brazil: his title in 2009, a race earlier than anyone expected after a few jitters, and finally in style. He partied hard that night.
It was at the same Hilton in 2007 that Hamilton excused himself as he spoke in his suite. He went into the bathroom to throw up. He had missed out on the title the day before and his McLaren boss Ron Dennis plied him with shots at what would have been his celebration bash. That party came the following year, when Hamilton passed Timo Glock at the final corner of the season as rain fell – just spots of them this time.
It should be the final race every year, rather than Abu Dhabi's Scalextric track. This is a natural amphitheatre of sentiment and unpredictability. Just remember of the national drink: one Caipirinha, fine; two Caipirinhas, risky; three Caipirinhas, take out life insurance.
3. Sao Paulo: The giant city houses the great Interlagos track – undulating and exposed to capricious weather
Button had known a great high in Brazil: his title in 2009, a race earlier than anyone expected after a few jitters, and finally in style. He partied hard that night
2. Circuit de Monaco - Monaco
Debut: 1950 Grands prix staged: 71
Journalists are paid to be cynical. If they are not cynical, they are not journalists. And AA Gill was very cynical about Monaco.
'A mangrove swamp of avarice,' the late reviewer opined. I take his point. It is where dodge-pots go to reinvent themselves. Or to escape tax. In Somerset Maugham’s unbeatable line, it is ‘a sunny place for shady people’.
There was an element of that in 2006 when Schumacher parked his car at Rascasse to stop Alonso taking pole. But the boats on the harbour, the sheer ostentation of it all in a tiny, steeped principality, is as stunning a scene as there is in world sport.
And, while those watching on TV lament the lack of action most race day Sundays (it’s a stain on the Automobile Club de Monaco that they do not address this), being there is a different story.
Stand by the Swimming Pool and gawp at the speed of acceleration – and, as importantly, deceleration. Then, get yourself on a boat or to Casino Square.
Think of Grace Kelly and ponder what Bernie Ecclestone said of Monaco’s umbilical link to motor racing: ‘It has given F1 more than we have given it.’
2. Monaco: Think of Grace Kelly and ponder what Bernie Ecclestone said of Monaco’s umbilical link to motor racing: ‘It has given F1 more than we have given it.’
In Somerset Maugham’s unbeatable line, it is ‘a sunny place for shady people’
1. Melbourne, Australia
Debut: 1996 Grands prix staged: 28
Opening the curtains on Melbourne’s St Kilda Beach, you are pleased you are somehow a sportswriter and never bothered to get a proper job.
That spot is ethereal and then it’s only a sea-lined walk away from the sun-tinged grass of Albert Park and the track. Trams can slide you there if you prefer, in the world’s second-best sporting city behind London.
The race is well-organised and works best when the season kicks-off in Australia rather than in Bahrain as it occasionally has. Going as far as that – a full day’s travel both ways – requires special status.
Anticipation is accentuated by being the other end of the globe. The place is packed and the layout open; and V8 Supercars roar around the F1 action.
You can eat seriously well in Melbourne, which is equally famed for delivering four seasons in a single day. I always call in at the Windsor Hotel, and its cricket bar. It was at breakfast in that august Victorian establishment in 1962 that Ted Dexter, captaining the MCC tourists, was asked to put on a tie for breakfast.
Times change but it remains a bit like that at the Windsor, and snooty Melbourne still looks down on arriviste Sydney.
At St Kilda, meanwhile, it is shorts and T-shirts and their flat whites all the way. And a glass of Chardonnay in the evening. There is plenty of work on, often till long into the night as London awakes against the time difference.
Ideally there is time for dinner back at St Kilda, hopefully at Donovan's, one of my favourite restaurants in the world. Oysters and then chicken pie with a crust if the stars are aligned. Sir Jackie Stewart is on the next table telling his life story to his guests.
1. Melbourne: The sun always seems to be shining in Melbourne, even when it isn’t
Opening the curtains on Melbourne’s St Kilda Beach, you are pleased you are somehow a sportswriter and never bothered to get a proper job
The race is well-organised and works best when the season kicks-off in Australia rather than in Bahrain as it occasionally has
I can reveal, to my immense embarrassment, that I almost committed manslaughter in Melbourne last year while staying out between the opening race and the next one in China. I took in a round of golf and hit the cleanest shot of an imbecilically poor display like an arrow, except straight into the driving range. ‘Fore!’ everyone yelled.
Nothing bad happened, thankfully. No injuries. The sun always seems to be shining in Melbourne, even when it isn’t.
And one to avoid...
Korea International Circuit - Mokpo, South Korea
Reign of terror: 2010-13 'Grands' prix staged: 3
If there is a place that makes anyone who went there wince as the most appalling grand prix staging post in recent memory, it is Mokpo, South Korea.
Seoul may be an arresting metropolis but Mokpo, a port 200 miles south of the capital, is not.
N/A. Mokpo: Sebastian Vettel puts out a fire in his car in South Korea's debut race of 2010 - it was an omen of things to come
Leaving aside the food, which is a dive into such delicacies as chicken feet, the abiding memory is of the 'love motels', which were rented out by the hour for sex. You would leave your poky, pungent room in the morning and return to its soiled sheets later in the day.
Some took their own pillows as protection. Others drove an hour away to escape the phenomenon at more conventional hotels. I did the latter.
'I'll carry your bags,' I have been told a thousand times. Whoever said that never went to Mokpo.
