Supercars has a mixed hist0ry at the AGP when it comes to championship points, having long been a non-championship event due to issues such as race formats and TV rights.
In recent years it has become a fully-fledged part of the championship thanks to both the dedicated pit lane and an agreement between free-to-air broadcasters Seven (Supercars) and the Ten (AGP).
That, however, has come under some threat by the introduction of F2 and F3 to the AGP undercard, which as of this year has forced Supercars out of its own pit lane.
Supercars continued to deliver at this year’s AGP despite being ousted from the lane with four fascinating sprint races.
However what some perceive as a downgrade in terms of status at the event did prompt questions over the future of Supercars at Albert Park.
One potential solution to Supercars being moved down the pecking order could be return to non-championship racing, however that’s not something on the radar of Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO Travis Auld.
“I like it for points,” he told Speedcafe.
“I like everyone being here to race, and race for points. The legitimacy of that is, I think, important. And so my aim will always be to provide an opportunity where they can do that.
“It will be interesting to see what their view is [post-AGP] and whether they still feel that’s right. But you’ve asked me what I would like, and that’s what I would like.”
This year, the Supercars paddock at the AGP was void of free fan access, due to the tight squeeze of the Albert Park layout.
Having been unpopular with teams, one option for 2025 is an outfield paddock that would give fans much better access.
According to Auld, now the is the time for out of the box thinking.
“I think we’ve got to think outside the box a bit,” he said. “Because at the moment, we’re trying to jam things into a space, and all you’re doing is getting marginal improvement.
“You can do the same as I do, you can look at that map and say, ‘okay, you might move someone a little bit here, a little bit there’. It just a jigsaw puzzle. I think we’ve got to think about it differently.
“Let’s stop, let’s work out what we can do and we really use the momentum of the event, or the infrastructure we’ve got, that works in a way that [Supercars gets] more value out of the event.
“We can provide more value to them. I don’t know what that is, by the way. But certainly for me, that’s the best way to approach this rather than just trying to move them around.
“Unless they think they’re better off moving to the outfield. And we can make that work for them with a full access.
“Personally, I think that would actually work quite well from a fan point of view. Whether it works from a motorsport point of view, it’s not up to us to determine.”
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