Someone has asked me recently if I could give her some good tips for F1 gifts. Well, I could! 😀 So here is my list, these are all tested things that I have either bought or I plan to buy, and I’m sure they would me great Christmas presents to any F1 fans.
- BOOKS!
As a bookworm my number 1 recommendation will always be books, and I have already quite some of them, but here are my main recommendations:
Will Buxton’s history book – I have already written about it, and it looks like this:
Joshua Robinson – Jonathan Clegg: The Formula – This was very controversial to me, because it highlighted both the great and the scandalous side of F1, but it is written in great style!
If you would like something more team specific, there are Guenther Steiner’s books and some books that were published for the 20th anniversary of Red Bull. Mercedes also just came out with the own book called Inside Mercedes F1 (I haven’t read this one, but heard great things). For the Red Bull books, here is some visual help:
2. Give experiences!
This one is obviously the most expensive, but lasts a lifetime. If you cannot buy a race ticket, then there are a lot of tracks and museums that offer great experience and easily accessible in Europe (with low-cost airlines), you could buy a ticket to any of these. These are my main recommendations:
- The F1 Exhibition in London
- The Brooklands Museum near London
- The Silverstone Museum
- Autoworld in Brussels
- The Spa-Francorchamps guided tour
- The Monza Experience
- The Alfa Romeo Museum near Milan
- The Ferrari Museums in Maranello and Modena
- Montjuic circuit and Olympic Museum in Barcelona
- The Monaco circuit (free) and the Prince’s car collection
These are all relatively low budget trips, but if the budget allows, a few steps more expensive, but still cheaper than race tickets:
- Watch a race in the Red Bull HQ! You can buy tickets on their site and you get a tour, some great food and can also watch the race with likeminded people among the actual Red Bull cars (doesn’t require to be a Red Bull fan, but they might convert you into one).
2. Watch a race at the Williams HQ! They have a slightly different set-up than Red Bull, but their tour is fabulous (they also offer heritage tours)!
3. Good looking, relatively cheap merch!
I found that my favorite F1 merch comes from Hollister (they only have McLaren, Williams and Red Bull), it is cute, supersoft and not as expensive as the team kits.
H&M also has general F1 merch – I have some of them, and their hoodie is just to die for!
Marks&Spenser also sells McLaren merch in child size, but the 10-12 year old size fit me, so maybe worth a try, you can see my T-shirt in this video:
4. LEGO
I know that the big hit will come out only next year, but LEGO already has a lot of F1 stuff as it is. They have HUGE F1 cars (Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren) and a lot of smaller one (there is even a tiny McLaren) in the Speed Champions series (McLaren, Aston), but in general they have a million different cars that are not F1, but still nice. Here is how I assembled my Mercedes (this is from the Technic series):
5. Track merch
Some tracks have really awesome merch, that comes to mind is my homecircuit, the Hungaroring and Spa, where I bought a bunch of stuff – it was so great! Silverstone is setting up an online store, it is coming soon, and I know they have awesome stuff, because I bought a tumbler and some smaller things there. But check some favorite circuits if they have an online store.
6. Fanmade merch (on Etsy)
Unfortunately, I have yet to find the fanmade merch that I really like and is not crazy expensive with the shipping to Hungary, but I highly suggest taking a look, because there is everything. And I mean, EVERYTHING!
For my fellow Hungarians, I recommend this little shop (unfortunately they are about to close, but also for this reason everything is 50% off). They make soywax candles and wax with great graphics and ideas.
7. Also, if you are from Hungary, you can get the official motorsportol.hu mug with the race calendar on their website.
If you have any more ideas of great gifts, please, de let me know in the comments!
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