How to get an F1 PADDOCK PASS!

good day everybody wants to get into the paddock that's the area that sits behind the garages at all tracks except Monaco that's a bit of a a quirky one but I'll go into that later how do you get into the paddock it's not easy but then again it's not impossible it's a working area mostly it comprises team members drivers media FIA F1 officials but over the past 7 or so years things have really opened up so let's go through how you could get into the F1 padic Bernie Eon when he ran F1 kept the padic a very closed Affair it was all very top secret uh but Liberty when they bought the business they saw a real commercial opportunity to open it up and to be fair it's probably even got to a stage now where it's uh it's a little too busy with Spectators with fans with corporate guests especially on Saturdays and Sundays so to get into the padic first up you'll need a pass these are electronic and these are provided by the FI a every team gets an allocation of these passes mines a full season pass but a lot of photographers have just a race by R pass so they will get one different pass for every single race this pass Gets You Through the swipe Gates if you don't have a pass you don't get in and do drivers need a pass yes although a lot of drivers do forget their passes and uh it's not uncommon for them to squeeze past in this manner with the pass you can access the paddock which is this area or sometimes you can access pit Lane as well but you can't can't just wander into garages and have a look unless you are invited and then there is no photography from the rear of the car not even corporate guests who stand up the back of the garage can take photos or video looking that direction that's because the teams are quite secretive about the engines in their cars yes you'll see drivers wandering around and celebrities sometimes with security sometimes without it just depends on who they are and how busy that padic is and for seeing celebrities best day is Saturday and Sunday and normally after qualifying or after to the race the mechanics spend most of their time in the garages although they'll head back across the padic to the team's Hospitality uh also in the padic you'll find Team Personnel PR People Media like us social media content creators Hospitality staff security F1 and FIA Personnel but not Marshals typically yes you'll see them in pit Lane but they don't wander around the padic a lot of people ask me if I can get them a pdic pass well we don't see tickets we don't see other passes we get issued one pass and that lasts me for the whole year and if you're wondering what that costs that costs nothing FIA provides media passes to people who they think will do a great job of promoting their sport for free and no I don't need anyone to carry my bags for me thank you very much for the offer I get a lot of that there are ways for you as a fan to get access to the padic and I'll go into that in detail a little bit more but let's have a look for a start if you want to work in the paddock probably the easiest way to get access to the paddock is via hospitality jobs and there are a lot of them every team has a catering company for Mercedes they have do and Co huge international company based out of Austria uh for McLaren they have KL heiner who is a chef and has his own business and he provides the catering every team will have an organization if you want to work in that field you'd need to get on to those companies and apply sometimes they advertise for jobs but from what I've seen a lot of its word of mouth so if you happen to know someone that is already employed in the padic you could certainly ask ask them how they could introduce you to the person that makes that decision you might think the job is quite glamorous and glitzy from what I've seen it's just plain hard work although you do get to meet some interesting people a lot of those people that do those jobs have to work 12 and 14 hour days and come back-to-back races often they'll work all day on a Sunday then pack up until crazy hours then take an early morning flight to arrive at the other end a little bit of sleep and it's back to work so don't think you're got to be there for a jolly and what would the employer be looking for will certainly experience in Hospitality attitude hardworking uh but you do get free gear you get food and drink accommodation and travel and if you're young and Keen to see the world this is a great way to do it another question I get is uh do any of the teams hire locally and from what I've seen no not normally but at last year's Las Vegas gr PRI one caterer had to hire hundreds of local staff because their staff were turned away at the airport they had an issue with staff's visas so a local labor hire firm I believe in Los Angeles was given the contract to find something like 700 staff in a few days and at a much higher cost than the staff that they were bringing from overseas some of those staff did end up in the paddock the easiest way to get access to the paddock is to just pay and there are certain tickets that allow you access for a start you can buy packages with the individual teams I've done that back in 2016 I bought a package at Abu Dhabi with Red Bull that got me access to the paddock uh I couldn't walk around in the padic all day on my own but I got various tours and I had seats above the garage in pit Lane what did I pay for that