Welcome to F1 Hangover, a new series where I take you inside the events, parties, panels and pop-ups happening off-track over the race weekend. I’ll give you the inside line behind-the-scenes and share some insight into how celebrities spend their time when the track is cold, what the drivers get up to when they aren’t in the paddock, and everything in between.
My Las Vegas Grand Prix got off to a particularly chaotic start when I moved my flight to 6am the Sunday before the race in preparation for a last-minute shoot with Liam Lawson and his partner Hannah St. John. The pair (very kindly!) allowed me to join them for the last leg of their Los Angeles to Las Vegas road trip in a Ford F-150 Raptor. We talked about the "Cars" movie (obviously), his brief emo songwriting career and his future in F1 — but I won’t share too much because the full video of our chat is dropping later this week.
On Tuesday, McLaren hosted a takeover at Abercrombie & Fitch, inviting fans to meet Oscar Piastri and F1 Academy driver Bianca Bustamante while shopping new merch. I was told that fans started lining up outside the store at 9am for a 5pm photo op with the 23-year-old Aussie, though he was in-and-out within a strict 30 minute window. During a race week, the drivers’ time is scheduled — quite literally — down to the minute, and it never ceases to amaze me how many brand events and Q&As they can cram in between sessions on-track. This is especially true for the McLaren crew given how many sponsors the final boss of marketing, Zak Brown, has brought onto the team. They’ve cast a wide net across multiple sectors, attracting everyone from Goldman Sachs to Gopuff, which seems to have resulted in them finding some of the best merch partners of any team on the grid (I’m talking style, quality, and price point). Abercrombie has undergone a pretty stunning image rehab in recent years, and as someone who never had a strong affinity for the brand (I grew up in Australia), the McLaren partnership has really endeared me to them. Anecdotally, I’ve heard a lot of people had similar experiences with the brand, which seems to indicate that the once-surprising partnership is proving fruitful for all parties!
Wednesday — I made a quick pit stop in the paddock to speak with Franco Colapinto. We discussed his newfound fame, why he deleted Twitter and his love for engineering — he seems very down-to-earth and well-liked by the team, so I’m curious to see what his future holds in 2025 and beyond.
I then headed back to the Strip for dinner at Caesars Palace’s Stanton Social Prime, hosted by WhatsApp, Mercedes and George Russell’s partner, Carmen Montero Mundt. I overwhelmingly find myself in rooms surrounded by men (often of the older, British variety), so it was extremely refreshing to walk into a space full of diverse young women. There were a few female drivers in attendance, but most of the guests were content creators who have attracted millions of views across multiple social media platforms.
I’m very aware that some long-term fans can be dismissive of F1 influencers and content creators, but I’m here to say their power shouldn’t be underestimated. I spent some time with Lissie Mackintosh, who I’ve gotten to know over the past few years, and you would think I was standing next to Lewis Hamilton based on the reaction she garnered from strangers on the street. I lost count of the number of people who thanked her for getting them into F1 — several people said she was the sole reason they discovered the sport, and decided to fly to Vegas for the race.
But back to the dinner itself! WhatsApp is such a great partner for an F1 team because a LOT of motorsport business gets done via the messaging app. In fact, I don’t think there’s a single person in the F1 paddock who doesn’t use WhatsApp (including us!). I also really enjoyed the ‘short film’ they released during the US Grand Prix starring Hamilton, and I think there’s still a lot they could do to highlight how essential WhatsApp is to Mercedes’ day-to-day functioning.
Mundt told me it meant a lot to partner with the two brands “to celebrate the incredible female fandom of Formula 1 — which is an often under-appreciated but absolutely vital part of this community.” She continued, “What I love about WhatsApp is how they spotlight and unite diverse communities, and in this case, the women within F1. Each person at this dinner has played a key role in elevating F1's global influence and expanding its reach. I’m truly proud to be surrounded by such strong, empowered change-makers. These women, in my opinion, are the unsung heroes who have been pivotal in driving the sport forward.”
Speaking of women in F1, the Female Quotient partnered with F1 Academy to host a series of panels featuring the likes of Susie Wolff and Tommy Hilfiger. It was a very inspiring morning by all accounts, and I’m excited to ramp up coverage of F1 Academy next season. Another event I wasn’t able to attend due to scheduling conflicts was the PUMA Speedcat celebration, attended by Emily Ratajkowski and Paris Hilton. The brand welcomed Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc into the flagship store earlier in the week, too, with the Monegasque rocking a pair of custom sneakers paying tribute to his puppy, Leo.
