Capitalising on massive F1 growth here and abroad, together with the popularity of Melbourne-born McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, Paddock 43 podcast hosts Patricia Valeri-Mellior and Eleanor Baillieu are building an inclusive community of racing enthusiasts.
It’s Sunday afternoon in Melbourne, and a recently refurbished art deco pub in Armadale is alive with the energy of open-wheel racing cars and F1 fans. The Las Vegas Grand Prix is broadcasting live on the Orrong Hotel’s multiple television screens. It’s a pivotal race for Red Bull driver Max Verstappen and championship leaders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Verstappen meets the chequered flag first, followed by McLaren’s Norris. Melbourne’s own, Piastri, missed out on podium, and the hits didn’t stop there. Both McLaren drivers were disqualified for having excessive skid wear, meaning neither brought home the points desperately needed in their bid for the 2025 driver’s championship.
The post-race mood at the Orrong is jubilant, nonetheless. This is only Piastri’s third season, papaya-wearing patrons tell each other. He will take home a championship, if not this year, then soon.
It’s a sentiment echoed by F1 podcaster and commentator Patricia Valeri-Mellior. Dressed in a custom white racing suit and sporting a cap emblazoned with the words Paddock 43, Valeri-Mellior looks every bit the part.
The watch party was put together by Valeri-Mellior and Eleanor Baillieu, who have hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok and host a weekly F1-oriented podcast. They tell me this is a special race for them because the time difference with Las Vegas means Melburnians can gather together to relish in the F1 spectacle.
“Our very first watch party was the Japan Grand Prix in 2023,” says Valeri-Mellior. “Maybe 15 people showed up. Now we max out RSVPs at 200 people, and sometimes more people just rock up.”
The Orrong Hotel is adjacent to Toorak and a well-known ‘local’ for sporting fans and Melbourne’s well-heeled. Its proximity to the studio that Valeri-Mellior and Bailieu record their podcast was the genesis for it becoming groundzero for the Paddock 43 community, however.
“The studio is across the road. And when we started the podcast, we thought, let’s meet at the Orrong Hotel first, have a couple of wines and be a little bit more relaxed. The staff here were used to seeing a predominantly male audience on Monday nights and asked us what brought us in. So we got to know them,” says Ballieu.
When the F1 experts were looking to hold raceday get-togethers for their growing fanbase, management at the Orrong offered a room free-of-charge for Paddock 43ers to gather in. The pub already had coveted access to broadcast the race, Valeri-Mellior explains, and loved seeing women leading the way in a typically male-dominated sport.
“We get to meet a lot of our followers, and connect with people IRL as opposed to online. Eighty per cent of people that show up are listeners, we have an incredibly tight, niche community,” says Valeri-Mellior.
It’s a community that is growing, both here and abroad. Race day eyeballs increased by 31% year over year, according to data from Network 10. Attendance at Melbourne’s own Grand Prix has surged 43% over the last six years. Forty-four per cent of attendees at Australia’s Albert Park race are women.
Valeri-Mellior and Baillieu note that they love that their commentary and events appeal to both men and women and are looking to create a “safe space“ for all F1 fans. They are also quick to give thanks to male allies for helping to broadcast what they are doing.
They credit radio and former Channel Nine journalist Clint Stanaway for being instrumental in providing their first national television opportunities. Stanaway is a longtime F1 fan and invited the women to appear on the Weekend Today show to do pre- and post-mortems of the races. He has now stepped away from television but, Felix van Hoff, who has since filled the Today show’s weekend anchor shoes, has followed the podcast “since day one.” He too has encouraged the Paddock 43 ladies to connect with mainstream Weekend Today show audience:
A safe space: building a female-friendly F1 community
The gender split at the watch parties leans toward a female majority. In attendance at the Orrong is Bayside resident Freya Adcock, who appreciated the chance to gather “with other women that are interested in the same thing” that she can “yell at the screen” with. Adcock arrived with Jeanine Phillips, who leads Style A Home Bayside – and knows Piastri’s father who also resides in the Brighton area.
Phillips is wearing a Ferrari hat and says while the Italian team has her heart, she is also a supporter of Melbourne’s own F1 hero. This event provides an environment for working women and mothers to celebrate the sport, Philips says.
The watch parties have also fostered real-life connections, Paddock 43’s hosts say, recalling people meeting, networking for travel, and even dating.
Looking ahead, the hosts envision expanding their community beyond get togethers in Melbourne and hosting trips to far-flung racetracks. A “Paddock 43 travel tour” would allow fans to attend live races overseas, moving beyond the few time-zone-friendly races that events in Australia can accommodate, they say.
For now, however, Valeri-Mellior and Baillieu are focused on the current F1 season, which has been full of twists and turns. Most podcasts stop within 18 months or a year, they note, but this dynamic duo is “three years on and still going strong.”
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