‘Hoon’ Adrian Portelli steals show at wet Grand Prix; billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes, Heloise Pratt, Robin Khuda attend
If there was one billionaire who was going to revel in the wet conditions at Sunday’s Formula One Grand Prix, of course, it was going to be Adrian Portelli.
Our favourite luxury car fan and driver was one of the star names strolling around the paddock at Melbourne’s Albert Park, while our rich and famous mostly tried to stay dry in what were rather testing conditions.
Portelli told us it was a “great day for hooning!” – and there was no doubt he would have pulled some doughnuts behind the wheel if he wasn’t walking around looking resplendent in what we reckon might be an impressive Louis Vuitton beige men’s jacket – or was it oyster coloured? – over a black t-shirt with white pants, rocking some aviator sunglasses.
The LMCT+ owner was there as a guest of Mercedes and Lamborghini. The man formerly known as “Lambo Man” for his previous penchant for driving them around Melbourne prefers other monikers these days, as he insists he has a wider collection of hotted-up sports cars.
Portelli was almost the best dressed at the track, though we reckon Visy billionaire co-owner Heloise Pratt wins that award. She was spotted enjoying the hospitality as a guest of beverage giant Lion.
Portelli has been through the wars recently, missing some court appearances related to allegedly dodgy driving due to being bedstricken which he blamed on a bad batch of oysters consumed a few weeks ago.
“I’ve lost a lot of weight, but I’m just about through the worst of it,” Portelli told us, while insisting on showing us his admittedly impressive waistline.
It was only last week that Portelli was found guilty of a driving offence but escaped a hooning charge after a Victorian court found he “lost traction” in a luxury car.
Plenty of Formula One drivers lost traction out on the track on Sunday – or maybe, as was the case with Portelli, their GPS systems went haywire – with last year’s winner Carlos Sainz, Aussie rookie Jack Doohan and Isack Hadjar all spinning out. And then, heartbreakingly, local hope Oscar Piastri spun off on lap 45 while running in second place. He was soon followed by a string of other drivers slipping and sliding all over the place.
By then, Portelli and a cast of billionaires were safely ensconced upstairs in the swanky corporate suites that line the track and overlook the pits of their respective teams.
Or at least they are meant to.
Word reached Margin Call that race organisers somehow stuffed up the location of the VIP area related to the pits below. This meant the Ferrari box was overlooking another team’s operations and so on.
But the billionaires and other leaders still came out to play. In the case of Atlassian supremo Mike Cannon-Brookes, that meant grappling with a “deep internal conflict” and boarding his new corporate jet to make it to the race.
Cannon-Brookes, looking like most other slightly washed-up billionaires wearing sports gear (think greying man bun tucked into the back of a baseball cap) scurried past us into the Williams Atlassian suite before we got close enough to ask about the Bombardier 7500.
Worryingly, though he bought the plane for security reasons, there was not a huge entourage surrounding Cannon-Brookes.
While it was great to see the Atlassian co-founder in action, it was also heartening to see another Margin Call favourite in Luke Sayers also holding court.
And there we were thinking that the recent “dick pic” scandal might see Sayers lay low for a while. Not so fast!
We clocked Sayers striding confidently toward the American Express Lounge, and sure enough he was soon holding court in Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman – and former state Labor minister – Martin Pakula’s swanky box.
Pakula’s predecessor, billionaire Paul Little, was also swanning around and seems to be back in favour after falling out of favour with ex-premier Daniel Andrews. We spotted Little saying hello to current Premier Jacinta Allen and her deputy Ben Carroll.
Little was in good spirits, but with a grin refused to tell us who had apparently paid about $130m for his Toorak mansion. “Mate, if there’s a deal, then it is subject to a confidentiality clause!”
Sporting an even bigger smile was billionaire AirTrunk founder and boss Robin Khuda, happily posing for pictures.
We could count on a Laurence Escalante appearance. The Perth billionaire had flown over to see his beloved Ferrari team in his own jet, and unlike Cannon-Brookes didn’t seem too torn up about it.
Escalante’s Virtual Gaming Worlds is a Ferrari sponsor. Another big Ferrari man, Queensland coal baron Matt Latimore – who has about a million Instagram followers checking out his Ferrari collection – was also there, along with tech entrepreneur Bevan Slattery.
Pakula’s box also hosted rich lister Larry Kestelman, former Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka and caravan magnate Gerry Ryan.
Tabcorp boss Gillon McLachlan loves to turn up to an event, so of course he was at Albert Park, as was Coles boss Leah Weckert, Barrenjoey chairman Matthew Grounds and Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn.
Seven West Media boss Jeff Howard and Disney boss Kylie Watson-Wheeler were spotted in the Kayo suite. The last shower failed to dampen everyone’s spirits.
Especially that hoon Portelli.
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