Even if the team from Tom Sellers’ two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Story has painstakingly created a bespoke menu, if Stormzy – hands down the biggest artist to emerge from the UK’s thriving Grime scene – asks for rice ahead of his rain-drenched headline Friday slot at the 2024 Silverstone F1 Grand Prix, Stormzy gets a generous portion of rice. That’s just part of the service at The Garage, Formula 1’s highest level of Grand Prix hospitality. “If we can do it, we’ll make it – within reason,” executive chef Tom Phillips tells me.
Launched in 2022 at the Monza race and now available at eight circuits, The Garage brings new meaning to the word ‘exclusive.’ Over the course of a very rainy weekend in July, Silverstone welcomed a whopping 480,000 fans to its complex in the English countryside, with spectators flocking from around the globe to soak up the world-famous British Grand Prix atmosphere. The Garage accommodated just 35 of them per day.
While most F1 hospitality offerings put you near the action and typically watch the race from above, The Garage aims to be right in the heart of it. Self-labeled as the ‘inner sanctum of Formula 1,’ the lounge-like space occupies what was previously a team garage with every car roaring past at what feels like touching distance as they come in for a pit stop. Positions change at every race, but Silverstone 2024 saw The Garage call the Aston Martin Aramco team neighbors.
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So embedded in the trackside action, I’m told Lewis Hamilton mistook the entrance for the way into the Mercedes garage and marched into The Garage lounge bold as brass, much to the delight of those present. Few other sports hospitality packages do access like this.
Throughout the weekend, The Garage guests are looked after by a team of dedicated ‘expert hosts.’ While sporting event staff are often contractors there for the day, this team has been specially selected for their encyclopedic racing knowledge – some used to be drivers, some were mechanics, others engineers. “We all know the industry,” says expert host Greg Baker, who worked as an F1 mechanic for 20 years. “We know the characters in the pit lane, back of house, the paddock, and people want to engage… for Formula 1 nerds, this is the best place to be.”
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But this approach is in no way exclusionary – F1 novices will find plenty to uncover. Within one brief chat, the expert hosts will have seamlessly sussed out your knowledge level and adapted their style. Instead of geeky mechanic chats, you’ll be getting a running live commentary of the race and an in-depth ‘who’s who’ of everyone in the garages; expect to leave an expert.
Naturally, staying put in a hospitality facility all day is not what Silverstone is all about. A ticket to The Garage comes with bucket-loads of money-can’t-buy (or literally money-can-buy) insider access, including pit lane walks, where crucial last-minute checks and tests are carried out as the timer counts the minutes to lights out; garage tours, where you’ll witness engineers finalizing builds; and if you are very, very lucky and escorted by a particularly well-connected expert host, a sneaky visit to the set of F1, Brad Pitt’s upcoming blockbuster movie.
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Back at The Garage, if, unlike Stormzy, you’re happy to put your palette in the safe hands of Tom Sellers and the teams’ Silverstone-exclusive menu, you’re in for a gastronomic journey. The Restaurant Story team accompanies The Garage on its continent-crossing F1 tour (virtually flat-packed chef’s kitchen in tow), creating location-specific menus that harness local ingredients and traditional recipes. Offered on an a la carte, when-you-like-it basis, this year’s Silverstone menu included retro deviled eggs, crab crumpets and prawn cocktail, with strawberries and cream to finish.
To wash it down? Free-flowing glasses of Ferrari Trento (the F1’s headline Italian sparkling wine – the very same as which Hamilton sprayed on the podium), signature cocktails and soft drinks.
And did Stormzy enjoy that specially made pre-performance rice, whipped up by some of the UK’s best chefs? Loved it, apparently.