oh I think it was about probably $8,000 back then but today if you want free rain of the paddock over one day and that's pretty much all you can get a single day you'd take a Legends package with F1 experiences and you'll need to be well cashed out because I think it's in the order of $20,000 us but for one day you can roam the padic at your will now that gives you the opportunity to pretty much see every driver if you're happy to stand out there all day and with that package and a number of others not only do you get access to the padic for some period you also get access to pit Lane for the podium ceremony so you'll be underneath the podium getting sprayed with champagne along with us and the teams and that's something you won't forget in a long time but what if you don't have the money well first know that the team have a number of passes that that they can hand out to guests and typically that will be a situation where they'll give it to person a for an hour and then the person will leave the padic and they'll get that pass back and they'll give it to someone else so they can rotate that pass through or as many people as they want throughout the day that's the sort of ticket that you should be aiming at but how do you get one well for a start you'll have to stand out from the crowd but the teams do have people that go actively looking for people that should be brought into the padic and you might remember that young boy is after Kimmy ryen and crashed the Ferrari PR people found that youngster just by looking at the television coverage actually brought him and his family into the suite where he met his Idol yes he was lucky as were his mom and dad you might remember these Pink Panthers Aid fans of estan okon and often times the team would grab them take them into the garage and even out the back into the paddock they weren't allowed to wander around the whole day but it did get them into the area that they wanted to see this family often gets brought into the padic and the best day to get a paddock pass is probably Thursday because on a Thursday in most places there is a pit Lane walk where 3-day ticket holders get the chance to spend I know 30 minutes walking pit Lane they have PR people standing at the front of the garage and if they see somebody interesting they'll often remove that rope let you in have a chat and then there's an opportunity for you to perhaps go out the back in the paddock and look at these guys vry botas t-shirts very simple I know maybe cost them a few hundred Aussie dollars and it's resulted in them getting into the Melbourne padic whether the team or valry saw them either way they were invited in I met a guy on a train in Suzuka going back some years ago now and he mentioned the fact that he was doing a Blog he was traveling the world going to every single race and one of the teams got wind of this so they actually invited him to come into the padic for I don't know a period perhaps half a day if you can get the attention of teams doing something interesting they will often not take pity on you but they will certainly embrace you for a certain period of time and yes you may get a chance to meet your favorite driver or team principal I have read a couple of stories about I got into the padic with a fake pass well I doubt that very much look I've seen people sneak in in Melbourne's a case in point there was a gap between two fences and I did see a kid jump that flower bed and make it into the padic but I don't think he lasted too long but if you have a fake pass uh you might be able to fool a human but remember F1 passes have very detailed lanyards and they are electronic and you have to swipe through a gate and no amount of controlling a human will get you in there the other thing is that on those swipe Gates when you swipe in your photo comes up and the FIA staff monitoring these Gates have to look at the person and the photo as they come in if it doesn't match up you're out I lost my pass once and I'm thinking anyone who picks this up and tries to get in is is pretty much going to be stopped at the gate if they're really quick into the padic before I get a chance to contact the FIA and say hey uh my pass has been lost or stolen in which case that pass is rendered useless and when it beeps FIA people will come up and grab that pass and say no you're not coming in and then they'll probably do some investigation and uh realize that you've picked it up and the other thing is the FIA doesn't leave it to local people to monitor those swipe Gates and that's because in particular in the Arab countes where you might have wealthy princes or well-known people coming in they might say right I want to come in here and I don't have the right and a local might be intimidated and let them in instead the FIA brings their own staff from Mostly Austria and those people are not going to be intimidated by a prince or any high up person in a foreign country they're just going to Simply say no you can't come in here the other thing is security wanders the padic all the time and these people are attuned to looking for people without passes and on one occasion in Bahrain I came out of the media center and you didn't need to swipe out of that and I only got about 150 M into the paddock and someone's come up to me and said where's your pass so I know that they're switched on in terms of keeping the people out and I've seen people get kicked