Australian Grand Prix

This article is about the automobile motor race. For other uses, see Australian Grand Prix (disambiguation).

Australian Grand Prix

Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit
Race information
Number of times held	77
First held	1928
Most wins (drivers)	Lex Davison (4) Michael Schumacher (4)
Most wins (constructors)	McLaren (12)
Circuit length	5.303 km (3.295 miles)
Race length	307.574 km (191.071 miles)
Laps	58
Last race (2012)
Pole position
Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:24.922
Podium
1. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1h 34m 9.565s 2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault +2.139s 3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes +4.075s
Fastest lap
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:29.187

Promotional poster for the first Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide in 1985.

The Australian Grand Prix is a motor race held annually and is held to be the pinnacle of motor racing in Australia. The Grand Prix is the oldest surviving motor racing competition held in Australia having been held 77 times since it was first run at Phillip Island in 1928. Since 1985 the race has been a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship. It is presently held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit at Albert Park in Melbourne. Prior to its inclusion in the World Championship it was held at a multitude of venues in every state of Australia. It was a centrepiece of the Tasman Series between 1964 and 1972 and was a round of the Australian Drivers' Championship on many occasions between 1957 and 1983. It became part of the Formula One World Championship in 1985 and was held at the Adelaide Street Circuit in Adelaide, South Australia from that year to 1995, before moving to Melbourne in 1996.

The Australian Grand Prix is the first round of the Championship, having been the first race of each year, excluding 2006 and 2010, since the event moved to Melbourne. During its years in Adelaide, the Australian Grand Prix was the final round of the Championship, replacing the Portuguese Grand Prix in that respect. As the final round of the season, the Grand Prix hosted a handful of memorable races, most notably the 1986 and 1994 events which saw those respective titles decided.

Australian driver Lex Davison and German driver Michael Schumacher are the most successful drivers in the 83 year history of the event taking four wins each; while McLaren have been the most successful constructors with twelve victories, their success stretching well back into the pre-Formula One history of the race.

The current naming rights sponsor of the event is Australian airline Qantas. The most recent Australian Grand Prix was won by British driver Jenson Button.

History

Pre-war

While an event called the Australian Grand Prix is believed to have been staged in 1927 near Sydney, it is generally accepted that the Australian Grand Prix began as the 100 Miles Road Race held at the original Phillip Island road circuit in 1928. The inaugural race was won by Arthur Waite in what was effectively an entry supported by the Austin Motor Company, a modified Austin 7. For eight years races, first called the Australian Grand Prix in 1929, continued on the rectangular dirt road circuit. This was the era of the Australian 'special', mechanical concoctions of disparate chassis and engine that were every bit as capable as the Grand Prix machines imported from Europe. For all the ingenuity of the early Australian mechanic-racers Bugattis dominated the results, taking four consecutive wins from 1929-1932. The last Phillip Island race was in 1935 and the title lapsed for three years. An AGP style event was held on Boxing Day, 1936 at the South Australian town of Victor Harbor for a centennial South Australian Grand Prix before the Australian Grand Prix title was revived in 1938 for the grand opening of what would become one of the world's most famous race tracks, Mount Panorama just outside of the semi-rural town of Bathurst. Only just completed, with a tar seal for the circuit still a year away, the race was won by Englishman Peter Whitehead racing a new voiturette ERA B-Type that was just too fast for the locally developed machinery. One more race was held at a giant South Australian road circuit near the town of Lobethal in 1939 before the country was plunged into World War II.

Post-war

In the immediate post-war era racing was sparse with competitors using pre-war cars with supplies cobbled together around the rationing of fuel and tyres. Mount Panorama held the first post-war Grand Prix in 1947, beginning a rotational system fostered by the newly formed Australian governing body, CAMS. A mixture of stripped-down production sports cars and Australian 'specials' were to take victories as the race travelled amongst temporary converted airfield circuits and street circuits like Point Cook, Leyburn, Nuriootpa and Narrogin before, on the races return to Mount Panorama in 1952, the way to the future was pointed by Doug Whiteford racing a newly imported Talbot-Lago Formula One car to victory. Grand Prix machinery had already been filtering through in the shape of older Maserati and OSCAs and smaller Coopers but had yet to prove to be superior to the locally developed cars. The end of the Australian 'specials' was coming, but the magnificent Maybach-based series of specials driven exuberantly by Stan Jones would give many hope for the next few years.