If you’ve noticed a pattern so far, it’s that just about every brand involved in the sport decided to activate in Sin City. IWC Schaffhausen, a longtime Mercedes sponsor, hosted a Q&A with Toto Wolff, which I was eager to attend as I’m intrigued by how the team plans to approach its partnerships in the post-Hamilton era. Wolff is a business man after all, and wasn’t shy about reminding the high-rollers in attendance that the Vegas GP is, at least somewhat, for them. “If a driver doesn’t like the circuit, so be it,” he candidly told the group when asked about racing on the streets of Vegas. “They’re not the client, you are.”
I then darted across town to the MGM Grand where McLaren was highlighting its partnership with Mastercard via a Cirque du Soleil performance. It was certainly one of the more… unique F1 events I’ve attended, but the theatre was filled primarily with guests of Mastercard so I’m sure they enjoyed the excerpt from the spectacular KÀ show (as did I, for the record).
Friday, I caught up with Gordon Ramsay: we talked about tuna, his enviable car collection and the $35,000 per person ‘Ramsay’s Garage’ experience he was hosting in the paddock. Before I wrote about F1 full time I covered pop culture, meaning I’ve spent a lot of time speaking to celebrities on red carpets and as such, have a pretty good radar for who seems like a decent person. I’m happy to report Ramsay was just as engaging in-person as he is on-camera, and seemed genuinely interested in the people around him which you don't find too often.
Sticking to the culinary theme, I headed over to the Bellagio Fountain Club where some of the world’s most renowned chefs, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, David Chang, Wolfgang Puck, Alain Ducasse and Mark Wahlberg, were preparing to serve up fine fare. I spoke to Mario Carbone, an A-list chef whose spicy rigatoni has garnered a cult following, about his friendship with Max Verstappen. “He comes to Carbone a bunch. I love what he does, and he likes what I do, so it's nice to feed him,” he told me. As for how the four-time word champion celebrates? “He sticks to the classics. He wants his pasta, he's here for carbs. He wants to cheat a little bit [because] it's usually after a win.” I also checked out the Shoey Bar at the Bellagio, where fans could purchase one of just 2500 specially designed, collectible Sparco boots. It's a great concept, I just can't help but wonder if the feeling in the air would be slightly different if Daniel Ricciardo hadn't lost his seat on the grid a couple of months ago.
Later that night, Brad Pitt’s “F1” crew hit the streets to film some of the 2025 summer blockbuster’s final scenes. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently revealed the movie will premiere in Monaco at a private screening for drivers and team personnel before it becomes available in cinemas worldwide.
Meanwhile, I went to an intimate Hilton Hotels event hosted by its namesake spokesperson, Paris Hilton. The party itself was pretty standard fare (cocktails, canapés and dancing) but I want to take this moment to briefly discuss “Selling Sunset” stars Jason and Brett Oppenheim, along with Mary Fitzgerald and her husband Romain Bonnet, who were dancing into the early hours of the morning. The foursome are regular fixtures at F1 races, often seen in the Alpine garage with headsets on, or posing for snaps with drivers. If I were a B-list reality star (to be clear, I say that without a hint of shade) who happened to love F1, I would absolutely be milking that fame to get the best seat in the house. You simply have to respect the hustle, and their genuine love for the sport!
Ironically, race day (Saturday) itself is often pretty quiet until the lights go out, but the highlight of every weekend is the starting grid. Plenty of my fellow reporters have written eloquently about the magic of those 45 minutes leading up to the race start (Luke Smith’s upcoming book paints a full picture of the pre-race pomp and circumstance), but there’s nothing like rubbing shoulders with A-listers while trying to avoid ending up in the background of Martin Brundle’s grid walk. On this occasion, I spotted Nina Dobrev and Shaun White, the entire Stallone family, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Noah Lyles and multiple members of the billionaire Arnault family, whose company, LVMH, recently inked a historic deal with F1. I’m also intrigued by which celebrities manage to sneak into a race undetected. Last year, Rihanna fans didn’t even realize she was on the premises until she was spotted on the broadcast in the Ferrari garage. This time, Bradley Cooper and Adele were both pictured in the McLaren garage at points throughout the weekend, but almost nobody saw them coming in or out.
The one downside of the Vegas GP is that the lights go out at 10pm, meaning you’re not making it to an after party until 3am (if you’re lucky). I ended my night at XS at the Wynn, where Swedish House Mafia were DJing in front of a very packed crowd. Typically I’d put in a few calls to find out how race winner Russell or newly-crowned champion Verstappen were celebrating, but at this point in my Vegas trip (we're now on day 7) I was all partied out. Until next year!
