Celebrating an anniversary with a Formula 1 Fan

Formula 1 is celebrating its own milestone anniversary in 2020, marking 70 years of the world championship, with celebrations honouring the 33 world champions, 108 Grands Prix winners, 764 drivers and more than 150 teams that have taken part in F1 since 1950.

You can join in the celebrations with your own anniversary plans with a 22-race calendar from Australia to Abu Dhabi with Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel and many others.

Merchandise

Branded clothing

Grand Prix tickets come with additional costs of travel and accommodation which may be prohibitive. You could get matching sweatshirts or T-shirts for your favourite racing team or search out a signed photograph and have this framed. This could be this year’s shirt or a vintage. Perhaps an official Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport Fl Men’s team T-Shirt or a Scuderia Ferrari F1 shirt.

Add an everlasting rose

You can make your anniversary gift special by combining it with a romantic gift. Nothing is more romantic than a red rose but choose one that will last a lifetime. An Eternity Rose is preserved at the peak of perfection and can be displayed at home as a symbol of your love. Choose a different coloured rose each year or a silver-dipped rose for your 25th anniversary, and a gold-dipped rose for your 50th.

Subscription box

If you want to share the love of F1 throughout the year, consider a subscription to Drive Crate which sends out a monthly box to your home with official F1 team merchandise, including apparel. Each month has a theme, sometimes focused on rounds of the championship. The boxes can also contain limited-edition gifts, but always something that any F1 fan would treasure, with items that tap into the sports rich history and offering some nostalgic moments.

Grand Prix Event

Probably the most extravagant way to celebrate an anniversary with a Formula 1 fan is to watch one of the Grand Prix events at a location that is special to you. In May, you can enjoy the glitz and glamour of the city as well as the thrill of the iconic F1 Monaco Grand Prix. In July, get tickets to the Goodwood Festival of Speed and make it special with VIP access and full corporate hospitality. If you want, you can even choose to arrive by chartered helicopter, mingling with drivers past and present. In September, the F1 Italian Grand Prix is the most legendary of all Grands Prix in the F1 Calendar. A one-day ticket costs EUR56 up to around EUR4,000 for a weekend package with luxury accommodation. The F1 US Grand Prix in October could include a road trip from Napa to Las Vegas for a weekend in Sin City. Alternatively, consider the inaugural Vietnam Grand Prix which is particularly exciting, given that the Hanoi Circuit is the first-ever track that Formula 1 itself has been instrumental in designing.

Experience Formula One

Drive a F1 car

Search out a Formula One programme where you can test your skills, even as a novice, to drive a Formula 1 car so that you can both say honestly that you are a Formula 1 driver. These programmes include driver briefings from professional instructors, open-wheel track initiation, debriefing sessions and more, usually on a Grand Prix circuit.

You could drive one of the cars that used to belong to Grand Prix F1 teams, driven by the likes of Ralf Schumacher or Giancarlo Fisichella, though the engines are likely to have been changed to a V8 Cosworth or V10 Peugeot.

Watch all F1 coverage

Subscribe to ESPN that shows all Formula 1 races live. There is dedicated coverage to the sport, including all practise sessions and qualifying runs will be available and on-demand across ESPN platforms including the ESPN app. Coverage of F1 also includes the dedicated ESPN.com Formula 1 website, which reports on the sport year-round.