The Formula 1 Exhibition is the first international exhibition 100% dedicated to F1 and its history, to be held in Madrid from March 24 to July 16, 2023. Installed at IFEMA, an events center in Madrid, this exhibition is the result of many years of preparation. You can see the trailer for the exhibition and the project here..
Open practically every day of the week, with the exception of Monday, the ticket costs €19.99 / adult and we recommend that you buy it in advance on the event's own website here., and you'll have to enter within the chosen time slot. At the same time, you should plan your visit so that you have around 2 to 3 hours to see the exhibition with the calm it deserves - although the official website recommends 1h30, we took a little longer.
Carrying your ticket in your cell phone, you enter a queue where you are handed headphones that will accompany you throughout the tour. From here, you follow a circuit throughout the exhibition.
The visit begins with a long room full of displays entitled 'Once Upon a Time in Formula 1'. This is one of the rooms we found most interesting, as it gave a good grounding in the history of F1 for those like us who don't have much knowledge of the sport. This first moment is completely dedicated to the most important events over the decades, from the beginning of car racing to the sport as it is known today, including the big names and events that have shaped the sport.
Following the circuit, we enter the design lab. As the name suggests, this is a room dedicated to the technical side: with a real car in the middle of the room, surrounded by various elements that make it up, such as different tires, different engines, transmissions and many other parts that make F1 cars so different. This is perhaps the most technical part of the whole exhibition. However, it doesn't get too tiring or too technical.
Continuing along the route, we come to one of the most eagerly awaited rooms for Formula 1 fans, called Survival: a black room with a burnt-out car in the center and a monitor reproducing the famous accident of the athlete Romain Grosjean. This part of the exhibition is dedicated to the safety of today's cars.
We continue for another bit of history. The next room, Drivers & Duels, compares the suits used over the years in its center and, on the surrounding walls, refers to and compares various athletes and their achievements. From dozens of helmets to some of the most important duels in the history of Formula 1, this room presents the athletes and their performances, comparing routes and results.
We move on to Revolution by Design, another room with a more technical character (but less so than the second room). Here they focus mainly on the exterior of the car and its impact on speed and stability. Once again, we meet real cars.
Throughout these rooms, there are various panels with athletes, coaches and other members of the teams talking, explaining technical information, telling their stories and recalling epic moments in F1 through the eyes of those who lived it. It's during these moments that we use the audio guide that was initially provided - this is also where we found the exhibition's least positive point.
Although the audio guide is an excellent idea, which makes the trip much more immersive, there are several passages dubbed into Spanish, keeping the Spanish subtitles on the monitors. In a supposedly international exhibition, the audio should be reproduced in its original (English) or at least there should be an option on the controls, which there wasn't.
Having finished these rooms, we enter the final moment, where you may have to wait a few minutes to get in - the Pit Wall. This is a room surrounded by monitors which, as the name suggests, tries to reproduce the idea of a pit wall. It also shows important moments in the sport. This part of the tour lasts 6 minutes and is honestly impressive, both for the images shown and for the structure built to display them.
how to get there and where to park
Although IFEMA is not in the center of Madrid, it is close enough for easy access.
The way to get there that we recommend is the excellent metro line that Madrid offers. All you have to do to get there is take line 8 towards T4 Airport and get off at Feria de Madrid station. From here it's a 2-minute walk to the start of the exhibition. Like the big city that is Madrid, there is also the option of taking the bus.
Another option is, of course, the car. However, driving in Madrid is absolutely chaotic and parking in the city is very difficult, so we don't recommend taking the car for a visit to Madrid. If you still think this is the best option, there is parking, but it costs €2.85/hour. There is also the option of a cab or uber, both of which have their own duly identified pick-up and drop-off areas.
That said, the Formula 1 Exhibition Madrid is a good event both for those who already love the sport and for those (like us) who don't know much about it but are interested. We'd only like to leave two less positive notes: the audio guides should have been in English / the original language of the person speaking, or at least had that option, instead of the sound being dubbed into Spanish, and we would have liked to have seen a simulation of what it's like to drive a car of this type at the end. Apart from that, we enjoyed the exhibition and think it's worthwhile for anyone with an interest in the sport.
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