Making our mark in Magic City: Aston Martin F1's MI/AMI GP journey

Rob Bloom, Chief Marketing Officer, Aston Martin F1

Arriving in Miami last week for the city’s inaugural Formula One race, you were struck by the place’s vividly unique cultural identity.

From the azure skies and vibrant art deco architecture of South Beach to the towering palms that line every street corner and the Latino pulse that thunders through the city, this is a place of stunning contrasts and intensity.

It’s an incredible locale for a race – and, across the grid, teams made sure to capture that unique vibe in their activation.

"We arrived in Miami with an alternative mission: to make our mark by leaving a positive impact on the city and its community."

At Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One? Team, we drank up that local culture too. But while the paddock was wall-to-wall with celebrities and VIPs, we arrived in Miami with an alternative mission: to make our mark by leaving a positive impact on the city and its community.

We believe the next phase of fan engagement is about inviting fans in and making a positive and lasting mark wherever we compete. That’s why we launched I / AM at the start of the team’s journey last year – as a unique platform for fans and creators to bring their thing and have a voice.

Landing in Miami, we wanted to give our Stateside fans the opportunity to get even closer to the team and co-write our first Miami Grand Prix story – enabling fans to feel invested in everything we do.

To achieve that, we reached out to Miami’s local creators and artists – people with the desire to express both themselves and their fandom through their creativity. By sharing our values of self-expression, they were the perfect people to co-author our Miami Grand Prix story, creating murals, stories and photos that shone a fresh light on our activities and on the city and its creators.

In the Miami paddock, we ushered local fans behind F1’s velvet curtain, offering them eye-opening paddock and garage tours – the sort of behind-the-scenes access that money simply can’t buy.

We collaborated with local TikTok creators to bring the paddock and garage story to life in authentic and vivid ways – it gave them an incredible outlet for their stories, and it gave us the opportunity to experience first-hand how we’re portrayed through the raw and unfiltered focus of the social media magnifying glass.

"We believe the next phase of fan engagement is about inviting fans in and making a positive and lasting mark wherever we compete."

We brought celebrated entertainment and wildlife photographer Conor McDonnell onboard for the weekend. Conor was fully embedded inside the team, and it was an honour to experience our activities captured through his lens. From F1 fan to co-creating our story through his unique perspective – it’s the fulfilment of our I / AM programme in action.

Off-track, we held an exclusive meet-and-greet session with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel for more local F1 fans. And, together with our Title Partner, Cognizant, we visited a downtown school – Carol City Middle – with Sebastian and a selection of AMF1 team members. Our aim was to discuss each of their personal motorsport journeys and to inspire more students to pursue learning in STEM subjects.

On Sunday, we invited legendary DJ Calvin Harris to be part of our story, straight from entertaining and engaging local fans at a huge concert in downtown Miami on Saturday night.

Having made our mark, and at the end of such a busy weekend, we also felt a responsibility to make sure we left no trace. So we partnered with a local charity – Health in the Hood – to encourage our race-going fans to engage in a site clean-up and litter-pick after the race had finished.

No journey should be taken alone, and we were humbled and grateful for our fans, the local community and its creators for sharing that ride with us. We came away not only struck by the intensity and vibrancy of the city of Miami and its people, but also by the power of sport to bind, unite and excite.

"Having made our mark, and at the end of such a busy weekend, we also felt a responsibility to make sure we left no trace."

As Formula One begins to write an incredible fresh chapter in the United States, we feel proud to have found the people and the voices with which to build and share a deeper collaboration.

The power of I / AM is its ability to discover and amplify new and unique voices. Our team's passion and spirit are only elevated by the values we share with our fans and partners.

Everyone has a story to tell, and together we did just that in Miami as we continue our team’s journey, and as #WeClimbTogether.