A new contract inked between the Australian Grand Prix Corporation and Supercars last year has secured the category’s short-term future at the event.
Speedcafe can reveal the current deal is for just two years, 2025 and 2026, but carries with it a strong appetite to continue well beyond.
Albert Park is contracted to host the Australian Grand Prix until at least 2037, and event CEO Travis Auld views local support categories as an integral part of that future.
“Supercars, as the premier racing category in Australia, is a critical part of our event,” he told Speedcafe.
“It’s what grounds us back to Melbourne, Australia. It’s what makes us different.
“If you talk to teams, F1 teams around the world, they love watching the Supercars races, and so the answer is [Supercars is] very important.”
The Australian Grand Prix operates a unique model on the F1 calendar with track action across four days instead of three.
That sees Supercars take centre stage on Thursday before forming part of the broader spectacle when the international support categories (F2 and F3) and F1 begin from Friday.
It makes for a bumper program for fans at the event, one that has grown in recent years with the addition of F1 feeder categories Formula 2 and Formula 3.
Despite the increased international flavour the event now has, Supercars remains a key ingredient as it has been every year since 1996 (with the notable exception of 2007).
Throughout that period, Supercars has been a strong selling point for fans even though its importance has diminished slightly in recent years as F1 has grown in popularity.
The addition of F2 and F3 has seen Supercars bumped from the secondary pit lane to now reside on the outside of the final corner.
It’s a new location for 2025 after it was squeezed into the infield behind the Formula 2 and Formula 3 paddocks last year, a location that made it impossible to welcome fans.
For this year, significant effort has gone into opening the paddock up to fans once again as an integral part of the newly created Motorsport Straight precinct, which also houses Porsche Carrera Cup.
“We had a good conversation for the ‘24 event with the Supercars guys and in some ways left it in their hands about whether they want them in the infield or the outfield,” Auld explained.
“They decided to go on the infield, but had concerns about access for their fans and, as it turned out, they were valid, because it’s quite difficult for fans to be able to access their garages over race weekend.
“So we revisited that after the ‘24 race, and Supercars made the decision to move to the outfield, but on the basis that we wanted to create a motorsport precinct.”
As part of that, a Supercars-specific podium has been created on which they’ll celebrate three of the weekend’s four races.
Sunday’s race will use the main podium above the F1 pit lane for the presentation of the Larry Perkins Trophy, with Porsche also continuing to use the main podium.
“We felt, working with Supercars, that there’d be some benefit for fans by using a podium in the Motorsport Straight for the Friday, Saturday period,” Auld explained.
“Either that works really well and they may want to do it [on] Sunday in 2026; it may not be the outcome they want and we move it back to the main podium.
“We’re just trying new things together to try and bring their fans closer to the action.”
Supercars will also feature at the all-new Fan Festival, set to be held at Melbourne Park Oval from next Wednesday, with teams and drivers to be presented to the crowd at the free event.
This year’s Australian GP is expected to bring with it a record crowd after organisers increased the capacity of the Albert Park venue over last year.
The 2024 event boasted a four-day crowd of 452,000, around 90,000 shy of absolute capacity for the venue – most of which exists on the opening day.
“Thursday is the big opportunity for that,” Auld admitted.
“We’ve done some things with them this year, Supercars, to try and grow that, and I think we’ll continue to do so.”
While the current contract exists only until next year, Auld insisted Supercars is an integral part of the event long-term.
“We did a two-year deal with Supercars,” Auld said.
“You shouldn’t read into that that’s about how long they’re going to be here for, it’s just us trying to work out the right approach to growing the sport together.
“In our plans, if we think forward, given we’ve got a contract until 2037, none of those plans include a time without Supercars,” he added.
“They know that; we know that. For us, it’s about how we best promote the category together.”
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