Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix History
History - Facts - Winners -2008 Schedule - Circuit
The Australian Grand Prix is a Formula One race held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Albert Park as part of the annual Formula One championship season.
Australian Grand Prix, was not part of the World Championship but featuring F1 open-wheeler racing vehicles, were held at various circuits around Australia for many years. A notable venue in the 1950’s was a road circuit at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia, for many years. They sometimes attracted the world's top drivers of the era, who competed against (and were challenged by) local entrants. The last such race was held in 1984.
Australia became part of the F1 world championship in 1985 with the last race of the season held on the street circuit in Adelaide. The Australian circuit, not as ridiculously tight as Monaco, was notoriously tough on drivers and gearboxes. The most famous Australian race there was undoubtedly the 1986 event, where Nigel Mansell, and Nelson Piquet in a Williams, and Alain Prost in a comparatively underpowered McLaren were still competing for the title.
In Australia in 1996, after the government of Jeff Kennett spent an undisclosed (but speculated to be quite large) amount, the race was shifted to a rebuilt Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne. The decision to hold the race in this part of Australia was controversial. A lot of protests were organized by the "Save Albert Park" group, who claimed that the race turned a public park into a private playground for much of the year.
Finally, they said that the claimed economic benefits of the race were false or exaggerated. The Australian race organizers and the government claimed that the economic benefits to the state outweighed the costs, and that the park's public amenities have been improved considerably by the works carried out for the race.
The idea of a permanent racing circuit has never really been addressed in Australia, but there is much speculation that the real reason for a street circuit is to provide a distinctive backdrop for television - a permanent race circuit would be unidentifiable and, from the perspective of the Formula One organizers, may as well be held in Europe at much lesser cost and inconvenience to them.
In any case, a substantial number of people do embrace (and attend) the Australian race at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit.
The Australian race was struck by tragedy in 2001, when a flying tire from a crash between Ralf Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve flew through a gap in the barrier fence and killed a volunteer track marshal.
The 2002 event saw the best performance by an Australian driver when Mark Webber, in the perennially uncompetitive Minardi, took advantage of the misfortune of other competitors to finish an unlikely fifth, holding off a fast-closing Mika Salo in a much faster Toyota. He and the Australian-born team owner Paul Stoddart became instant national celebrities well beyond the motor racing world, the minor placing receiving far more attention in Australia than Michael Schumacher's win.
Traditionally, Melbourne, Australia has hosted the opening round of the championship. This will change in 2006 because of the Commonwealth Games.
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