What’s it like to volunteer at some of the biggest motorsports events at Silverstone? Here’s a little insight into my 2025 Formula 1 weekend.
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Who are the Race Makers?
If you’ve been to Silverstone then you’ve probably seen the Race Makers. Clad in bright pink (“raspberry sorbet” to be precise) and blue, they roam the circuit and wander the grandstands. The Race Maker program has been ongoing since 2013, providing spectators with visible points of contact for whatever help they may need during a race weekend. Whether you want directions to your grandstand seat, or pointers on the best spots to view the track action in general admission. If you need to arrange an accessibility shuttle, or maybe some grandstand entertainment (we’ll come to that later) – the Race Makers are here to help.
For the 2025 Formula 1 British Grand Prix, there were 500 Race Makers on duty across four days. Some worked all four days, whilst others worked anywhere between one and three days. There were early starts for some, late finishes for others, and they were all present in spite of the ever-changing weather conditions. What’s poignant to remember is that every single one of them are volunteers who do this because they love motorsports. And I am proud to be among their numbers, with 2025 being my fourth year in pink and blue.
But what exactly is it like working at Silverstone during their busiest weekend? Well, if you think it’s all about getting into big events for free and just sitting back to enjoy the race…this probably isn’t the role for you. So, join me as I guide you through my working weekend as a volunteer Race Maker at the British Grand Prix.
Arrival
Wednesday 2nd July – the car is loaded with camping gear and I am on the two hour journey to Silverstone. I’m excited to see some of my fellow Race Makers for the first time since MotoGP in May. My speakers are playing my trusty Spotify playlist, “Silverstone Drive” . My journey’s soundtrack is a mix of rock, pop, dance, Eurovision and K-Pop. It’s an eclectic mix to get me in the mood for whatever the weekend can throw at me.
I arrive at the volunteer’s campsite at roughly 3:00pm . We’re issued with passes that give us free camping for the weekend. A lovely security man hands me my campsite wristband, points me in the direction of the Race Makers and I pick a spot to pitch up. Speaking of which, there are blue lines sprayed onto the grass – they’ve actually marked out individual pitches this year. Cue my slight confusion, as this isn’t something I have seen in my previous three years of volunteering. Hopefully my tent and the car will both fit in…
Camp Setup
Some time later, after wrestling the tent up in the wind, we have success! My home for the next five nights is fully set up, complete with comfy airbed. There’s no sleeping bags here, however – I’m a fitted sheet, duvet, pillows and blanket kinda girl!
Race Makers, marshals and contractors are all provided meals throughout the weekend too. But we don’t start until tomorrow, so for tonight it’s a trusty pot noodle for dinner. After a catch-up with my camping neighbour, I change into my appropriately-themed Silverstone pyjamas and head to bed. I’ll watch some tv shows for a while that I pre-downloaded onto my tablet, before going to sleep.
At 11:30pm, I finally turn in for the night – hopefully I can get some decent sleep in spite of the wind…
Thursday
It’s 8:00am. I slept for a very broken five hours. Needless to say, I do not want to get out of bed. But the sign-on period has begun and our briefing is at 9:00am, so it’s time to get up. After the usual morning routine, I walk over to the next field and into the welfare area. This is where volunteers and contractors can sign on, as well as the location of the all-important catering tent. Some people are getting breakfast (one of our three meals that we are provided with each day). I’m not a breakfast person, so I make a beeline for the sign-on tent.
The welcome briefing takes about 10-15 minutes, and then we all head outside and gather in our respective groups. You get allocated to a zone when you volunteer, so the whole zone will head into the circuit together. My zone for 2025 covers Stowe corner, rebranded this year as the Landostand. This was my first choice, so there’s no prizes for guessing my favourite driver! As it’s quite a trek from Gate 5, we hop onto an available shuttle bus to get to our zone.
