Ever since I can remember, F1 has been one of those things that has always been a large part of my life. From a very small age, I have incredibly fond memories of sitting in one of the spare bedrooms, watching races with my Dad while the noise of the cars and the voice of Murray Walker filled the room. Absolutely top tier memories.
Thirty odd years later, I am still very much a massive fan and have been fortunate to go to Silverstone a couple of times (would love to go again but damn those ticket prices now!) so naturally when I heard the announcement that the exhibition was coming to London, it was always a must-see for me, never a maybe.
I already had a London trip booked at the time of the announcement but beside theatre (my other true love), I hadn’t fully planned my itinerary so I had some time available to head to the exhibition.
The exhibition in London is currently at Immerse LDN (Excel London) which is super easy to get to from central. I was staying around the Liverpool Street Station area and you can use the tubes to get to the Excel London (Elizabeth line if I remember correctly).
When you first arrive at the exhibition, you are given a headset which allows you to interact with the exhibition and there are a lot of points that you can scan and interact with. There was such a wealth of information available through these points and I felt that this made it a better experience having this option available. Although, sometimes you would scan it and it would be half way through whatever it was telling you about so you would have to wait a little longer if you wanted to catch what you missed.
The exhibition itself covers everything you would want to know about the sport: from history to tyres to engines and even epic battles over the years. You name it, they have covered it. This is done through the interactive points mentioned above; physical exhibits and plenty of information to read while wandering around (Me being me had to read every single item).
While most of the exhibition focused on teams, cars, components etc, there is also a stark reminder of the dangers of the sport in the form of the, almost haunting, remains of Romain Grosjean’s car. I remember watching the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix live and, like everyone else, seeing those harrowing images on the TV and wondering how on earth someone could survive that…and he did. That he did is an absolute testament to the safety regulations that they now have in place in the sport. Admittedly, I wasn’t initially a fan of the halo…but it has gone on to prove many times over, since being introduced in 2018, how important it really is. Things could have been a lot different that day and seeing the remains of the car in the exhibition, with the images of the accident behind it really hit home the dangers the drivers face every single time they get into the car.
Despite enjoying myself at the exhibition (I would honestly go back), there were a couple of things that I felt could be improved. The shop is very overpriced to the point that there didn’t seem to be many people buying anything at the time I went. I did buy a couple of things but I didn’t feel there was much that kids could buy with pocket money (and there were young kids in my group including an adorable Max Verstappen fan who was very excited on the tube about going to the exhibition). I could be entirely wrong but I am also sure that Bernie Collins book (which btw is an amazing read) was more there than the list price on the book jacket. The next thing may be a venue specific thing but at the very start of exhibition, there are a number of cars together and naturally with people wanting to take photos/read the info, it creates a bit of a bottleneck so you do have to wait a while to get going. However, after that it flows pretty nicely.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition and I would say it is worth the high entrance fee (~£30 adult at weekends). I think it is perfect if you are a F1 fan but I also feel you would get something out of it if you were not. There are so many interactive features, so much info to absorb (I am a sponge for things like this) and obviously so many physical, wonderful items to look at. I must say that whoever curated this exhibition has done an absolutely incredible job and also I think that the teams (as well as individuals) have been incredibly generous with what they have loaned to the exhibition.
F1: The Exhibition currently runs in London until 2 March 2025