out particularly on a Sunday after the race where it's hell busy Security will often be marching people out of that padic now what about celebrities how do they get into the paddock well often they're invited by teams often invited by the FIA or Formula 1 and some are paid I mentioned this on a previous video but yes they might be paid with air fars accommodation cash yes what cash I don't know it depends how big they are but someone like I know Christian Ronaldo or lonel Messi who have huge followings on social media might be seen as a very valuable Target for a team or Formula 1 to have in that padic they may well be paid an appearance fee I see plenty of influences in the padic and they don't have to have a crazy Christian Ronaldo following but obviously if you're a kby lame or a mark robber Casey neistat you've got a far better chance of being invited than if you are a um a 10,000 followup person but that's not to say that that 10,000 follower influencer would not get a pass perhaps not a Sunday race pass maybe a Thursday pass when things were a little quieter and I imagine that part of the deal is yes we'll get you into the padic but we'd like you to produce some content and and their license too is different with my um video license which has only come about in the last year and I've mentioned this I think on a couple of occasions I have to be the subject of the video in other words I have to present the camera I can't be wandering around videoing Lando and Lewis going to and from the padic I can't do anything that shows the track or the cars and there are a few other Riders as well but with influencers they're different they don't get those same restrictions and the final opportunity is um passes that drivers have I'm not sure if it's all drivers but certainly a number of them have access to passes for each race and that allows them to beinging their mom their dad friends whatever but occasionally they'll have one spare or maybe too and if you happen to become friendly with them perhaps you meet them in an airport and um get on well with them you might just say is there any chance of a guess pass for one day of the race there's no guarantee they'll say yes but if you don't ask you may never know are there any dress restrictions no I've not seen anything that says you have to wear this although I imagine that this might be pushing the boundaries but hey I've seen all sorts of things in the padic that clearly raise some eyebrows but have not been turned away I love working in the paddock at F1 it is very much the epicenter of the sport some paddocks better than others Monaco is a shocker because there's a very small area for people to gather those motor homes are jammed in and the drivers have a long walk from The Paddock to the garage and have to come over this bridge probably the best padic yeah I'd say Bahrain it's huge and at night it absolutely Sparkles there's plenty of room and you can normally find a clean shot of a driver in there Australia is a leafy padic but it is quite tight and getting a clean shot of a driver there is far more of a challenge the Japanese padic is great because our media center smack bang in the heart of it the China padic way too big and soulless IM is compact Canada's along the side of the river Barcelona Austria and Monza are typical paddocks the UK is slightly bigger and a bit more spacious Hungary is okay it's getting a spruce up this year Spar is the only padic that's over two levels Miami and the Netherlands are like Monaco where they have their Hospitality area a long way from the garages Singapore is beautiful to look at but bloody hot aaban is a padic that's set up just for the race Brazil is bizarre it's all undercover and very tight Austin Las Vegas and Mexico are similar the Doha padic is unusual because we have these magnificent digital signs along all of the hospitality Suites and finally Abu Dhabi has a glorious padic that just shines at night now I figure a handful of you will take this information on board and actually get into the padic perhaps you will have grabbed the attention of someone that has the power to get you in or maybe you'll stump up for one of those packages but if you do get into the padic and you see me I'd love you to come up and tell me that this video was of some use to you now thank you to all those people who bought one of my bucket hats they were sent yesterday if you're watching this video upon release from Perth and they'll be speeding their way around the world all of them sold out in I think it was 4 weeks uh will I be doing any more not this year I'll be doing a new design next year and you'll be able to order them via my website but certainly you can head to my website down here kimil man.com for F1 photo books wall art and prints signed by F1 drivers thank you for watching and stay passionate for the best

Channel: Kym Illman

Views: 114,111

Keywords: f1, formula 1, formula one, f1 behind the scenes, f1 drivers, grand prix, f1 race, how to get into the f1 paddock, f1 paddock, f1 paddock access, f1 paddock pass, f1 vip pass, how to get a paddock pass, how to get an f1 paddock pass, how to get a paddock pass f1, f1 paddock tour, f1 paddock setup, how to get a job in f1, how to get a job in a f1 team, f1 paddock vip, f1 paddock vip pass, f1 media pass, f1 media accreditation, f1 paddock club

Id: D7Y7madx17A

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2024