The branding of the Landostand area is incredible. The grandstands have been wrapped in the same signature yellow and black blobs that appear on Lando’s helmet. The picnic benches have LN4 umbrellas, and even the food vendors have been decked out to match the theme. Race Makers have a welfare hub in each of their zones, and we head to ours for a more specific briefing. Thursday is all about getting to know your zone and training our new starters. We quickly work out where everything is, but our attention is soon diverted…
My Dreams Come True…Sort Of
Outside Gate 10 is the LN4 pop-up shop. This is going to be a very popular destination over the weekend, and the queue is already pretty crowded. Inside Gate 10, two taxis pull up, and some McLaren employees bundle out of the car. Then before I know it, the main man himself emerges. Lando Norris is making an appearance at the pop-up shop.
It’s early in the day, so most people are still outside the gates. A handful of the Race Makers (myself included) are ready to greet Lando when he comes back inside the gate. As we’re waiting, I show team leader, Jemma, a bracelet that I made to try and give to Lando. With a final cheer from his fans, Lando heads back towards the taxi. He does stop to sign some autographs and snap a few selfies, but I’m on the opposite side of the walkway! Jemma motions for me to throw the bracelet to her, and she manages to hand it to Lando. Mission somewhat successful.
Some time later, my phone buzzes as messages start to come into the Landostand team WhatsApp chat. There’s a photo of Lando putting my bracelet on in the back of the taxi. It’s lucky that we even managed to get that close to him, so I’ll take it as a win.
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A Rare Opportunity
After a few hours of familiarising ourselves with the layout of our zone, establishing which campsites come through which gates, it’s time for lunch. Again, this is provided to us by Silverstone for each day that we work. The lunch bag contains water, an apple, a KitKat and a sandwich. Dietary requirements are catered for as part of this, with meat, vegetarian, vegan and gluten free sandwich options available.
At 3:00pm, I head to Gate 15 to await another shuttle bus – but this time, it’s to take me somewhere a little different. Before arriving on site, a number of Race Makers had been emailed to let them know they had been randomly selected to attend the hospitality soft-launch. I, along with a handful of others, were driven to the Fusion Lounge. Upon arrival, we were checked in and given a glass of champagne. We were guided to our tables by the attentive hostesses and given a walkthrough of the various food stations.
Sampling The Fusion Lounge
The bar was open and, as food and drink are included in the hospitality experience, we were free to help ourselves to as much or as little as we liked. I ordered a pink gin and lemonade (whilst still sipping my champagne). The foods that I tried included sushi, bao buns, tacos, mini burgers and freshly made pasta. The crab and mascarpone pasta with samphire was so good, I went back for seconds!
We enjoyed the remainder of our drinks out on the terrace, which overlooked Stowe and Vale. It was a rare opportunity to sample something usually reserved for those with deep pockets, and a brief glimpse into the more glamorous side of a Grand Prix weekend. As I meandered back in the direction of the campsite, I took the opportunity to check out the Eddie Jordan display. Several of the cars from Eddie’s career were lined up for public viewing, including one of my personal favourites – the Jordan 191, clad in the iconic 7up livery.
Friday
5:30am. Back to reality. I wake up in my tent having managed to get another five hours of broken sleep. The grandstands are open for the first time this weekend and everyone will be keen to check out the view. Before the gates open, it’s time to go and do some admin and training in my allocated grandstand. I’ve got some first-year Race Makers in tow, and we go through the safety checks and procedures.
It’s not often you’ll hear the roar of engines before 9:00am, but the track action starts early here. Formula 3 have their practice session first, shortly followed by Formula 2. Once the first F1 practice is finished, we head to the hub for our lunch break. The track action is scheduled to continue all afternoon, with F3 and F2 qualifying and the second F1 practice. There’s also a historic car demonstration (you forget how good those V10’s sound).
At 2:30pm, the morning shift is over. There’s still some Race Makers who will be on duty until 6:0pm, but for us early risers it’s time to go and enjoy some free time. I change into my suitably neon Lando merch, before making my way down Hangar Straight and round to Becketts. Once there, I treat myself to an ice cream and find a spot to watch the second F1 practice, before heading back to the campsite. I opted not to trek to the catering tent tonight, instead eating another pot noodle before watching a movie on my tablet and heading to bed.
