Interest in the Melbourne race is higher than a year ago

According to Andrew Westacott, Executive Director of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC), this year’s Melbourne race will be held in a special atmosphere as, firstly, the circuit in Albert Park celebrates its 70th anniversary, and secondly, on April 2 – birthday of Jack Brabham, the legendary Australian racing driver, three-time world champion.

Andrew Westacott: “The first Formula Libre race, called the Australian Grand Prix, took place in 1953 at the Lake Albert circuit, so we are celebrating its 70th anniversary. In addition, the upcoming Grand Prix will take place on Sir Jack Brabham’s birthday, so Lady Margaret, his widow, will be joining us, which is also a lovely moment.

It’s great that the AGPC contract to host a Formula 1 race has been extended to 1937, because it’s always good when the future is seen in such a distant perspective. People can plan their careers, we can rebuild the track and it’s great for Melbourne that we were able to save the race and not let Sydney take it down.

Last year, more than 400,000 spectators visited the Grand Prix in four days, and 128,000 on the day of the race alone. But this year, judging by the number of tickets sold, there will be even more people. It looks like 130,000 fans will gather in the stands on Sunday.

It’s good that this weekend we see not only the performance of Oscar Piastri in Formula 1, but also Jack Duane in F2. In addition, there are young Australian drivers in F3. All this will bring us a real influx of audience. Oscar’s childhood home is just 10km from the track and the go-kart track where he trained is 16km, so it’s all an interesting story and fans can’t wait to see him drive a McLaren car.

In general, the presence of Australian riders is a very important factor. Once Mark Webber played in Formula 1, then we were generally lucky when Daniel Ricciardo also showed up. According to our statistics, if there is an Australian on the starting field, ticket sales increase by about 10%.”