F1 Australian Grand Prix crowds break Melbourne records – again

Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

More than 480,000 fans walked through the gates of the 2026 Formula One Australian Grand Prix across four days, in the fifth consecutive record for the event in its Melbourne history.

The "estimated" attendance of 483,934 reported for the 2026 event is short of the all-time Australian Grand Prix record of approximately 520,000, set in 1995, its final year in Adelaide.

Record numbers of fans passed through the gates on Thursday – when there was no Formula One on track, beating the previous record of 77,400 attendees in 2005 – and Friday.

Saturday and Sunday saw the second-highest attendance on record, according to the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, with the all-time race-day high for the Albert Park event remaining a claimed 154,000 fans in 1996.

Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images

Nearly 150,000 additional spectators attended the 2026 Australian Grand Prix than in 2019, and approximately 65,000 more than in 2022, its first running since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 race.

Fans who attended the 2026 race will be the last to see Albert Park Circuit in its current form, before the pit building – constructed for the first Melbourne race in 1996 – is torn down and replaced by an all-new structure.

Construction is due to finish ahead of the 2028 Australian Grand Prix, with the 2027 race expected to use complete pit garages alongside temporary hospitality suites sized for 2500 guests, PlanetF1 reports.

The pit building upgrade has come under scrutiny in recent days, after a report by the Victorian Auditor-General Office found it will cost $115 million more than initially planned, now $395 million, due to the discovery of asbestos in the ground.

The existing infrastructure at Albert Park was completed in 1995 in time for the first F1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne the following year, and does not meet the current standards required by Formula One and its governing body, the FIA.

The Victorian Government said it has no choice but to pay the higher price to complete the project.

"Unfortunately, there's not much you can do apart from deal with asbestos when you find it to ensure that you're providing a safe workplace and a safe building going forward," Victorian Treasurer Jaclyn Symes told ABC Melbourne Radio.

Photo by Simon Galloway/LAT Images

The Australian Grand Prix is a key event on the national sporting calendar and sees ticket prices rise each year, but it still runs at a loss, the Victorian Government spending $102 million to fund it in 2024, the ABC reports.

Australian Grand Prix organisers signed a deal with Formula One four years ago to host the event at Albert Park until at least 2037, with at least five runnings of the race between 2023 and 2035 to be first on the calendar.

That clause was taken up in 2024, 2025, and 2026.

• 1995 – 520,000 (last event in Adelaide)
• 1996 – 401,000 first event in Melbourne)
• 1997 – 289,000
• 1998 to 2003 data not readily available
• 2004 – 360,885
• 2005 – 359,000
• 2006 – 301,800
• 2007 – 301,000
• 2008 – 303,000
• 2009 – 286,900
• 2010 – 305,000
• 2011 – 298,000
• 2012 – 313,700
• 2013 – 323,000
• 2014 – 314,900
• 2015 – 296,600
• 2016 – 272,300
• 2017 – 296,600
• 2018 – 295,000
• 2019 – 324,000
• 2022 – 419,114
• 2023 – 444,631
• 2024 – 452,055
• 2025 – 465,498
• 2026 — 483,934

Post-COVID-19 attendance, by day:

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner

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