Yesterday (Sunday)’s Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix welcomed a record crowd, as well as breaking records for the biggest attendance at a Formula 1 event anywhere in the world.
Some 419,000 people attended Albert Park across the four days of the motorsport event, while more than 128,000 attended the race on Sunday. Roughly 123,247 people were in Melbourne to watch qualifying on Saturday. The rest of the weekend was made up of three practice sessions and support races.
The record 419,000 attendance beats the previous 401,000 figure from Albert Parks’ first turn as host in 1996. Previously, the race had been held in Adelaide.
The Australian Grand Prix was cancelled at the final hour in 2020 at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the 2021 event also called off for the same reason.
Andrew Westacott, Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive, told ABC News: “I love that when we all walked around the venue that people were smiling, people were having fun, and people were rejoicing about what makes our city great.”
Westacott also recently revealed that almost half of ticket holders for the event were women, an increase he put down to the improving popularity of the sports thanks to hit Netflix documentary series, Drive to Survive.
Some 40% of attendees were women, compared to a traditional 75%-25% male-female split.
Image: Spencer Davis on Unsplash