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.
Oscar Piastri, Bianca Bustamante, McLaren, Abercrombie
Photo by: McLaren
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…
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