My Experience at the 2025 Qatar GP (Friday)

In November, I was given the opportunity to attend the 2025 Qatar GP with special paddock access. I have been begging my father to take me and the rest of the family to a Grand Prix ever since I got into the sport, and I am so thankful he managed to secure this. In this article, I’ll be summarizing my Friday at the Lusail International Circuit. At the very bottom of this article is a gallery of photos and videos I took of cars, drivers, and celebrities throughout the evening. By the way, sorry to my readers who were expecting a Vegas GP summary. Not only did I have to travel to Qatar, but I also had semester exams right afterwards, and, as a student, I kind of have to make them my priority. Anyway, have fun reading!

My first day at the track was Friday. When we arrived through the Paddock Club entrance, I had to wear a lanyard and had a bracelet put on me. As we entered, I was greeted by the EXTREMELY loud Porsche Carrera Cup. We were escorted into the Paddock Club, which was a long building directly on top of the pit lane. Thankfully, our hosts gave us some nice Aston Martin-branded earplugs so I wouldn’t go deaf by the end of the weekend.

We were first escorted to the pitlane walk, which is where Paddock Club guests are able to walk down the pitlane and see team mechanics working on their cars. I got a photo of every team’s garage, and while I was walking in front of Mercedes’ garage, Kimi Antonelli came out to speak with his engineers, making him my first in-person driver sighting. After we finished the pit lane walk, we were able to walk around the starting grid and snap some photos of the iconic five red lights. Since we were hosted by Aston Martin, we were able to stand directly outside of their garage and take some photos with the real car. Pretty awesome if you ask me!

Our hosts then took us back upstairs to the main paddock club area, where we saw Yuki Tsunoda giving an interview (yes, he’s very short). I got my Red Bull polo signed by him, which made him my first signature of the weekend. Inside the paddock club there were many food stalls, which you just walk up and grab food from. The options rotated every day, but on Friday, the beef tenderloin was BY FAR my favorite. We sat at our Aston Martin-themed suite, ate, and talked. Eventually, it was time for Free Practice.

Before FP1 started, I managed to secure a pretty sweet spot above the main straight. I managed to spot James Vowles (Williams TP) sitting just below me on the pit wall. However, our hosts told us that there was an even better spot to watch the race from: the viewing terrace. Situated on the top floor of the Paddock Club, it’s so high up that you can see the entire track from one location, giving you the perfect view of FP1. I saw all of the drivers drive out of their garages, and dear God, it was loud. The cars themselves were so loud that I couldn’t stand outside without my earplugs in, and the wheel guns that were used during pit stops were even worse. During free practice, I was mesmerized by how fast the cars were going and sometimes had to remember that there actually was a person sitting in that machine. The cameras you see on F1TV or Sky Sports don’t do any justice to the cars.

In the great words of Neil DeGrasse Tyson: “nnnnneooom”.

15 minutes were left in Free Practice when our hosts gathered us and took us down to the paddock. The Paddock is the most important spot in Formula One. Every team has their own motorhome, and it’s where you’ll see both drivers and celebrities EVERYWHERE. Since FP1 had just ended, drivers were exiting their garages just after I reached the paddock, meaning that I was able to get signatures from so many drivers and staff, including Liam Lawson (RB), Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac), Helmut Marko (Red Bull), Flavio Briatore (Alpine), Lando Norris (McLaren), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Mari Boya (Aston Martin Driver Development). While I was following Lando in order to get his signature, I didn’t realize that I was being recorded by the Lusail Circuit social media admins, who posted that video onto the official Lusail Circuit Instagram. I also caught a glimpse of Jack Doohan, ex-Alpine driver, but was unable to get his signature since he was sitting inside Alpine’s motorhome. After about 30 minutes of roaming around in the paddock, we were escorted back to the paddock club and waited for Sprint Qualifying. We had about 40 minutes left before the session started, so I roamed around the PC and found a couple of Fanatec racing simulators, which I enjoyed. Finally, it was time for SQ.

Kind of hard to tell, but I’m the boy in the black shirt on Lando’s left, holding out a pen and a blue shirt, saying, “Lando, can you sign my shirt, please?” He did, in fact, sign my shirt.

Right before Sprint Qualifying started, I headed over to the bridge that runs over the paddock in order to spot some drivers entering their respective garages. Since I was right above Aston Martin’s garage entrance, I spotted both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll entering their garages, with the latter jogging inside. Since I was directly in the middle of the paddock, I wasn’t able to spot anyone else. SQ1 started, and my only hope was that Alonso would make it to SQ3 while Lance would make it to SQ2.

The laps themselves were breathtaking since every driver was pushing their car to the limits for a short period of time rather than sustaining pace over 70 laps. To absolutely everyone’s surprise, Lewis Hamilton got knocked out in SQ1, only managing P17. Although Lance didn’t make it out of SQ1, he did outqualify the most successful driver of all time while driving a slower car. SQ2 was uneventful, with the only surprise being that Isack Hadjar, who maintained the best qualifying record of the rookies, didn’t make it out. Thankfully, Alonso made it to SQ3.

As you can tell, the kids next to me were VERY excited to see Lance. Unfortunately, he had his AirPods in and couldn’t hear them.

Right before SQ3 started, our hosts gathered us all and brought us inside Aston Martin’s garage and to the viewing gallery, where we’d be able to see both Aston cars getting boxed directly in front of us. We were able to wear an Aston radio and could hear all of the conversations between Alonso and his engineer. Just before the end of sprint qualifying, Alonso put in a superb lap and managed to qualify P4. The entire garage exploded with cheers, knowing that their car finally had some pace. Piastri took pole, with Russell P2 and Norris P3. To my surprise, Yuki Tsunoda managed to somehow outqualify his legendary teammate, Max Verstappen. This meant that, out of all drivers on the grid, Fernando Alonso was the only one who out qualified his teammate in every possible session. Given the fact that I got so many signatures, saw multiple cars in person, and sat inside Aston’s garage, I thought that the coming days wouldn’t be as great. Thankfully, I was very mistaken.