Australia holds the report for the best-attended System 1 race weekend within the sport’s historical past. With attendance numbers ever-growing at Albert Park, might the nation quickly increase the bar even increased?
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 System 1’s eleventh and ultimate go to to Adelaide. The game had been visiting the South Australian capital since 1985. Adelaide beloved System 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 Beneath was one of the vital anticipated for these working within the sport annually, who appeared ahead to the relaxed, occasion ambiance of the season-closing race weekend.
The native followers turned out of their hundreds for the ultimate Adelaide race. The occasion had all the time been effectively 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 report was set.
210,000 had 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 System 1, on the first United States Grand Prix to happen on the infield course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2000, when 250,000 followers had been current on the well-known brickyard.
Modern rumours that Adelaide might return to host a race below the Pacific Grand Prix title amounted to nothing – however ardour for motor racing remains to be robust within the metropolis that was F1’s premier vacation spot within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties. The Adelaide Motorsport Competition attracts enormous crowds when it takes place yearly one week earlier than F1’s go to to the brand new residence of the Australian Grand Prix.
Why Did System 1 Select Melbourne?
With followers, groups and drivers all proud of Adelaide’s presence on the System 1 calendar, it’s price questioning why the game ever left. Nicely, just like the reasoning for a lot of issues in System 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 finances 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 at the very least a few of its issues and inked a profitable and secret deal in 1992 to convey the race to a brand new residence in Melbourne when the prevailing contract with Adelaide expired in 1995, with the purpose of creating Melbourne as a number one international sporting vacation spot.
The story goes that the Adelaide promoter was unaware of this deal till one 12 months later. The rising bills of the occasion, together with a latest 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 had been sad locals. The controversial determination for the Australian Grand Prix to maneuver east was met with backlash from these in Adelaide who didn’t wish to lose their race, in addition to some in Melbourne who didn’t significantly 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 considerations 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 injury from the development of race-related services and noise and air air pollution through 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 manner by way of town.
Regardless of the detractors, Melbourne would get its first style of System 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. Nonetheless, 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 will maintain for all however two years from 1996 to 2019.
The inaugural 1996 race weekend in Melbourne had a grand complete 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 will be 26 years earlier than the weekend complete eclipsed 400,000 once more.
Public Transport Strike in 1997
Only one 12 months 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 referred to 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 12 months by tram and bus. Whereas efforts had 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 had 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 nearly 50,000, to 107,000.
A Dwelling Hero Emerges
In 1998, race day attendance stood at 103,000, a determine which was nonetheless down on the earlier 12 months, regardless of the general public transport system being totally functioning this time round. Attendances for the following few years weren’t made out there, although figures launched for 2001 and 2002 confirmed that race day attendance had bounced again as much as slightly below 130,000.
In 2002, Albert Park’s first residence race hero emerged. Driving the unfancied Minardi, Mark Webber made his System 1 debut on the monitor within the 2002 Australian Grand Prix and completed a superb fifth. The unlikely end result noticed Webber and staff boss Paul Stoddart invited onto the rostrum after the official post-race ceremonies to rejoice their achievement with the partisan crowd – an act for which they’d later obtain a £50,000 superb.
From 2004 to 2008, little question partially due to Webber’s presence on the grid, the race weekend’s general attendance remained at over 300,000. Nonetheless, by 2009, race day figures had dropped to a bit over 100,000. The race suffered what was then its worst attendance thus far 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 most effective since 2005 – and remained secure 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 could be the final time that decade that the weekend determine would eclipse 300,000. System 1’s international reputation 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 most effective 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 in opposition to a backdrop of uncertainty. McLaren withdrew their staff from the race after a staff member examined constructive 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 observe 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 finally returned in 2022. The F1-starved crowd confirmed up of their hundreds on a reconfigured monitor format, with expanded spectator areas. F1 was again in Melbourne, larger 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 reputation 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 high determine set in 1996, with a weekend crowd of slightly below 420,000. That was regardless of a government-imposed restrict of 130,000 followers per day, reportedly resulting from a scarcity of catering workers but in addition attributed to the continued pandemic. With these limits gone in 2023, the attendance determine rose increased, to 445,000 and grew once more in 2024, to 452,000. Regardless of that, the race day attendance determine remains to be considerably in need of 1996’s reported 150,000 report.
With extra on-track motion from a packed assist line-up – that includes the likes of System 2, System 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 had 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 12 months in succession. For the primary time in its historical past, Friday tickets at Albert Park bought 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 by way of Ticketmaster being delayed by 24 hours. After they finally turned out there, the most well-liked grandstands bought out quick, regardless of the controversial use of ‘dynamic pricing’ that elevated ticket costs considerably in keeping with demand.
These are grandstands which had been lately 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 ready to be one other record-breaking 12 months. 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 an eye fixed 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 concept – 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 System 1 of any venue on the present calendar. Melbourne is signed up as host of the Australian Grand Prix till at the very least 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 competition have additionally been mooted. There’s additionally the opportunity of extending the race’s leisure alternative – an space by which the occasion maybe lacks in comparison with different massive races on the calendar. Talking in 2023, Westacott was sure that the race will innovate as time goes on:
“The choice is within the sunshine [instead of a night race], however what I’d additionally say is, as you evolve, the one factor that Victoria does effectively is innovate in main occasions. You’ve obtained to take a look at the 15-year horizon now and that’s why the Victorian authorities noticed that this [new race deal] was vital to safe – you possibly can really do issues into the long run. The nice factor is we’ve had a partnership with System 1 since 1996 and subsequently you are able to do this stuff with a really robust relationship. So be open-minded might be the straightforward reply.”
Hope is renewed, too, for Australian success in System 1 due to the arrival of Oscar Piastri. After rising by way of the junior ranks with System 3 and System 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 an actual science and methodology differs from venue to venue. Nonetheless, few races’ attendance figures come below as a lot scrutiny as these on the Australian Grand Prix.
Allegations of inflated figures will not be 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 rivals and workers, in addition to free tickets – whether or not they had 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 truth got here below scrutiny once more in 2022, when the promoter argued that detailed figures will not be 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 combat an order to disclose its crowd-counting methodology.
