June 18th 2023, aka Fathers Day in the UK. Me and my sister both wanted to do something special for my dad this year. After the opening of the F1 Arcade in London, we thought this would be the best present on offer. My sister had previously been with her boyfriend but it was mine and my dads first time, so I thought it would be great to write an article about my experience to hopefully give others part of an insight to an afternoon in the F1 Arcade in St. Paul’s, London.
We gave my dad his father’s dad card in the morning, saying that we were heading to the arcade. Needless to say as we’re all avid Formula One fans, he was super excited and ready to go (I was the most underdressed as my Daniel Ricciardo top never arrived on time! So my Ferrari cap had to do.) We left to get the train at 1:30pm and were in London Liverpool Street by 2:30pm as we don’t live too far out of the capital; only two tube stops away on the central line and we were there!
Walking into the building I already knew it was going to be a great experience and opened up right into a big screen which was playing the IndyCar race at the time. You’re welcomed into a large space that’s filled with as many racing simulators as there are tables and bar space plus some sophisticated Formula One themed decor, at this point I couldn’t believe that we were really here. One of my favourite touches was the wall that displayed the iconic radio messages!
It was great to be walking around a see everyone on the racing sims but surprisingly we were some of the only people in F1 merchandise (a few compliments were made to my sister and dad with their Mercedes tops and caps but that’s the British public for you when you’re a Ferrari fan!) Although watching everyone made it easier to understand how the machines worked if you hadn’t been on one like me. So my first piece of advice would be to enjoy the atmosphere and get there before your time slot on the simulators if you plan on using them (and yes! You have to book them online. A few people turned up without booking them and none were available so make sure you do this.)
We’d manage to place ourselves in a good spot where we could watch a line of racers and order some food and drink. I would’ve loved to try one of the homemade cocktails which were themed around Formula One, but I hadn’t been feeling great from a stupid cold so I went with a simple Old Mout berry cider.
For food, my sister had ordered the Dynamite Buttermilk Chicken Burger and my dad ordered the F1 Arcade Beef Burger. These are both on the ‘Large Plates’ section of menu but I’d consider them to be normal portions of food, whereas I ordered the Moroccan Ground Lamb Tacos which were a lot smaller so I ordered some BBQ fries on the side too and this only just made up my appetite. In my opinion the menu isn’t that extensive either so if you plan on eating there, you should have something before and then have a plate there if you’re not planning on ordering a ‘Large Plate’ or I’d suggest buying two of the regular plates each. However this could change in the future since its only new and might be a way just to see what people think, I hope this is the case anyways. For London pricing as well, it wasn't as expensive as I'd thought.
You can ignore all this nitpicking if you like, but all in all the food was great quality and I can’t fault it in any way!
After sitting for a little while longer until we waited for our time slot, we headed over to the reception where one of the workers explained everything about how the simulators worked. We were guided the the balcony part of the building where we would be racing after a party of two and a guy who was on his own. The only worrying part at this point was that the singular guys racing sim wasn’t working and unable to race however by the way they’re set up and once they moved him downstairs, our party of three was added with no problem.
It was then at this point where it got a bit more confusing. It asks you to log on as a driver which only my dad was able to do but it logged his onto my screen, and me and my sister had run out of time to add our names. For the next two races, this would mean it had us as unnamed drivers until our third and final race, where we were able to add ourselves however I was racing under my dads account and his under mine. It makes me think the logging in time needs to be longer and at the chance it switches your names around (which it most likely will) you’ll need to quickly get out of your seats and change as there’s no way to move them around. This is partially important because you can earn points on your account to pay for food and drink. But he ended up winning me more points anyways as my pedals slipped further away from me and I couldn’t figure out a way to move them back forward!
All the technical points aside, it was great fun! It picks your team at random so my sister drove for AlphaTauri, my dad for Red Bull (which he hated!), and me for Williams which I didn’t mind. I think the only tracks they run at the moment are Silverstone, Spa Francorchamps, Bahrain and Monza so we ran the first three, although I don’t know if this changes through different days. My sister and dad did pretty well with them coming 1st a few times. Me? Not so much BUT I did perform a double overtake against two AIs as Sainz and Bottas so my proud moment was there!
This would be a good point in my review to mention that you have to pay EXTRA to stay and watch the race. Our intention was to eat, race then stay on for the grand prix but after emailing the venue we found out there is an extra fee to do this. It would’ve been an extra £60 between the three of us which I would’ve been happy to pay half of, but my sister wasn’t prepared as we were already low on budget. As I’m part of the tifosi, I’d love to head back to watch Monza as I feel the atmosphere would be even more insane!
In conclusion this was an amazing experience, definitely a great time out with friends and an amazing opportunity to engage with a larger fan base. But like any bar, all you’re able to do is eat, drink and race so spending a large time here when you live far away makes it seem like there’s not much to do. To anyone that’s thinking of travelling here, I think buying the ‘watch party’ tickets is absolutely worth the money. It's truly a one of a kind place and well hidden away from any busy streets to add a sense of exclusivity.
Now that I’ve explained all about my experience, I do want to honour the staff that work there. Everyone was so incredibly friendly and offered to help us with any questions that we had. All of the servers knew about the machines and helped anyone out who was having trouble, which did happen a few times when the simulators glitched. They were happy to strike up conversations about Formula One and excited to hear about our time there, so a special thank you for the staff as our experience couldn’t have been more enjoyable without them!
So, are you heading to the F1 Arcade anytime soon? And if so, has this article been helpful? Will you stay for one of their watch parties?
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