Lex Davison, who for several years would experiment with sports car engines in smaller Formula 2 chassis, took his first of four victories in a Jaguar engined Formula 2 HWM in 1954, while the previous year Whiteford won his third and final Grand Prix as for the first time racing cars thundered around the streets surrounding the Albert Park Lake in inner Melbourne. That circuit, which for four brief years gave Australia the strongest taste of the grandeur surrounding European Grand Prix racing, was 40 years later very much modified, used to host the 1996 Australian Grand Prix as the modern Formula One world championship venue. The Grand Prix returned to Albert Park in 1956, Melbourne's Olympic Games year to play host to a group of visiting European teams, led by Stirling Moss and the factory Maserati racing team who brought a fleet of 250F Grand Prix cars and 300S sports racing cars. Moss won the Grand Prix from Maserati team mate Jean Behra. That 1956 race would inspire the next great era of the Grand Prix.

Tasman Formula

The growing influence of engineer-drivers Jack Brabham and a couple of years behind him New Zealander Bruce McLaren would transform the race. Brabham, who first won the Grand Prix in 1955 in an obsolete sports-bodied Cooper T40 Bristol he had brought home from his first foray into English racing, would test new developments for Cooper during the European winter, beginning a flood of Cooper-Climax Grand Prix machinery into Australia and New Zealand before Brabham started building his own cars, as well as the appearance of Lotus chassis as well, finally killing off the Australian 'specials'. With European Formula One restricted by the 1.5 litre regulations and big powerful 2.5 litre Australian cars were tremendously attractive to the European teams and when BRM Grand Prix team toured Australia during the summer of 1962, the seed grew that became the Tasman Series.

The top European Formula One teams and drivers raced the European winters in Australia and New Zealand from 1963 to 1969 playing host to a golden age for racing in the region for which the Australian Grand Prix (and the New Zealand Grand Prix) became jewels of the summer. The popularity of the Tasman formulae was directly responsible for 1966s 'return to power' in Formula One, and having spent years developing with Repco the Brabham cars and eventually the Oldsmobile based Repco V8s in his Brabhams in the Tasman series gave Jack Brabham the opportunity to unexpectedly dominate Formula One with a ready-proven lightweight car that left Ferrari and the British 'garagistes' struggling with their heavy, technically fragile or underpowered cars until the appearance of the Lotus-Cosworth late in 1967.

The stars of the era all visited the Tasman Series, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Timmy Mayer, Phil Hill, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Pedro Rodriguez, Piers Courage, leading teams from Cooper, Lotus, Lola, BRM, even the four wheel drive Ferguson P99 and finally, Ferrari, racing against the local stars, Brabham, McLaren, Denny Hulme, Chris Amon, Frank Gardner, Frank Matich, Leo Geoghegan and Kevin Bartlett. Brabham won the Grand Prix three times, McLaren twice, Clark twice, the second was his last major victory before his untimely death, winning a highly entertaining battle with Chris Amon at the 1968 Australian Grand Prix at Sandown Raceway. Graham Hill won the 1966 race with Amon winning the final Tasman formulae race in 1969 leading home Ferrari team mate Derek Bell for a dominant 1-2 at Lakeside Raceway.

Formula 5000

By the end of the decade European teams were increasingly reluctant to commit to the Tasman Series in the face of longer home seasons, but also having to develop 2.5 litre versions of their 3.0 litre F1 engines. Local Tasman cars were declining as well and after originally opting a 2.0 litre version of Tasman to be the future of the Australia Grand Prix, the overwhelming support for the already well established Formula 5000 saw natural selection force CAMS' hand.

