Landing Grand Prix race tickets a real drag

As a long time Formula One fan, I am truly disappointed with the way ticketing was handled for the 2022 Miami Grand Prix.

Secondary or scalper ticketing brokers were allowed to monopolize ticket purchasing.

I signed up for the pre-sale to purchase tickets for my family. On Oct. 21, I was notified I could purchase tickets beginning at 10 a.m. Oct. 28.

I planned on purchasing four, three-day Turn 18 Grandstand tickets for my wife, daughter and son-in-law; it would have been their first live Grand Prix.

On Oct. 26, I received an email from Formula One stating that the event was sold out.

I immediately looked online and found tickets available on the secondary market for two to three times the face value.

My family is not rich and not associated with a corporation with access to suites, but we are true fans.

I can’t reiterate how truly disappointed we all are that we were locked out of purchasing tickets.

We still have our hotel reservations in hopes that more tickets may be released to the real fans.

This would have been my second Grand Prix.

I was fortunate to have attended the inaugural 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, which was Formula One’s first night race.

I have been hooked on the race ever since.

I was lucky to have been able to travel half way around the world on a business trip to see my first Grand Prix, but now I can’t even get tickets in my own country, just one state away from my home.

I had no issue purchasing grandstand seating at face value in Singapore.

My memories and experience of that first Grand Prix will be with me a lifetime, but it’s sad that my family and I are being robbed of creating and experiencing new ones. – Rick Florio,

Atlanta, GA