Australian Formula One Grand Prix action from Laurence Escalante, Christian Horner, Ed Craven
Who needs Ginger Spice when you’ve got Laurence Escalante.
While much of the racing world wondered whether Geri Halliwell would turn up to the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday to support her embattled husband, Red Bull team supremo Christian Horner, we spotted an intriguing meeting that might get tongues wagging among Formula One types.
Perth billionaire Escalante, the founder of Virtual Gaming Worlds, is well known as a Ferrari team global sponsor.
But there in the paddock, behind the pits, on Sunday was Escalante locked in deep and very private looking discussions with Horner pre race in the Red Bull team area.
What is going on?!
Horner remains under investigation for allegedly behaving inappropriately by sending suggestive messages to a female colleague, and kept a low profile in Melbourne over the weekend. No Halliwell either.
And what was Horner talking to Escalante about? The young VGW founder wouldn’t reveal much but with a grin told us that “there’s plenty of people around here that like to catch up with me.”
Well, he does have plenty of money — and only a year left on his Ferrari sponsorship deal.
But there’s more.
Escalante, a rather colourful young billionaire, was also sporting a broken arm — which he recently snapped in three places … while arm wrestling a mate!
Despite our scepticism, Escalante insisted that is what happened while sheepishly admitting he’d had a few drinks when said arm wrestle took place, and was last seen headed to the Casa Ferrari party house.
Hopefully no more limbs were broken celebrating what was a big race for Ferrari, with Carlos Sainz winning ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc in second place. (Aussie Oscar Piastri was an impressive fourth)
But in a dazzling afternoon of billionaire spotting and corporate leader and political figures identifying, Escalante was only the start.
Formula One is now huge due to the popular Drive to Survive series on Netflix, and who did we see emerging from an Netflix interview for the next instalment? None other than Australia’s youngest billionaire, 28-year-old Edward Craven.
The man best known for currently spending an eye watering $145m on his new Toorak mansion, Craven and American business partner Bijan Tehrani also sponsor the Sauber team — swapping between their huge Stake cryptocurrency gambling business and Kick streaming outfit depending on where the race is.
Australia has banned crypto gambling so it was Kick Sauber for the weekend. Craven, while reminding us that the Netflix mics were still on him (they are ubiquitous) said that Kick is racking up something like 100 million hours of viewing by the masses each month.
No wonder he can afford to knock down the “ghost mansion” and spend $145m on a rebuild. Kick is his and Tehrani’s secondary business.
Kick had its own corporate hospitality area upstairs in the plush Paddock Club, where tickets go for something like $6000 per head.
Another young billionaire, Adrian Portelli, was spotted in the Lamborghini area (well, he does have several of the cars), but the real corporate action was in the Chairman’s Lounge a couple of buildings down.
There, Australian Grand Prix chairman Martin Pakula, packed the joint with plenty of business leaders.
We barely had set foot in the door when corporate doyen Tony Shepherd accosted us and insisted we take his photo, though “Shep” was forced to admit that Victoria did major events better than his beloved NSW.
Incoming Myer executive chairman Olivia Wirth was there with husband and KPMG executive Paul Howes, who was jokingly lamenting to anyone that would listen that he is definitely less famous than Wirth (we agree).
Another, ahem, accounting identity in ex-PwC man Luke Sayers was also spotted there, talking to Andrew Ryan, the Nagambie Wine boss and son of caravan magnate Gerry. Sayers was likely concentrating on Carlton’s good start to the AFL season rather than any lingering PwC controversies.
Nearby, Seek co-founder Paul Bassat was seen locked in deep conversation with Victoria Racing Club CEO Steve Rosich.
Which got us thinking.
Could Bassat be a candidate to become chairman of Racing Victoria? We’re joking, but the entire world is waiting for ex-AFL boss Gillon McLachlan to take that job.
McLachlan was, of course, seen heading into the Paddock Club and when we reminded him that he was at the motor racing and not horse racing, he laughed and begged us to “be kind, please be kind”.
For goodness sake Gill, take the job! Put us all out of our misery!
His AFL predecessor Andrew Dillon was also in attendance as was AFL and Qantas chairman Richard Goyder, who walked the pit lane pre-race with what seemed about 1000 other corporate and sporting types including Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley and Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley.
New Grand Prix CEO Travis Auld was spotted everywhere, moving constantly to check his first race as boss went pretty smoothly.
Melbourne Racing Club boss Josh Blanksby, seen as the top contender for the Tabcorp CEO role, was also spotted, as was billionaire petrol head Paul Little — who kept a low profile outside the main hospitality after ex-Victoria premier Daniel Andrews dumped him as Grand Prix chairman last year.
Talking of politicians, federal sports minister Anika Wells was an early arrival and was seen chatting to Pakula in the Paddock earlier in the day — which is where we also saw Minister for the Environment Tanya Plibersek.
Perhaps conscious of her portfolio and being seen at the gas-guzzling motor racing series, Plibersek declined to give us a tip for the race.
One who did though was Australian businessman and one time Minardi team owner Paul Stoddart, who told us that Red Bull superstar Max Verstappen would win this year’s championship and next year too.
But Verstappen was an early exit in Melbourne’s big race on Sunday, just about the only thing that went wrong on and off the track for organisers.
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