It is our constitutional right as Americans to buy anything and everything at bulk superstores like Costco — and now, that even includes your Formula 1 tickets. If you were hoping to head to the 2023 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, then I’ve got some good news for you: You can nab your general admission passes alongside enough toilet paper to last you through the nuclear apocalypse and your $1.50 hot dog.
If you don’t believe me, you can head right over to the Costco website to check out the listing for yourself. Or you can consult the Tumblr post of a Formula 1 fan who saw this bad boy out in the wild:
Basically, if you’re keen on heading to an F1 race, you can grab a limit of five of these eVouchers per Costco membership. You’ll then enter that eVoucher code into a website, then head to the box office at COTA to swap it in for a wristband, which will grant you access to all of COTA’s numerous general admission sections throughout the USGP week.
The $349.99 price tag is admittedly a little steep (and also appears to be pre-tax), and you don’t appear to gain any benefit by buying your GA eVouchers in bulk the way you would to justify buying approximately 15,000 double-stuffed Oreos. However, it is a much better deal than what you can find on COTA’s website, where the three-day GA wristband runs about $475. And that’s well before you tack on an additional parking pass ($150 to $275, depending on whether or not you’re willing to park and walk into the track) or a shuttle pass ($89 to $129, depending on your pick-up and drop-off location).
These Costco purchases seem to be regionally limited; I’m able to purchase from my location in Texas, but other folks at Jalopnik who live in different states received a message that the eVouchers weren’t available in their location.
Back in my day, I remember being able to buy season passes for COTA that cost under $300 and got me access to F1, MotoGP, WEC and/or IMSA, and any GT or vintage races held at the track throughout a calendar year. It might not be the greatest sign of the times that F1 tickets have grown so damn expensive that fans have to turn to Costco for a discount.