For the first half of the 70s, the Tasman Series continued purely as a local series for Formula 5000 racers, but by 1976 the Australian and New Zealand legs fractured apart and the Australian Grand Prix separated from the remnants and became a stand-alone race once more. During this era the former Tasman stars, Matich, Geoghegan and Bartlett would continue on as a new generation of drivers emerged, some like Garrie Cooper (Elfin) and Graham McRae developing their own cars while others like Max Stewart, John McCormack and Alfredo Costanzo using European built cars, mostly Lolas. Matich won two Grand Prix is his own cars before Stewart and McRae each took a pair of wins. Towards the end of the 70s the race again became a home to returning European based antipodeans like Alan Jones and Larry Perkins with Warwick Brown winning the 1977 race, while the previous year touring car racer John Goss completed a remarkable double, becoming the first and only driver to win the Grand Prix and the Bathurst 1000.

Calder Park

Declining economy and the dominance of the local scene by Group C touring cars towards the latter part of the 70s saw Formula 5000 gradually fall out of favour. By 1980 the decision to replace was once again imminent however the form of Alan Jones in Formula One saw entrepreneur Bob Jane seize an opportunity to bring Formula One back as the Grand Prix Formula. The 1980 extravaganza held at Jane's Calder Park Raceway saw a combined field of Formula One and Formula 5000 padded out with the Australised version of Formula Atlantic cars, Formula Pacific. The newly crowned world champion, Jones swept the field aside in his Williams-Cosworth but with only two F1 cars entering and the continuing disintegration of F5000 saw Jane concentrate the next four Grands Prix on the Formula Pacific (later rebadged as Formula Mondial) category and importing Formula One drivers to race the locals in fields almost entirely made up of Ralt RT4s. Roberto Moreno dominated this era winning three of the four races, ceding only the 1982 race to Alain Prost. Jane's attempt to bring the World Championship to Calder Park ultimately failed as F1 would be tempted away by a far more attractive option.

Formula One

Adelaide

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 Adelaide Street Circuit, which held its last Formula One race in 1995, has often been stated as being one of, if not, the greatest street circuits in the world. Whenever the teams came to Adelaide they enjoyed the party atmosphere.

Melbourne

In 1993 prominent Melbourne businessman Ron Walker began working with the Kennett government to make Melbourne the host of the event. After the government of Jeff Kennett spent an undisclosed amount, it was announced in late 1993 (days after the South Australian election) that the race would be shifted to a rebuilt Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne. The race moved to Melbourne in 1996. The decision to hold the race there was controversial. A series of protests were organised by the "Save Albert Park" group, which claimed that the race turned a public park into a private playground for one week per year. Additionally, they claimed that the race cost a great deal of money that would be better spent, if it were to be spent on motor racing, on a permanent circuit elsewhere. Finally, they said that the claimed economic benefits of the race were false or exaggerated. The race organisers and the government claimed that the economic benefits to the state, although unquantifiable, outweighed the costs, and highlighted that the park's public amenities have been greatly improved from the World War II vintage facilities previously located at Albert Park; the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (scene of many Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games events) being the centre piece and best known of the revitalised facilities. Opponents of holding the race in the park point out that the Aquatic Centre adds nothing to the Grand Prix, is effectively closed for weeks surrounding the event and could have been built independent of the car race.

The idea of a permanent racing circuit has never really been addressed, 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 organisers, may as well be held in Europe at much lesser cost and inconvenience to them.

Demonstration event held in Melbourne just before the start of the 2005 Grand Prix

Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg at Corner 6 of the Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne

Bernie Ecclestone, the president of Formula One Management, the group that runs modern-day Formula One in conjunction with the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), once famously said that it took 10 minutes to do the deal with Melbourne that would see the Victorian capital host the Australian Grand Prix from 1996. It is thought that Melbourne’s unsuccessful quest to stage the 1996 Olympic Games, and the subsequently successful bid by northern rival city Sydney to host the 2000 Olympics, was a driving force behind Melbourne’s motivation to wrest the Australian Grand Prix away from Adelaide.

