The only thing better than watching speed is feeling it yourself. There is a pleasing symmetry in pairing a Formula 1® weekend with an experience that raises your heart rate almost as fast as the racing itself. Call it the halo effect of horsepower: after witnessing the balletic farrago of a grid launch, you might feel emboldened to seek out your own hits of controlled peril.
While the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team engineers focus on coaxing aerodynamic calm out of extreme velocity, fans can enact their own interpretations of that pursuit, plunging from aeroplanes and tearing across deserts with the same gleeful disregard for gravity.
Here, then, is an eight-stop world tour of utterly unnecessary but immensely satisfying adventures, each within easy reach of an upcoming Grand Prix host city. Think of it as a guide to living your best race-adjacent life.
ABU DHABI, UAE—DUNE BASHING IN LIWA
One minute you’re in the raffish splendour of Yas Marina; the next, you’re belting across the Empty Quarter in a 4×4 with a driver whose approach to using the brakes is, well, ‘flexible’… Dune bashing in Liwa is the Arabian Peninsula’s most undiluted joyride: surfing vast amber waves of sand as camels watch on with the mild disdain of creatures who’ve seen it all before. For those with an appreciation of engineering finesse, the physics of sliding laterally down a slip face at improbable angles provides a strangely satisfying echo of racing aerodynamics.
LAS VEGAS, USA—HELICOPTERING INTO THE ABYSS
Few Formula 1® venues do spectacle like Vegas, a city that considers understatement an aesthetic failing. Continue the theatricality by boarding a helicopter from the Strip bound for the Grand Canyon. The approach – churning rotors, lurching thermals, the desert glowing like scorched copper – delivers the rare pleasure of feeling small in the very grandest way. Some operators drop down to the canyon floor for champagne and, if you want maximum drama, take a twilight flight when the lambent sun turns the Colorado River into a seam of molten gold.
BARCELONA, SPAIN—COASTEERING ON THE COSTA BRAVA Catalonia excels at combining extreme adventure and natural beauty; nowhere is this better showcased than in the sport of coasteering, a delicious blend of cliff-jumping, scrambling and sea-swimming. A short dash from Barcelona, the Costa Brava’s honeycomb coves offer natural obstacle courses. Leap from sun-warmed ledges into caerulean waters before hauling yourself onto barnacled shelves. The combination of heat, salt and endorphins is both cleansing and thrilling.
NETHERLANDS—HANG GLIDING
Easily reachable from the F1 track in Zandvoort, the Netherlands’ pancake-flat landscape means there are few places in Europe where your field of vision will be more panoramic than when you’re airborne with a hang glider (and an instructor, of course) to steer you above the greenery. Tandem flights with Delta Fly Adventures soar above the landscape of the Westerwolde, rich in glowing green meadows, looping streams and grasslands, red-roofed villages and, yes, inevitably, more than a couple of windmills.
AUSTRIA—VIA FERRATA CLIMB
A guided via ferrata climb on the mighty Schlossalm peak delivers high-alpine drama without requiring extreme mountaineering bravado. A via ferrata (meaning ‘iron path’) is a protected climbing route, secured with steel cables, ladders and iron rungs, allowing you to clip in and climb safely. With an expert guide, you’ll move across airy ledges and vertical rock, your boots scraping limestone as cowbells drift up from far below. Pine forests give way to vast Hohe Tauern views of glacier-sculpted peaks, plunging valleys and a sky that feels improbably close. It’s thrilling rather than terrifying; think of it as a slow, focused ascent where every handhold sharpens the senses.
MIAMI, USA—SPEEDBOATING THROUGH BISCAYNE BAY
Miami doesn’t really do subtlety, so neither should you. Tear across Biscayne Bay in a speedboat and soak up the view of skyscrapers that glitter, pelicans who scatter, and occasionally a pod of dolphins who might just try and keep up with you. For F1 fans used to the visual theatre of Miami’s street circuit, there’s something pleasingly on-brand about skimming across water at a velocity that demands sunglasses and bravado.
MONTRÉAL, CANADA—JET-BOATING THE LACHINE RAPIDS
If the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve gives you a taste for g-forces, the St Lawrence River will gladly provide more. The Lachine Rapids are a frothing labyrinth of standing waves that jet boats attack with gleeful elan. Expect to get thoroughly soaked while also submitting to the involuntary grin that comes when the physics of the human body and a gargantuan body of crashing water meet. Afterwards, stroll back into the genteel streets of Old Montréal with the swagger of someone who has briefly impersonated an Aston Martin water prototype.
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL—RAPPEL AGAINST THE SEA
Rappelling (or abseiling if you’re European – they mean the same thing) doesn’t require any experience as long as you’re clipped onto an instructor. And although a descent from a 150-foot height may not be the fastest activity on this list, it certainly delivers on the adrenaline front. Located in the beach city of Guarujá, just 50 miles from São Paulo, you can inch your way down from the summit of the Morro do Maluf lookout point. Take your time to soak up the knockout views of the city, the cream-white sands, and the dense, rainforest-smothered mountains beyond.
