Our motoring expert road tests the corporate box-ing experience that frames the speed and glamour of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne
Our motoring expert’s passion for the F1 track is equal to his affection for the corporate box-ing experience that frames the speed and glamour of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne this month.
Professing a love of blood sports is a sure-fire way to get a reaction, but I like to have a comical, er, punchline to go with it when I tell people my favourite sport is boxing: “I mean corporate boxing, because I will watch just about anything – even the World Paint Drying Championships – if it’s in a corporate box; they’re just such wonderful places.”
There are those, of course, who would suggest that watching Formula One, or any car race, is not far off a paint-drying contest, but those people are inherently wrong, and obviously don’t realise that F1 truly is the premier sport when it comes to corporate boxing. This month’s sold-out Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne will be a case (of Champagne) in point.
Formula One racing takes corporate entertainment to an entirely different level, partly because the event runs for three days, making it something of a louche long weekend, but also because it gets you closer to the action than any other sport.
If you think about football, cricket, tennis or even horse racing, the corporate suites are always up in the rafters, with their great views the luxury. But at the F1, corporate guests often stand right on top of the pits, the screaming cars immediately beneath them, or have seats almost on the ripple strips at the side of the track.
Better yet, a corporate experience can take you inside the high-tech, high stakes world of an F1 team, with appearances in your suite by the drivers, pit tours that put you a step away from these incredible machines, and even access to sets of headphones that allow you to listen in to team radios.
On top of all that, of course, there are food and beverage offerings of the highest order, which is no less than you’d expect when you’re asked to pay as much as $15,000 or more for a ticket.
One car company that extracts the absolute maximum from Australian Grand Prix week is Mercedes-Benz, which kicks off proceedings in Melbourne on Wednesday, March 20, by inviting 100 of its keenest customers to come and drive one of its most exciting new cars – this year the C63 SE Performance – on the closed Albert Park circuit; an experience normally reserved for real racers.
Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific head of media relations and brand engagement Jerry Stamoulis explains that, in previous years, Thursday – the day before the action kicks off – was Ladies Day in the Mercedes-AMG Lounge. But so huge is the increase in female interest in the sport of F1, a factor largely ascribed to the success of the brilliant Netflix series Drive to Survive, that this year it has been transformed.
“Ladies Day used to be the hottest ticket leading up to the weekend, but the feedback we received in recent years was from guests saying they didn’t want to come if there was no F1 to watch. And the growth in interest from our female audience in the past few years has been incredible, but there was still an appetite to include an element of fashion,” Stamoulis explains.
“This year we’re hosting an evening event on track at the AMG Lounge and partnering with Vogue– and we came up with an idea to bring together our customers who love F1, and also love fashion … It’s the first time we’ve done this and the response has been amazing.”
On Friday, March 22, the huge Mercedes-AMG Lounge opens for track action, bringing together catering from Melbourne’s top restaurants with one of the best viewing areas on the track at Turn 10. This is one of the highest-speed corners of the circuit and I was there two years ago when an F1 car hit the wall at full speed and the whole suite shook. Everyone present was shaken but thrilled.
“The catering is phenomenal but what’s important to our guests is the action on track and we designed the venue to fit everyone who wants to be watching the race from the best vantage point, without being on their tippy toes looking over others to see the track. It’s set up so they can all see at once, because that’s what people expect,” Stamoulis says. “If you enjoy motorsport, there’s no better venue.”
The cost of all this goodness is $1100 for the Friday only, or $3900 for the whole weekend, and is already sold out. Stamoulis says there’s something special about the allure of Formula One that no other event can match.
“If you know about the sport, you know it’s about more than just the driver; it’s the team, it’s such a competitive environment and there’s just so much drama to it, the excitement, the soap opera element of it, and it lasts for the entirety of the Grand Prix weekend. There aren’t many sports that can offer that over a three-day period,” he says.
Just a few corners on from Mercedes-AMG is Casa Ferrari – a purpose-built structure right on the Albert Park straight that resembles an Italian villa, complete with free-flowing Aperol spritzes and gelato. Entry is $10,000 a head, but that gets you access to all three days of racing, plus a special event with the Ferrari team’s drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr, on Thursday evening, March 21.
While that venue holds about 300 people, the more exclusive ticket is Ferrari’s F1 Paddock Club, right above the pits, where 80 people pay $15,000 a head to be in an area that puts you on top of the action. Incredibly, some Ferrari customers pay for access to both areas on GP weekend.
Ferrari Australasia president Jan Hendrik Voss says the idea behind Casa Ferrari – an innovation that made its debut in Abu Dhabi but for Australia (and subsequently for F1 races in Singapore, Silverstone and Miami) was relocated inside the track – was to “bring a bit of Maranello [Modena, birthplace of Ferrari] to the people”.
“Ferrari has the deep ties with F1, it’s a part of our history, our legacy, and our success in Formula One is what our brand is built on and that history is one element of what makes our cars so special, and there is still that element of technology transfer between the race cars and our road cars,” Voss explains.
“I know other brands also use the Grand Prix weekend as a great platform to build relationships, discuss business and create partnerships in a very different setting to an office or a boardroom. But you’re talking about one of the best sporting platforms in the world in terms of enthusiasm and excitement.
“It provides this common passion that people bond over.”
Despite the Ferrari-high prices, both of the Italian brand’s facilities sold out well in advance this year, as usual.
There are plenty of other suites dotted around the track as well, and not all of them aligned with brands taking part in the sport. Rolex, a major sponsor, has a prime spot in pit lane and often gives guests access to huge sporting stars. Porsche, a brand synonymous with motorsport but not F1, also has a fantastic facility right on Turn One that hosts Q&As with one of its ambassadors, former Red Bull racer Mark Webber, now the manager of McLaren driver (and great Australian hope) Oscar Piastri.
But just to be clear, by the way, I wouldn’t go and watch boxing, even if it was in a corporate box.
This story is from the March issue of WISH.