Albert Park, within easy reach of the Melbourne central business district, became home to the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. A 16-turn circuit, which measures 5.3 kilometres in its current guise, was built utilising a combination of public roads and a car park within the park. The circuit is renowned as being a smooth and high-speed test for Formula One teams and drivers. Its characteristics are similar to the only other street circuit set in a public park currently used in the Formula One World Championship, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal which hosts the Canadian Grand Prix.

The promotional theme for the first race in Melbourne was “Melbourne – What a Great Place for the Race”. Some 401,000 people turned out for the first race in 1996, which remains a record for the event. The logistics of creating a temporary circuit and hosting an event of the magnitude of a Formula One Grand Prix from scratch weren’t lost on the international visitors, with Melbourne winning the F1 Constructors’ Association Award for the best organised Grand Prix of the year in its first two years of 1996 and 1997.

The move of the Australian Grand Prix to Melbourne saw a change in the time of year that the F1 teams and personnel made their annual voyage Down Under. Adelaide, for each of its 11 years, was the final race of the F1 season, usually in October or November, while Melbourne has been the first race of the season in every year since 1996 with the exception of 2006, when it was the third race of the year to allow for the Commonwealth Games to take place in the city, and 2010. As such, the Albert Park circuit has seen the Formula One debuts of many drivers in the last decade. 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve made his race debut in Melbourne’s first year of 1996, and became one of three men to secure pole position in his maiden Grand Prix. Other prominent names to debut in Melbourne are two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso and one-time champions Kimi Räikkönen (both in 2001) and Lewis Hamilton (2007), Australia’s only current F1 driver at the time Mark Webber, also made his debut there in 2002.

As part of celebrations for the 10th running of the event at Albert Park in 2005, Webber drove his Williams F1 car over the Sydney Harbour Bridge in a promotional event, and the Melbourne city streets hosted a parade of F1 machinery and V8 Supercars, Australia’s highest-profile domestic motor sport category.

Races in Melbourne

It took just three corners for the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park to gain worldwide attention. On the first lap of the first race in 1996, Jordan’s Martin Brundle was launched into the air in an enormous accident. Footage of the crash, and Brundle’s subsequent rush back to the pits to take the spare car for the re-start, ensured the first race in Melbourne gained widespread coverage. The race was won by Williams’ Damon Hill.

2008 Race Winner Lewis Hamilton on the Podium with Nick Heidfeld

The 1997 race saw McLaren, through David Coulthard, break a drought of 50 races without a victory. The next year was a McLaren benefit, with Mika Häkkinen and Coulthard lapping the entire field en route to a dominant 1-2 finish. The result was clouded by controversy when Coulthard pulled over with two laps remaining to allow Häkkinen to win, honouring a pre-race agreement between the pair that whoever made it to the first corner in the lead on lap one would be allowed to win.

Ferrari won its first Grand Prix in Melbourne in 1999, but it was not with team number one Michael Schumacher. Northern Irishman Eddie Irvine took his maiden victory after the all-conquering McLarens of Häkkinen and Coulthard retired before half-distance. Schumacher broke his Melbourne drought the following year when he headed a dominant Ferrari 1-2 with new teammate Rubens Barrichello.

The 2001 event, won by Michael Schumacher, was marked by tragedy when volunteer marshal Graham Beveridge was killed after a high-speed accident involving Ralf Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve on lap five. Villeneuve’s B.A.R rode up across the back of Schumacher’s Williams and crashed into the fence, behind which Beveridge was standing.

The start of the 2002 race saw pole-sitter Barrichello and Williams’ Ralf Schumacher come together at Turn One in a spectacular accident that saw 11 of the 22 cars eliminated before the end of the opening lap. Michael Schumacher dominated thereafter to post a third straight Melbourne win, but his achievements were overshadowed by the fifth place of Australian Mark Webber on his Formula One debut. Webber, in an underpowered and underfunded Minardi, had to recover from a botched late pit stop and resist the challenges of Toyota’s Mika Salo in the closing stages, and took to the podium after the race with Australian team owner Paul Stoddart in one of Melbourne’s more memorable grand prix moments.

