We were lucky to be able to attend both years we were in Australia – First in 2024 when we lived across the street in St. Kilda and in 2025 we returned from Perth for Sharon’s birthday and a final goodbye to Melbourne friends.
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2024
If you have had a chance to watch a bit of Drive to Survive (DTS) on Netflix and this post will make a lot more sense. Last July when we were looking at apartments in St. Kilda, one of the sales pitches was that we were across the street from the F1. Didn’t really matter to me but we assumed it would be another fun event to attend. Fast forward to November with Mary came to visit and we pointed out the park outside our window – she immediately recognized it and asked if we watched DTS. We hadn’t heard of it. So after Mary and Sharon’s daily touring, we watched a couple of episodes each day and after a bit we were hooked. The other aspect that drew us in was the transformation in the park – I have some pictures and videos but this youtube links explains the transformation better – copy into your browser
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O99BRuY3gd0 )
Similar to the Australian Open, the Australian F1 is rated the top fan experience in its sport.
So after watching DTS, Sharon and I decided that we needed to pick a driver. Not that straight forward – the drivers alone are only part of the story and many are pretty unlikable. So I used a five dimensional rating system – 1) Favorite cars? Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren; 2+3) Driver and Car country of Origin? US, Aus, UK; d) Team color? Orange; and e) Is the driver a complete douche? No. So I ended up with Oscar Piastri who drives for McLaren (built in the UK) who grew up about 5 miles away and was the home town favorite – and I got to buy another orange shirt. The other Australian is Daniel Riccardo or “Danny Ric” to us locals – he didn’t pass dimension 5. A dark horse was Valtteri Bottas who is past his prime, an honorary Australian, and has grown a mullet.
Sharon had a similarly thoughtful process in selecting Ferrari and Carlos Sainz 1) Ferrari has a strong legacy and history 2) Ferrari’s adaption of ground effect aerodynamics has been impressive and 3) Carlos seems really committed in the DTS workout scenes.
So once we figured out we wanted to go in December 2023 – we immediately found that the 260,000 weekend seats were sold out and resale for a ground pass was about $500/day. We were able to get ground passes for practice sessions on Friday and since we were truly locals (e.g. a drivers license with St. Kilda as the address) we got in for preliminary practice on Thursday for free. About 2 weeks before the race – I did a lap on my bike (wrong direction – better views this way) with the time lapse function on my phone.
On Thursday, Sharon went over early and met a friend from pickleball and they went to the drivers walk – and had a second row seat until a psychopath in front of them put on a huge 3 foot diameter bobblehead and blocked the view. So when I showed up, they were both pretty salty but Sharon did get some pictures of drivers (but not Carlos). But we had full access to all of the grandstands and we set in multiple sections overlooking the track and watched other races (Porsche, Supercar (Mustang and Camero), and classic cars) as well as F2 practice. We also got to participate in a lot of the fan experiences with very short lines that I wouldn’t have the patience for on the weekend.
On Friday, we didn’t have the same access and found out later it was a sell out of 130,000 as well. But we saw F2 qualification, F1 practices and other races. There were also speaking sessions with Team Principals and drivers from DTS and an airshow. The circuit is 5k – so the site is basically the same size as the Kentlands 5k footprint, so it is a long way walking across the park.
On Saturday, we didn’t have a ticket and in the morning had a regular day as our side of the park never got that busy. We did watch the F2 race (side note – much more exciting as they crash a lot more) and the F1 qualification. I didn’t realize how it worked – on DTS it implies they do laps and one guy is fastest. Not exactly which made the qualification more interesting. On Sunday, we had one of Sharon’s friends come over and we watched on TV and caught the airshow from our balcony. We could hear but could not see the race cars. Sharon was rewarded with her choice as Carlos won while Oscar got 4th.
Melbourne does a great job with big events – another event with 100,000 and only public transport and minimal impact to the area around the race. St. Kilda was quieter than usual on Saturday night – local businesses weren’t too happy as the St. Kilda exit from the park was closed relatively early and people were funneled on trams back to the CBD.
2025
For 2025, Sharon went a day earlier than I did and stayed with a friend and used her old St. Kilda drivers license so she could go to locals day on Thursday. My flight was scheduled for late that evening – but it ended up being very late due to a flight delay (remember that Perth to Melbourne same distance as Atlanta to LA) so I was pretty brunt. The three primary days were all sold out – 130,000 / day – but the tickets for the practice sessions Friday were a much better value that the weekend….especially when it was nice on Friday and poured on the weekend. For the rest of the weekend, we balanced race-related stuff (hitting the Italian section of town which was the social center of the race) and spending time with friends – including a concert from a famous Australian singing duo – Vika and Linda. We also got to visit the St. Kilda pier – under construction the entire time we lived here.
We watched the race from the airport lounge – Oscar Piastri lost it in the rain, but McLaren still won with Lando.
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