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Hello and welcome back to Part Two of my reflections from the 2026 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. In case you missed it, I shared Part One on Friday, which was a deep dive into fan zones and public driver appearances. Part Three will be coming later this week, and will look at the pop-ups, the (public) parties and the collabs from the week.

It’s fitting that I’m writing this intro as I’m about to head out the door to my weekly parkrun, as it’s all about the run clubs I attended during Grand Prix week in Melbourne. It’s also a sequel of sorts to the post I shared about run clubs before the event.

This post is a bit more of a review than a deep analysis, but with run clubs and other IRL events a relatively new part of the Formula 1 fan engagement scene, I hope it helps provide an overview of what’s currently happening, and where improvements could be made.

The first of the run clubs I attended was the Aston Martin x Celsius run on Wednesday morning. Held along the waterfront in St Kilda, the run was advertised as an inclusive, community-focused event.

I arrived right at the start of the advertised arrival window and the queue was already out the door and around the building. I thought that maybe a couple of hundred people would show up for the run, and I immediately realised I had severely underestimated its popularity. Following the event, I heard that there had been between 900-1,000 attendees, many of whom seemed to be entire groups of local run clubs in their themed gear.

By the time I got to the front of the queue and into the event, they had already run out of the themed shirts that were on offer, but there were plenty of cans of Celsius to go around (I love an energy drink, but pre-6:30am was too early for me to partake!).

We were welcomed by run hosts the Lambros, who then also brought Aston Martin Driver Ambassador and Head of F1 Academy, Jessica Hawkins to the stage. Unfortunately, the evergreen issue of rudeness increasing with crowd size was faced, and some attendees felt the need to loudly talk through Jessica’s entire welcome speech.

Due to the huge crowd, we were taken out to the start in waves based purely on when we got to the main doors. I did think it was fun that they had a giant chequered flag to start us off, but it was very much “you’re on your own” once you got started.

It was a lovely early morning out-and-back 5.3km (the length of the Albert Park track) run along the beachfront, and they had set up a Strava segment with an associated Strava badge and challenge (run the segment the most times during a set period and win cases of Celsius - as a non-local I never had a shot!). However, they didn’t make the turnaround point super clear, and there was a real moment of confusion where everyone around me realised we had run further than halfway and there was no marshal or signage to tell us when to turn back. Thankfully, we did all have common sense and just turned around on our own, but a volunteer would have helped keep everything flowing smoothly.

Despite missing out on a shirt, and the caps that had also been on offer, I did manage to score a drink bottle when I finally made it back to the start. Sadly, the promised breakfast had also been completely picked over by the time I arrived, but I did grab some Celsius to help me through my work day.

Final thoughts: To put it bluntly, the event was way oversubscribed. They should have capped the registrations at max 500 people, even if it would have made their post-event bragging seem less impressive. When you’re running out of amenities and the event feels more like an endless queue than a community, you should be rethinking your strategy. Bigger is not always better, and the experiences of individual fans in the big crowd should always be considered. That being said, it was a great location and the actual running part didn’t feel too crowded; it was just everything before and after. And I’ll never say no to some free Celsius.

The Gatorade Run The Track activation was the only event I paid for during the week. It set me back just over $100AUD (~£52/$70USD), but it was worth every single cent.

I had to arrive at Albert Park at 5:30am to pick up my bib as they had held bib pick-up the previous weekend, prior to my arrival in Melbourne. A majority of attendees seemed to be in my situation, and there was quite a long line. However, I was extremely impressed with how well managed event entry and bib pick-up was, and everything flowed quickly.

Once we had our bibs, we were let onto the track and over to the start/finish straight where we were encouraged to take pictures of the pit lane, and of ourselves under the famous five lights.

As someone who attends the Grand Prix on a General Admission ticket and leaves before the track invasion (long queues to exit and get onto a tram are my idea of hell), being able to get this close to the team garages was worth every cent of the event entry. Fans want proximity, they want access, especially access to spaces they’re not usually allowed. And Gatorade nailed the brief by providing it to them instead of just handing out some bottles at the Grand Prix.

While we waited for the official start time, caps signed by George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were given away to attendees dressed in full race suits which was a fun added surprise. We were very heavily reminded not to stand, walk, and definitely not to run on the grass or any other area except the track. I can only imagine that a rogue runner destroying something was high on the list of the organiser’s worst fears!

Getting to actually run around the track while it was set up as the track was amazing. While you can run around Albert Park whenever you want the rest of the year (and it’s home to Australia’s biggest parkrun!), there’s something special about doing it with all of the grandstands, signage and big screens surrounding you.

We were encouraged to self-seed at the start, which most people seemed to do well, and I didn’t have any problems with the crowd or people pushing and shoving, despite there being 1,400 of us out there. There was a 50min cut off time which is quite reasonable, and you could have made it around at a speedy walking pace without being swept.

Once we made it to the finish line (complete with chequered flags) we were given a medal and allowed to stick around to take photos. Once they could tell you had finished your mini-photoshoot, we were quickly funnelled out the exit where we were met with long tables full of Gatorade (in multiple formats and flavours), and then a pastry and fruit breakfast buffet.

