Held during the Australian Grand Prix and attended by leading figures from across motorsport, the event highlighted the growing global reach of the charity founded by Sir Jackie Stewart.
His son Mark Stewart, Chairperson of the Trustees for Race Against Dementia, said the local support reflects a longstanding connection between the Stewart family and Australia.
“My father has always had a great relationship with this part of the world in Australia, and the Tasman series when he was racing out here with Jim Clark and Graham Hill originally,” Stewart told Speedcafe.
More than 400 attendees contributed around $500,000, which was doubled through Dementia Australia matching the funds.
The Melbourne dinner was one of several events held globally by Race Against Dementia, which is an official Formula 1 charity.
While similar initiatives have taken place in Singapore, the UK and Monaco, Stewart said the welcome in Australia was “unbelievable” and was one he wished to continue down under.
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The charity, now in its 10th year, was founded after Stewart’s wife, Helen, was diagnosed with dementia.
It focuses on accelerating research through a model inspired by motorsport itself — speed, innovation, and collaboration — with the ultimate goal of finding a cure for dementia, and the funds raised have already proven impactful.
“In that 10 years, what we do is we find young researchers. Essentially young. We give them five year fellowships,” Stewart explained.
“So five years and we pay for their first five years. And often what happens, they do such a great job, they start running after their five years, they’re running in a whole new department.”
That approach has helped amplify the impact of funds raised, with initial investments often attracting significantly more support from external backers.
“What we’ve done as a charity, let’s say we raised 20 million, is you could probably times that by five in terms of what else and the money we’ve brought in,” he said.
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The organisation is also tapping into Formula 1 expertise to accelerate research.
Partnerships with teams and technical specialists have already delivered tangible results.
“We’ve got one of their predictive technology people working together with one of our fellows in London,” Stewart added.
“And we’re already speeding up the process of a test in a petri dish, which would normally give you answers in weeks, and then give it to you in days now.
“So we can do like eight times as many tests eight times as quickly. So it’s really exciting.”
High-profile support has been critical, with figures from F1 and other sports lending their voice to the cause, including Stefano Dominicalli, Sir Alex Ferguson, and David Beckham.
For Stewart, the initiative’s origins remain deeply personal.
He described his mother as central not only to his father’s racing career but also to the motivation behind the charity.
“I mean this was done because of my mum. And she was an amazing woman. An amazing support to my father,” he said.
“She is a part of his story. She’s the world champion as well.”
The broader mission though extends beyond a single family.
Stewart highlighted both the urgency of finding a cure and the potential for prevention through deeper understanding of the disease.
“Why is it one in three people today born today will die with dementia? Why is that? Is it environmental? Is it the gut? And we’re starting to see some interesting data on that. Data is everything,” he said.
The impact of dementia has also been felt strongly within the Australian motorsport community, particularly with the passing of touring car legend Allan Moffat last year after a long battle with the disease.
For Stewart and Race Against Dementia, the focus now is on building momentum, funding research, and expanding global reach.
“We will find a cure,” he said.
“And start understanding and prevention, and how people can live a healthy life.”
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