SMBtech is at the Melbourne Grand Prix and touring the circuit in the days leading up to the race – and the race itself. The whole event is a great festival in Melbourne with all manner of technology, stands and classic cars surrounding the main race itself. What follows is what caught our eye – newest updates are at the top:
Tech and automotive at the 2023 Melbourne GP
Literally the local boy, from Brighton, just down the road, now racing for McLaren. Oscar Piastri gives SMBtech a wave.
The best driver in the history of motor racing gives SMBtech the thumbs up.
My new chums the martials sensationally shared their snags. Hubby left early to watch the main race on TV. It’s not a terrible idea. The F1 festival is fantastic all week, but the final race is hard to follow from around the circuit. Especially if you’re under 6ft and don’t have a seat in the stands.
Just a regular car driving round Melbourne streets looking for a park.
Another recommended evening retreat treat is Storyville. An amazing, fantasy-themed, phenomenal cocktail bar.
Let’s face it, you want to go here, but you’re not getting in.
Here’s the electric Ford ‘Mustang’ Danny Ric liked that we covered the day before.
To be frank, on Sunday, these headphones with embedded commentary are a very good idea as it’s a struggle to hear anything over the loudspeakers once the cars spread out around the track and, unless you’re in front of a big screen (there aren’t as many around the track as there should be), you’ll struggle to know what’s going on. This isn’t so much of an issue in qualifying and shorter, lesser races.
The snappily titled Pit Stop Turn 14 area has many displays and activities that will please and interest those who don’t even like Formula 1…
Karting Australia gets you into racing no matter your age.
Here we have the Defence Force recruiters. Next to them is the UNSW Canberra Academy Racing Club.
LANdu is a regular local LAN, er, do. It’ll be fun, though! Check it out here.
Deadly Science provides science resources to remote schools in Australia.
Mindflight7 does educational VR. This incudes, school VR incursions, VR career education programs, curriculum integrated programs, professional development, school VR room implementation and content development.
BAE Systems is a defence contractor and will be involved with the AUKUS Submarine contracts.
SportsGrad helps you get a career in sport. It also has a podcast.
Will VR public transport safety be as big a hit as Dumb Ways to Die?
Melbourne University Racing had a stand for their engineering and racing team.
This is a school we’d be happy to attend.
Robogals is a great Monash, STEM initiative for women.
The Melbourne GP had an Expo tent for local STEM initiatives.
Full-size wheels and wheel-guns. It’s not as simple as the teams make it look.
Drone Legion is a VR drone racing game made by Aussie developers, Dark Shadow Studios. They had contests and prizes for their VR eSport.
It was good catching up with the OpenText crew even though, despite the recent $6Bn takeover they still hadn’t been able to afford a new tablecloth (or pens).
Bremont is the Official Timepiece Maker of the resurgent Williams F1 team. It’s not quite an official parterner like IWC is with Mercedes, but… maybe one day.
We hadn’t heard about a new, premium, British watch brand, but Bremont has been around for 10 years. Founded by the English, English brothers, who were from an RAF family with interest in precision in engineering, the company wanted to bring watchmaking ‘home to Britain’ after both the American and UK watchmaking industries were decimated by the World Wars and the mandatory retooling of their factories… while Switzerland stayed neutral.
Bremont is based in Henley Upon Thames and sponsors the famous, local, Royal, rowing regatta. It also makes some high-spec parts for the Williams F1 team. These include the primary wheel hub nub (famously $10,000 each) and you get a used one of these with a watch purchase. Also, a Rocker Head Assembly, which helps with assembly of the rocker heads.
The UK Innovation Station contained some eclectic brands including JCB, OpenText, Grimshaw and Bremont.