The next year, 2003, saw Coulthard again win for McLaren in a race held in variable conditions. Normal service was resumed in 2004 with the Ferraris of Schumacher and Barrichello running rampant – within two laps of Friday practice, Schumacher had obliterated the Albert Park lap record, and sailed to a crushing win.

In 2005, the race was won by Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella after a storm during Saturday qualifying produced a topsy-turvy grid. Barrichello and Fisichella’s teammate Fernando Alonso came through the field from 11th and 13th on the grid respectively to join pole-sitter Fisichella on the podium. In 2006, Alonso took his first Australian win in an accident-marred race that featured four safety car periods.

In 2007 Kimi Räikkönen in his first race for Ferrari, while Lewis Hamilton became first driver in 11 years to finish on the podium in debut, as he was 3rd behind his team-mate Alonso. Hamilton won the 2008 which had three safety car periods. In 2009 Jenson Button took the victory, driving for Brawn GP, which was having first race after Ross Brawn had bought the team following Honda's withdrawal from Formula One.

2010 again saw Jenson Button win at Melbourne. Starting from fourth, he gambled on an early change to slick tires under drying conditions that let him move up to second place after losing several positions at the start. Sebastian Vettel retired with mechanical issues after qualifying on pole and leading until his retirement, handing Button the victory.

Notable races

1985

The first ever Australian Grand Prix to be included as part of the Formula One World Championship was also the 50th AGP. The new 3.78km Adelaide Street Circuit saw Brazilian Ayrton Senna on pole with a time of 1:19.843 in his Lotus-Renault. The race itself was a battle between Senna and Finland's Keke Rosberg driving a Williams-Honda for the last time. Run in oppressively hot conditions, the last race of the 1985 season ran to its 2 hour time limit but all scheduled 82 laps were run. Rosberg ultimately prevailed finishing 43 seconds in front of the Ligier-Renaults of Jacques Laffite and Philippe Streiff who actually collided at the hairpin at the end of Brabham Straight with only one lap to go when Streiff tried a passing move that resulted in his car suffering broken suspension, though not bad enough to cause retirement. Three time World Champion Niki Lauda drove his last Formula One race. After starting 16th in his McLaren he made his way to the lead by lap 57 but a lack of brakes cause him to crash into a wall in a sad end to his driving career.

1986

Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet in a Williams-Honda and Alain Prost, in a comparatively underpowered McLaren, were competing for the drivers' title. Mansell needed only third to guarantee the title, whilst Prost and Piquet needed to win and for Mansell to finish lower than third to take the title. Whilst comfortably in the top three with a few laps to go, Mansell's Williams suffered a spectacular mechanical failure, with a rear tyre puncture at very high speed near the end of the main straight creating a huge shower of sparks as the floor of the vehicle dragged along the bitumen surface. Mansell fought to control the violently veering car and steered it to a safe stop. Prost took the lead, as Mansell's teammate Piquet had pitted as a pre-cautionary measure, and won the race and the championship. Prost himself came incredibly close to failure, as his vehicle coasted to a halt on his victory lap, out of fuel.

1991

The race was notable for being held in extremely wet and tricky conditions and the race was eventually stopped on lap 14 of the scheduled 82 and Ayrton Senna was declared the winner. This race has the record of the shortest ever Formula One race as it only lasted 52 kilometres/24 minutes.

File:Schumihill1994.jpg

Schumacher (right) and Hill (left) crash at the Flinders Street corner during 1994 Australian Grand Prix.

1994

Following his win at the Japanese Grand Prix, Damon Hill was now one point behind championship leader Michael Schumacher. Nigel Mansell was on pole but a poor start resulted in the two championship rivals Hill and Schumacher battling for the lead. But on lap 36, