Australia holds the document for the best-attended Components 1 race weekend within the sport’s historical past. With attendance numbers ever-growing at Albert Park, may the nation quickly elevate the bar even greater?
November 12, 1995. Sunday night in Adelaide, Australia. Town reverberates to the sound of a Bon Jovi live performance, going down in entrance of a capability crowd in 40°C warmth, closing out the 1995 Australian Grand Prix weekend.
This was Components 1’s eleventh and last go to to Adelaide. The game had been visiting the South Australian capital since 1985. Adelaide liked Components 1 – and the sensation was mutual. On the game’s final go to, mechanics emerged unprompted from their garages waving “Thank You Adelaide” flags.
For that previous decade, the Adelaide race had all the time appeared as the ultimate spherical of the season and the journey Down Underneath was probably the most anticipated for these working within the sport annually, who appeared ahead to the relaxed, occasion environment of the season-closing race weekend.
The native followers turned out of their 1000’s for the ultimate Adelaide race. The occasion had all the time been nicely attended however the 1995 Australian Grand Prix broke all information for the best-attended F1 race weekend in historical past. The four-day occasion was attended by a complete of 520,000 followers – numbers which, formally, no different race has come near beating within the 30 years because the document was set.
210,000 have been in attendance on race day alone. It stays the biggest-ever single-day attendance for a sporting occasion in Australia and is a determine which has been bettered solely as soon as in Components 1, on the first United States Grand Prix to happen on the infield course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2000, when 250,000 followers have been current on the well-known brickyard.
Up to date rumours that Adelaide may return to host a race below the Pacific Grand Prix title amounted to nothing – however ardour for motor racing continues to be sturdy within the metropolis that was F1’s premier vacation spot within the Eighties and Nineties. The Adelaide Motorsport Pageant attracts big crowds when it takes place yearly one week earlier than F1’s go to to the brand new house of the Australian Grand Prix.
Why Did Components 1 Select Melbourne?
With followers, groups and drivers all proud of Adelaide’s presence on the Components 1 calendar, it’s value questioning why the game ever left. Nicely, just like the reasoning for a lot of issues in Components 1, it got here right down to cash and politics.
A sporting occasion is, evidently, a jewel in a tourism crown. Melbourne had skilled monetary troubles within the Nineties, from the collapse of banks to a recession, unemployment and funds deficits. Town had bid for the 1996 Olympic Video games, however misplaced the deal to Atlanta.
Businessman Ron Walker and Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett noticed the Australian Grand Prix as the reply to no less than a few of its issues and inked a profitable and secret deal in 1992 to deliver the race to a brand new house in Melbourne when the prevailing contract with Adelaide expired in 1995, with the intention of building Melbourne as a number one international sporting vacation spot.
The story goes that the Adelaide promoter was unaware of this deal till one yr later. The rising bills of the occasion, together with a current monetary disaster of its personal, meant that when it was offered with the information, Adelaide was in no match state to make a counter provide. The race was heading to Melbourne and the information was formally introduced in December 1993.
Melbourne’s Controversial Beginnings
On each side of the story have been sad locals. The controversial resolution for the Australian Grand Prix to maneuver east was met with backlash from these in Adelaide who didn’t need to lose their race, in addition to some in Melbourne who didn’t notably fancy the F1 circus descending upon their metropolis annually.
A park is for the folks, not for revenue. That was the view of environmentalists who had issues over the game’s use of Albert Park. In 1994, the community-based protest motion Save Albert Park was based, talking out on the destruction of pure habitats, environmental harm from the development of race-related services and noise and air air pollution throughout the occasion weekend.
The motion would go on to stage rallies in Melbourne, and even block development work on the monitor. The early years of protesting noticed as many as 700 arrested as 20,000-strong marches made their means by way of town.
Regardless of the detractors, Melbourne would get its first style of Components 1 in March 1996. What was the enjoyable, finish of season go to to Australia turned a way more severe affair, with Melbourne internet hosting the all-important season-opening occasion. Nevertheless, simply as Adelaide had suited being the season-ending vacation spot, the brand new race in Melbourne suited its season-opening slot – one which it could maintain for all however two years from 1996 to 2019.
The inaugural 1996 race weekend in Melbourne had a grand whole of 401,000 attendees, with 150,000 in attendance on race day itself. Though a disputed determine (extra on that later) the latter quantity stays the all time race day determine in Melbourne, whereas it could be 26 years earlier than the weekend whole eclipsed 400,000 once more.
Public Transport Strike in 1997
Only one yr later, for its second look on the calendar in 1997, attendance at Albert Park dropped by over 100,000 for the weekend, right down to 289,000. The race weekend was marred for spectators by a public transport strike, when members of Victoria’s Public Transport Union known as for a snap strike which ran from Friday to Sunday of race weekend.
The Public Transport Company had assisted 70% of the group in reaching the circuit within the race’s inaugural yr by tram and bus. Whereas efforts have been made to counter the strike with 650 non-public coaches readied to ferry followers to and from the monitor, the strike motion decimated the attendance figures for the weekend. After 101,000 have been within the venue for qualifying on Saturday on the 1996 race, the 1997 race noticed simply 68,000 attend on Saturday. The race day determine dropped by virtually 50,000, to 107,000.
A House Hero Emerges
In 1998, race day attendance stood at 103,000, a determine which was nonetheless down on the earlier yr, regardless of the general public transport system being totally functioning this time round. Attendances for the following few years weren’t made obtainable, although figures launched for 2001 and 2002 confirmed that race day attendance had bounced again as much as just below 130,000.
In 2002, Albert Park’s first house race hero emerged. Driving the unfancied Minardi, Mark Webber made his Components 1 debut on the monitor within the 2002 Australian Grand Prix and completed a wonderful fifth. The unlikely consequence noticed Webber and staff boss Paul Stoddart invited onto the rostrum after the official post-race ceremonies to have fun their achievement with the partisan crowd – an act for which they’d later obtain a £50,000 wonderful.
From 2004 to 2008, little doubt partially due to Webber’s presence on the grid, the race weekend’s general attendance remained at over 300,000. Nevertheless, by 2009, race day figures had dropped to a bit of over 100,000. The race suffered what was then its worst attendance up to now in 2009, with a four-day crowd of 286,000. The 2009 race was considerably of an anomaly. Held in late March, it clashed with the beginning of the Australian Soccer League season, whereas John Brumby – the then Premier of Victoria – cited the financial struggles and rise in unemployment as one other contributing issue to the decrease attendance.
Attendance figures bounced again in 2010 to 305,000 – the very best since 2005 – and remained steady over the following few years, peaking with 323,000 in 2013. Webber departed the grid after the 2013 season, however Australia had extra home-grown expertise to cheer on within the type of Daniel Ricciardo. The Perth-born ‘Honey Badger’ completed on the rostrum on the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, solely to have his achievement cruelly taken from him due to a post-race disqualification.
Regardless of renewed hopes for Aussie success within the type of Ricciardo, attendance figures started to say no at first of F1’s V6 hybrid period. An attendance of near 315,000 in 2014 can be the final time that decade that the weekend determine would eclipse 300,000. Components 1’s international recognition declined within the mid-2010s and with it, so too did the Australian Grand Prix’s spectator figures. For the primary time in its historical past, race day attendance dropped to below 100,000 in 2016, when the weekend determine was a worst-ever 272,000.
By 2019, the tide was starting to show as soon as extra. 2019 noticed the very best weekend attendance at Albert Park in 14 years, with a crowd of 324,000 attending over the 4 days – however any hope of additional development in 2020 was dashed by the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. The 2020 Australian Grand Prix weekend started towards a backdrop of uncertainty. McLaren withdrew their staff from the race after a staff member examined optimistic for the virus. Followers queued on the circuit gates on Friday morning solely to be turned away, because the Grand Prix was cancelled simply hours earlier than the opening follow session was scheduled to start. Melbourne’s tenure on the F1 calendar got here to a sudden, short-term cease.
Again & Larger Than Ever
After two years, the Australian Grand Prix ultimately returned in 2022. The F1-starved crowd confirmed up of their 1000’s on a reconfigured monitor structure, with expanded spectator areas. F1 was again in Melbourne, greater than ever. Within the time since Australia’s final precise F1 race in 2019, Drive to Survive had captured the imaginations of tens of millions and F1’s recognition was at an all-time excessive after a title showdown between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in 2021.
The weekend attendance determine broke Melbourne’s prime determine set in 1996, with a weekend crowd of just below 420,000. That was regardless of a government-imposed restrict of 130,000 followers per day, reportedly as a consequence of a scarcity of catering employees but in addition attributed to the continuing pandemic. With these limits gone in 2023, the attendance determine rose greater, to 445,000 and grew once more in 2024, to 452,000. Regardless of that, the race day attendance determine continues to be considerably in need of 1996’s reported 150,000 document.
With extra on-track motion from a packed help line-up – that includes the likes of Components 2, Components 3 and Supercars – attendance has elevated on Thursday and Friday on the monitor in comparison with earlier years. In 2024, Thursday’s determine was over 65,000, with Friday’s determine a robust 124,000. It was reported that 37% of attendees have been first-time guests to the Australian Grand Prix.
In 2024, the Australian Grand Prix was the second-best attended race of the season, bettered solely by the British Grand Prix at Silverstone which attracted 480,000 followers at its four-day occasion for the second yr in succession. For the primary time in its historical past, Friday tickets at Albert Park offered out in 2024, whereas Saturday had an attendance of near 131,000 and Sunday surpassed 132,000.
Why The Future Is Vibrant For Melbourne
Demand has been simply as excessive for Australian Grand Prix tickets in 2025. A “third-party international outage” resulted in ticket gross sales for the 2025 race through Ticketmaster being delayed by 24 hours. Once they ultimately turned obtainable, the most well-liked grandstands offered out quick, regardless of the controversial use of ‘dynamic pricing’ that elevated ticket costs considerably in accordance with demand.
These are grandstands which have been not too long ago redesigned to assist with the elevated demand for tickets. Forward of the 2023 race, grandstand capability was elevated from 39,000 to 44,000 throughout the circuit’s grandstands.
Capability has been elevated additional in 2025, which is about to be one other record-breaking yr. A brand new 840-seat grandstand has been constructed at Flip 6, whereas a lake pontoon and a further overpass ought to assist followers of their quest to get across the monitor as effectively as potential.
There’s already a watch on 2026, by which period the brand new Anzac Station shall be working close to the venue’s most northerly entrance (Gate 5), which – in idea – ought to additional ease followers’ each day commute to the monitor and maybe persuade organisers to extend their capability even additional with out risking detriment to the trackside expertise.
Albert Park has the longest contract with Components 1 of any venue on the present calendar. Melbourne is signed up as host of the Australian Grand Prix till no less than 2037, having signed two contracts within the house of six months in 2022.
In 2023, on his final race weekend as CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Company, Andrew Westacott stated that the prolonged new contract signifies that Albert Park has time to experiment with its race weekend. The thought of the Australian Grand Prix changing into an evening race normally finally ends up being mentioned each few years, whereas concepts about extending the occasion right into a week-long motorsport pageant have additionally been mooted. There’s additionally the potential of extending the race’s leisure alternative – an space during which the occasion maybe lacks in comparison with different large races on the calendar. Talking in 2023, Westacott was sure that the race will innovate as time goes on:
“The desire is within the sunshine [instead of a night race], however what I might additionally say is, as you evolve, the one factor that Victoria does nicely is innovate in main occasions. You’ve acquired to take a look at the 15-year horizon now and that’s why the Victorian authorities noticed that this [new race deal] was necessary to safe – you may truly do issues into the longer term. The nice factor is we’ve had a partnership with Components 1 since 1996 and subsequently you are able to do these items with a really sturdy relationship. So be open-minded might be the easy reply.”
Hope is renewed, too, for Australian success in Components 1 due to the arrival of Oscar Piastri. After rising by way of the junior ranks with Components 3 and Components 2 titles in successive years, Piastri made his F1 debut with McLaren in 2023 and is now a respectable entrance runner with the reigning Constructors’ Champions. He secured the primary two Grand Prix victories of his profession in 2024. Additional success for the Melbourne native will certainly increase ticket gross sales.
Regardless of the future holds for the Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne is right here to remain. Ought to the present momentum proceed, it might be solely a matter of time earlier than Albert Park’s attendance determine is excessive sufficient to problem that of the 1995 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide.
Are Australian Grand Prix Attendance Figures Correct?
Calculating race attendance figures just isn’t a precise science and methodology differs from venue to venue. Nevertheless, few races’ attendance figures come below as a lot scrutiny as these on the Australian Grand Prix.
Allegations of inflated figures are usually not helped by the truth that attendance figures for the Albert Park race have all the time been estimates, as revealed in 2008. It was additionally revealed that attendance figures included opponents and employees, in addition to free tickets – whether or not they have been used or not. The Save Albert Park group declare that together with these numbers inflates the attendance determine by round 15,000 per day of the occasion.
This reality got here below scrutiny once more in 2022, when the promoter argued that detailed figures are usually not disclosed as they’re “delicate from a safety and security perspective”. In September 2023, the Australian Grand Prix Company went to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to struggle an order to disclose its crowd-counting methodology.