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Saturday
5:30am and my alarm goes off again. Another five hours of sleep was scraped together during the night, and I’m feeling tired. But, off I go to make sure I’m at the hub for our 6:30am briefing. Once I am back in my grandstand, there’s smiles all round as volunteers and spectators alike realise today’s weather is cooler than yesterday. I recognise faces from yesterday too (one of the advantages of reserved seating) and it’s a genuinely nice feeling welcoming them back today.
F4 qualifying is the first of the track action, followed by the first F3 and F2 races, then the third F1 practice session. Ahead of the F1 qualifying session, people filter in to make sure they’re in their seats ready for the showdown. As fabulous as it is to have such a good view working in the grandstand, we are there to work. Directing people to their seats, getting help if any medical issues arise, reminding people not to smoke/vape in the grandstands, answering questions and flagging any concerns.
With F1 qualifying done, the grandstands begin to empty. At 4:30pm, the morning shift gets the instruction to stand down. It’s a long walk back to the campsite, made even longer by the fact that my knee had tried to give out on me several times today. Two of my brilliant colleagues kept me company as I hobbled my way back. But it worked up an appetite, so we grabbed dinner at the catering tent and reminisced about our day. We had become a little delirious at this point, as the smallest things set us off in a fit of uncontrollable laughter (to the point of tears). Once we had somewhat regained our composure, I went back to my tent for a movie, some snacks and much-needed sleep.
Sunday Morning
4:30am, and I couldn’t be more exhausted. The wind and rain had hit during the night, keeping me from sleeping for more than 45 minutes at a time. I got a grand total of 4 hours and 12 minutes of sleep. To say I am grumpy this morning would be an understatement. Briefing today is at 5:30am and it’s the busiest day of the entire weekend.
Upon getting to the grandstand, we’re greeted with some (now rather soggy) cards taped to the seats. The idea is to create a mosaic of Lando’s signature blobs and the LN4 logo. We do our daily check of the grandstand, but there are 10 cards with no seats, and 16 seats with no cards. This is not the kind of math that I want to be doing this early in the morning. It’s been reported to the team leaders, so we’ll just have to see how it goes later on. My mood is soon lifted simply by being in the presence of my colleagues and welcoming back those friendly spectators once again.
The morning starts with the second Formula 4 race, followed by the Formula 3 feature race. And then, the heavens opened for some monsoon-level rain. There was even some thunder and lightning thrown in too – you have to love Silverstone and its ability to bring all four seasons into one weekend. Luckily, the Formula 2 feature race is able to get underway. Another historic car demonstration provides the perfect time to break for lunch. The crowds are piling into the grandstands ahead of the F1 driver’s parade. There’s a DJ in front of the Landostand, and all the Race Makers are dancing away and entertaining the spectators (especially our team leader, Gary, whose dancing is now all over TikTok).
Sunday Afternoon
The driver’s parade gets underway, and Lando makes a stop in front of the Landostand to fire a few t-shirts out into the crowd. A few hours later and it’s time for the main event – the British Grand Prix. On the warm-up lap, the mosaic takes shape. It’s not perfect, but it still has something of the desired effect. The race brought out plenty of emotion and reaction from the crowds, but it was the final result that made the Landostand really come alive.
Lando Norris wins the British Grand Prix in front of his home crowd, greeted with an ecstatic eruption from the Landostand. Nico Hülkenberg also secures his first podium, raising almost as big a cheer from those around me. Glancing left, I see fans swarm onto the track from Vale for the podium ceremony. Strictly speaking, my shift finished half an hour after the race started, but there was no way I was going to abandon my post whilst the race was going on. It’s one of the perks of the job. More than that, I wanted to be there to say goodbye to the spectators that had become familiar faces over the past few days. Once the grandstand cleared, I head back to the campsite for one final time. It’s not quite 6:00pm by the time I get back to my tent, but after a long weekend I immediately clamber into bed (with snacks and a movie of course). I eventually drift off to sleep, safe in the knowledge that volunteering at the 2025 Formula 1 British Grand Prix was a job well done.
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Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.