We were also supposed to get a special Strava badge after completing the run, but there was a global Strava outage that morning, and the badge didn’t load in my app once everything was back online. Just one of those things out of everyone’s control!

Final Thoughts: I was so impressed with how smoothly this event was run. It was an amazing experience, and despite the fact there were almost 1,500 runners, you felt like part of the action rather than part of a crowd crush. I saw some commentary on social media saying it was too expensive, but I’ve paid more for worse runs, before you throw in the F1 of it all. This event demonstrates a form of thinking that all D2C sponsors (and brands wanting to engage with fans more broadly) need to embrace: you need to be adding to fan experiences, not just showing up. It’s easy to hand out samples or have a pop-up stand inside the event, but brands that actually build on fan desires and understand what they want are the ones that come out ahead.

The final run of my Grand Prix week was the Alpine x Beforeyouspeak coffee x Undefeated gym event on Sunday morning, before I went to the track for race day.

I’m a big fan of Beforeyouspeak coffee and the way they activate their partnerships. I lived on their iced lattes during my training for the Sydney Marathon last year after discovering them at one of the official training runs (Vanilla is my absolute fave, but I won’t say no to a Double Espresso!). I’ve also attended a previous great run club event held by them in Sydney, which included an appearance by now-Haas reserve driver Jack Doohan. So, I had relatively high expectations going into the run, but you never really know what to expect until you’re there.

As soon as I arrived at the gym, I knew this was going to be much more of a community-focused experience than the previous two runs. We were greeted with tote bags of goodies and themed shirts (and they actually had enough for everyone!), and shown safe places to stash our stuff. There was plenty of Beforeyouspeak coffee on offer (both hot, iced, and custom orders using their new bean range) while we waited for the run to start. They also had a racing sim set up, and we were encouraged to use any of the gym equipment we may need to get ready.

I am pretty terrible at estimating numbers of people in a crowd, but there were definitely less than 100 people at the event. While this may seem small in comparison to the huge groups at the Aston and Gatorade runs, it actually felt like a community run. There were a bunch of Alpine staff in attendance, and interested attendees (aka me) were able to chat with them before, during and following the run.

My only critique is that the guys from the gym who ran the pacing part of the event didn’t quite understand what an easy pace was. During our warm-up, they stressed that this would be an easy run where no one would set PBs and nobody would be left behind…and then by about kilometre 2 I had…been left behind. I’ve just checked my Strava and my first three kms had an average of a 6:05min/km split, so I wasn’t exactly dawdling! I reckon the group must have been doing about a 5-5:30min/km pace which is great if you’re a regular runner, but it’s definitely not a welcoming pace. Eventually, someone realised a group of us had been left behind (by this time, some other people had realised they couldn’t keep up with the pace and taken some walking breaks) and ran back to meet us, but we probably shouldn’t have been left in the first place.

As I discussed in my previous post on run club activations, pace inclusivity is so important if you want to create a welcoming space. If you say you’re going to keep the group together, make sure you actually do, and keep someone from the organising team with the back of the pack group. You don’t want someone to feel alienated from the event because they couldn’t keep up with what you deemed an “easy” pace.

I also loved that the Alpine event wasn’t just a run club - they also had a Hyrox session on offer for fans who are more interested in the pairs workout than a Sunday morning jog. I didn’t stick around for it, but from social media it looked well attended! This experimentation with different event formats is so important to

Final Thoughts: This event felt like a true collaboration between the team and the sponsors, rather than just a sponsor event the team was attending. There were so many little details that elevated the experience (the lift decal! the goodie bag! the floor decorations! access to the entire gym and its amenities! the delicious protein muffins on offer post-run!). It felt like a space where you could actually get closer to the team, and to other fans, which should always be the aim of an IRL activation. I’ve heard that Alpine is planning on leaning into their real world community this year, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

I was looking forward to attending the VCARB x Peloton yoga and run club session, but unfortunately had to give it a miss as the combination of the start + run time and location were going to make me late to work. By all accounts, it was a great morning, with around 300 people in attendance.

I heard from someone who attended that a majority of attendees were Peloton fans rather than Formula 1 fans, with some travelling from out of town just to get the chance to work out in person with Peloton trainers. This could work as a great way to convert new fans into VCARB fans, but it could also mean that a lot of the attendees didn’t really care about who was co-hosting and just wanted the access to their Peloton faves. Always something you need to balance when you’re combining two passionate communities!

Attendees were given matching shirts, and also allowed to keep the Peloton branded yoga mats that were used.

Another run I had to miss, this time partially because of a clash with a Quadrant event (more on this in Part 3), and partially because they kept the details of the run super cryptic. It seems like they went with the polar opposite strategy to Aston, where they gave branded shirts to and shot content with the regular adidas community run group in Melbourne and didn’t really encourage general fans from coming along.

We’ve reached the finish line on my run club reviews, but there’s still plenty to cover from Melbourne. Expect part three in your inboxes in the coming days (and if you’re reading this after following a web link - why not subscribe so you don’t miss out?).

‘til next time!