The 2023 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix has set a new Melbourne attendance record, for the second year in a row.
Formula 1 has reported a four-day crowd at Albert Park of 444,631, surpassing the 2022 figure by 25,517.
It also beats the biggest event attendance figure for the 2022 season as a whole, when 440,000 flocked to the Circuit of The Americas over three days for the United States Grand Prix.
Melbourne’s Thursday crowd was 60,832, the highest since 2014, while both Friday and Saturday produced fay records of 122,927 and 129,748, respectively.
Today, the official attendance figure is 131,124, the second-highest Sunday figure on record, and beating last year’s race day figure by 2830.
The 2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix featured a packed support programme with the FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 Championships racing at Albert Park for the very first time, while the Repco Supercars Championship continued with the four-race Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint, and Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia kicked off its season.
The record crowd is in line with predictions from outgoing AGPC CEO Andrew Westacott during last summer’s KTM Summer Grill series on Speedcafe.com, after four-day and race day tickets sold out within hours of going on sale in December 2022.
“We set the bar very high in 2022,” he said.
“It was the bookend of COVID after the awful events of March 13, 2020 and everyone has now seen that Formula 1 puts on a great show in Melbourne.
“To have Formula 2 [and] Formula 3 there as well, I think we’re going to actually surpass the numbers that we had in 2022.”
Race start this afternoon is due at 15:00 AEST, with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen starting from pole position and Mercedes’ George Russell also on the front row.
F1 will remain at Albert Park until at least 2037.
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