A Week Behind The Rope At Every Australian Grand Prix After-Party

• The Australian Grand Prix week brought including high-end hospitality and secret parties to Melbourne.
• Key appearances included Lewis Hamilton at Casa Ferrari and Lance Stroll at BOSS.
• Highlights included the Belvedere Garage Party, and intimate evening with B.H. and BOSS, and the Don Julio 1942 ‘Pole Position’ Party.

We’ve just crash-landed back at our desks on Monday morning, still buzzing from a week in Melbourne that once again proved why the Australian Grand Prix is one of the biggest and best races of the Formula 1 season.

Across the city, big-ticket launches, slick DJ sets, and exclusive drop-ins took the F1 action away from the paddock and back into the Victorian capital for anyone lucky enough with an inside track.

A few of us from the Boss Hunting team were on the ground, dividing, conquering, and partying through the nights with some of our favourite invites from the week. Here’s the full rundown: the perfect week of after-parties in Melbourne, behind the rope, and front row to the best nights of this year’s Australian Grand Prix.

Thursday March 5

A Rare Lewis Hamilton Appearance At Casa Ferrari

Casa Ferrari has long been one of the most coveted invitations of the Australian Grand Prix, where trackside hospitality comes wrapped in Italian leather and the price of admission can stretch north of AU$12,000 for a front-row seat overlooking Albert Park.

If you’ve ever been to the track, you’ll know exactly where Casa Ferrari sits. A Mediterranean oasis bursting out of the Albert Park grandstand with an in-house pizzeria, cocktail stations, gelato trucks, focacceria, and whisky tasting, courtesy of Chivas Regal.

But on Thursday night, Casa Ferrari decided to raise the stakes again, treating its guests to a money-can’t-buy appearance from seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who arrived to unveil Ferrari’s latest grand tourer: the Ferrari Amalfi.

Naturally, Hamilton’s appearance drew a tightly packed crowd of collectors, VIP guests, and diehard Tifosi, all eager to catch a glimpse of the sport’s most decorated driver. It certainly set the tone for the rest of the week to come.

B.H. X BOSS, An Evening With Lance Stroll

Back in the CBD, the pace of Grand Prix week continued inside the BOSS Boutique Crown Melbourne, where Boss Hunting hosted a private Q&A with Lance Stroll, Aston Martin F1 Team driver.

Just 50 guests were invited inside the boutique for the intimate evening, celebrating the latest collaboration between BOSS and Aston Martin’s Formula 1 outfit, the third capsule collection produced in partnership with the two brands.

Over drinks, Lance Stroll shared a few insights into life on the grid. Now in his 10th season in Formula 1 after making his debut in Melbourne as a rookie in 2017, the Canadian driver reflected on the pace of life on the global circuit.

For the assembled crowd of motorsport fans and well-dressed brand loyalists, it offered a rare, intimate opportunity to hear directly from one of Formula 1’s current drivers… without the paddock chaos. Though he never did tell me how he deals with the jet lag.

Mercedes-AMG Lounge Opening Night

Back at the track, Mercedes-AMG kicked off the season opener in signature style, welcoming guests to an evening of luxury, with a special appearance by the team’s rising Italian talent, Kimi Antonelli.

The night’s highlights included a decadent menu of gnocchi and slow-cooked duck and blackened cod among other floating canopes. All enjoyed against the backdrop the spectacular fleet of Mercedes cars parked temptingly close, out on the lawn. Unfortunately for us, they remembered to take the keys out of the Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Roadster. Well, there’s always next year.

Friday March 6

Tequila Don Julio 1942 x Marmont at Crown ‘Pole Position’ Party’

After a full day on track, it was only right that we whet the whistle before the weekend. So on Friday night, we made our way to Marmont at Crown for one of the more anticipated invitations of the Australian Grand Prix calendar, the ‘Pole Position’ Party hosted by Tequila Don Julio.

The Cali-inspired venue, designed as a love letter to the legendary Chateau Marmont, played host to typical West Coast glamour as the Grand Prix crowd rolled in, with familiar faces such as Erika Jayne, Cody Simpson, Pip Edwards, Baker Boy, Kita Alexander, Kyren Williams, Rebecca Judd, Nadia Bartel, and Lana Wilkinson, in attendance.

Well, you’d clear your schedule too if you heard there would be surprise appearances from international sensations Swae Lee and Ty Dolla $ign, sharing a two-hour set to carry the party well past the early hours.

Saturday March 7

Belvedere Garage Party

After the final day of qualifying, a short drive from Albert Park led guests to a secret Docklands warehouse where Belvedere Vodka staged its infamous Garage Party.

Inside its industrial walls, the space had been completely transformed into a vodka-soaked playground, inspired by the twists and turns of a Formula 1 circuit itself: sculptural race-car installations, caviar stations, and towering walls of Belvedere’s limited-edition Organic Vodka F1 Edition Bottle.

Naturally, we gravitated towards the caviar station, pairing the smooth taste of Belvedere with beluga.

We arrived just in time as Tame Impala took over the decks for a two-hour DJ set, sending the invite-only Melbourne crowd into a well-dressed dance floor frenzy.