my experience at the 2025 qatar GP (friday)

in november, i got to attend the 2025 qatar GP with paddock access. i’ve been begging my father to take us to a grand prix ever since i got into the sport, and i’m so thankful he managed to secure this. this is my friday at lusail.

(sorry to anyone who was expecting a vegas GP summary. i had semester exams right after qatar, and as a student i kind of have to put those first.)

we came in through the paddock club (a long building directly on top of the pit lane) and were greeted by the extremely loud porsche carrera cup middle east. thankfully, our hosts gave us aston martin earplugs so i wouldn’t go deaf by the end of the weekend.

the end of the main straight at lusail, looking down to turn 1 past the braking boards

first was the pit lane walk, where guests get to watch the mechanics work on the cars. i got a photo of every team’s garage, and while i was in front of mercedes, kimi antonelli came out to speak with his engineers: my first in-person driver sighting.

lance stroll’s garage, with his name in english and arabic above the door

max verstappen’s red bull garage seen over the heads of other guests

mechanics working on a front wing under fernando alonso’s name board

kimi antonelli standing outside the mercedes garage in team kit

then we walked the starting grid for photos of the iconic five red lights, and since aston martin was hosting us, we could stand right outside their garage and take photos with the real car. pretty awesome if you ask me.

stroll’s aston martin parked in its pit box under the pit stop gantry

the number 18 aston martin head-on in the pit lane

alonso’s number 14 car inside the garage, seen from the pit lane

spare aston martin nose cones on a stand in the pit lane

alonso’s car in the garage with mechanics behind it

back upstairs, yuki tsunoda was giving an interview (yes, he’s very short). he signed my red bull polo, my first signature of the weekend. the paddock club is full of food stalls you just walk up to, and friday’s beef tenderloin was by far my favorite.

yuki tsunoda holding a microphone in front of a red bull racing screen

my red bull polo wrapped around my hand, with tsunoda’s signature on the logo

qatar was a sprint weekend, so friday had one practice session and then sprint qualifying at night. before FP1 i found a pretty sweet spot above the main straight and spotted james vowles (williams team principal) on the pit wall just below me.

two williams team members wearing headsets on the pit wall, seen from above

our hosts knew an even better spot: the viewing terrace on the top floor, so high up that you can see the entire track.

the view from the terrace at dusk, over the fan zone toward the floodlit circuit

dear god, it was loud. i couldn’t stand outside without earplugs, and the wheel guns were even worse. the cars were so fast that i sometimes had to remember there was actually a person in that machine. the cameras on F1 TV and sky sports don’t do them justice.

the pit lane and main straight from the paddock club terrace at sunset

in the great words of neil degrasse tyson: “nnnnneooom”.

with 15 minutes of practice left, our hosts took us down to the paddock, where every team has its motorhome and drivers and celebrities are everywhere. FP1 ended just as i got there, so i got so many signatures: liam lawson (racing bulls), valtteri bottas (mercedes reserve, cadillac driver for 2026), helmut marko (still at red bull back then), flavio briatore (alpine), lando norris and oscar piastri (mclaren), and mari boya (aston martin’s driver academy).

valtteri bottas giving a thumbs up next to me in the paddock

i didn’t realize the lusail circuit’s social media admins were filming while i followed lando, and the video ended up on their official instagram. i’m the boy in the black shirt on his left, holding out a pen and a blue shirt and saying, “lando, can you sign my shirt, please?” he did, in fact, sign my shirt.

my lusail circuit shirt covered in the signatures i collected

i spent the last 40 minutes before sprint qualifying on the paddock club’s fanatec simulators, then went to the bridge over the paddock to spot drivers walking in. from right above aston martin’s entrance i saw both fernando alonso and lance stroll, the latter at a jog. the kids next to me were very excited to see lance, who unfortunately had his airpods in and couldn’t hear them.

my only hope was that alonso would make SQ3 and lance SQ2. to absolutely everyone’s surprise, lewis hamilton got knocked out in SQ1, only managing P18. lance went out too, but in P16 he did outqualify the most successful driver of all time in a slower car. the only surprise in SQ2 was isack hadjar, the best qualifier of the rookies if you ask me, not making it out. thankfully, alonso did.

for SQ3, our hosts brought us into the viewing gallery inside aston martin’s garage, where both cars get boxed directly in front of you, and gave us an aston radio to hear alonso and his engineer. right at the end, alonso put in a superb lap for P4 on the sprint grid, and the entire garage exploded with cheers, knowing their car finally had some pace. piastri took sprint pole, with russell P2 and norris P3.

to my surprise, yuki tsunoda somehow outqualified his legendary teammate, max verstappen, P5 to P6: the first time all season that a teammate beat max in any kind of qualifying. (lance managed it against alonso once in 30 tries, in china’s sprint qualifying.)

after all the signatures, the cars and sitting inside aston’s garage, i thought the coming days couldn’t be as great. thankfully, i was very mistaken.