“This isn’t Formula 1 Fyre Fest,” Alexandra Zigrang ensures through a laugh.
Simply a year in, her Barcelona-based trackside travel business, Off to the Races, has actually been far from a failure. Unlike the notorious music celebration that assured high-end thousand-dollar rental properties just to provide emergency situation camping tents and cheese sandwiches rather. The business uses female tourists what it refers to as a “premium weekend where the race technique has actually been crafted for a smooth experience,” with whatever from VIP hospitality tickets to a glam space in the high-end hotel, total with makeup artists and hairstylist. If that does not seem like what you envision an F1 race weekend journey to be, that’s the point; Off to the Races produces an area for Formula 1’s growing audience of females by dealing with their variation of fandom– and by turning their off-track experience into a “Travel + Leisure” spread.
It’s like a motor oil-stained bachelorette celebration combining on-track action with Michelin star meals.
Image by: Gael Strachan
Off to the Races has actually flown excited female fans in from 5 nations, with the majority of coming from the States, boasting a group cosmetics that almost matches Formula 1’s typical contemporary female fan: 30-something and American, like Sara Lett, a 38-year-old tech online marketer from Atlanta who signed up with Off to the Races in June for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Lett began viewing “Drive to Survive” in 2023 at a colleague’s persistence. In spite of seeing the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” two times while maturing in Indianapolis, she never ever established the gearhead itch. She heard the Netflix series’ opening line: “I’m Daniel Ricciardo, and I’m a cars and truck mechanic.”
“I resembled, ‘offered!'” Lett remembers, a smile dispersing throughout both cheeks.
When she heard news of Ricciardo’s future seat unpredictability and Lewis Hamilton’s switch from Mercedes to Ferrari, Lett understood she wished to see both chauffeurs run previous at 200 miles per hour, leaving little bits of rubber in their wake as a concrete enduring effect.
Lett considered her imagine winding up trackside “complicated” throughout her preliminary ticket research study bunny hole, however then she discovered Off to the Races while scrolling on Instagram– where the business fulfills terminally online female racing fans by themselves grass.
Location Formula 1
Zigrang selects locations based upon 4 requirements: spending plan, logistics, cultural experiences, and, obviously, fantastic food. Belgium’s famous Spa track presents logistical issues, embeded the countryside 90 miles from Brussels, and Monaco will not be on Off to the Race’s calendar up until Zigrang “personally owns a luxury yacht.”
When she initially dabbled the concept of utilizing her previous VIP management experience in the global art world to introduce a Formula 1 travel preparation company, Zigrang discovered that the sport’s travel service providers were almost all UK-based and arranged by males.
“They truly did not have an intriguing perspective. Logistically, they got you there, you got a hotel and you got a ticket and possibly transport,