Kelly Bertrand ticked off a big bucket-list item when she got to head across the ditch to her first ever Formula One Grand Prix, thanks to her pals at Lego. Here’s what it’s really like to be up-close to Max, Lando and Liam… and a whole lot of teeny little tyres!
I bet most F1 fans don’t burst into tears the second they sit down in a Grand Prix grandstand.
Clutching a Heineken and my tiny little mini McLaren made of Lego (more on that soon), I’m sitting right across from the Williams garages at the 2025 Melbourne Grand Prix. I can literally see Carlos Sainz (otherwise known as the most handsome man that has ever walked the earth) walking around his car before popping his helmet on. I start to sing Smooth Operator under my breath. To my surprise, the lady behinds me hears me and starts singing with me. We exchange a knowing smile. All is well. All is right.
And then, as the cars come out and take their places on the grid, their engines revving and tyres squealing, it all gets a bit too much and I feel my eyes leaking. I’m HERE AT A GRAND PRIX, it’s the stuff of dreams.
I’m a newish F1 convert – first through my husband Mike who introduced me to the sport when we first got together, and then through, of course, Drive to Survive, a glorious mashup of sport, drama, soap opera and jaw-dropping extravagance.
By myself with nothing but some wristbands, a stern warning from Mike to not spend too much on merch (lol good luck) and a bag stocked with both sunblock AND a poncho because yes, it was 37 degrees one day and 16 the next, I was ready to pop that F1 cherry.
A happy little camper
The reason I was there – well, apart from the race – was to check out the Build the Thrill fan zones that Lego are constructing at 13 of the races across the year (not out of actual Lego as my stupid brain first jumped to). In there was an adorable make and take station, where attendees, including myself could build their own mini F1 cars to their own specs, or in homage to their favourite teams. I was very quickly shamed by my absolutely terrible Lego building skills by the five-year-old next to me, so that was fun.
The Lego Pit Stop Activation
But the coolest part – and the part that actually matters for you, dear reader, was the showing off of the 10 F1 team car sets that you can buy from Lego shops and stockists. The Speed Champions series contains all of the teams’ cars, so you can collect them all if you’re fancy, or just pay homage to your favs. I mean F1 and Lego is a match made in heaven, to be sure – but seeing how excited the kids (ok and lots of not kids) were to take home a bit of the action was actually bloody cool.
Meet Oscar! (I still don’t think I did this 100% right… maybe Lance Stroll took it round the track a few times IYKYK)
Now armed with my mini McLaren – in my head it was Oscar’s car, of course – I had some company, and was really to enjoy the race.
LOOOOOK at them all I want them all!
What is it like to go to a F1 Grand Prix?
In short, incredible. More than 400,000 people packed out Albert Park over the four days of the Grand Prix, and the city of Melbourne was ALIVE with an energy I haven’t felt since before Covid. Everywhere you went there were excited people, dripping in merch and chatting to strangers about their favourite drivers, tyre strategies, whether or not Christian Horner and Toto Wolff would get into a scrap in 2025… it was pure magic.
I was a fancy pants with a grandstand ticket on the main straight, but honestly getting a ground pass would be perfect enough because there is SO MUCH to see and do, from epic pop ups from brands (like our pals from Shark Beauty), great food and beverage options, cool activations with games and interactive activities and so many cool cars to look at, plus heaps of huge screens to watch all the action (you can hear the track which massively adds to the vibe!).
Look I’m pretty thrilled at these action shots (shout out to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra because my God this CAMERA)
Despite the fact I’m a sports nut, this was my first time going to an event on such a huge scale, both in terms of its size and its worldwide popularity and hell, even if you’re not an F1 fan, it’s worth going to for the vibe. How cool is it to be around so many people that are absolutely frothing and just happy to be out there and alive and happy!?
And then you get to the race itself and oosh, despite the fact that it was absolutely BUCKETING down with rain, me, the aforementioned poncho and little Oscar were perfectly content watching these absolute triumphs of motoring engineering whizz around the track at impossible speeds. There was drama – crashes, penalties, more crashes – and there were upsets (poor Liam, I’m sure things will come right for him soon!). But mostly for me, there was just awe and excitement as I saw some of my favourite athletes up close in one of the world’s most cutthroat sports.
There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad preparation… right?
And now, every time I look at my cute little mini Lego version, I beam with happiness. My advice? If you’re a F1 or Drive to Survive fan, put going to a GP on your bucket list. Mine got ticked off far earlier than I ever thought, and I can tell you hand on heart I’m saving up to go again – this time with Mike, who, to his credit, was very graceful in missing out this time (to my face, anyway!).
In case you couldn’t tell, Kelly travelled to Melbourne thanks to Lego – you can find their cute little F1 sets here, if you want to bring the racing magic home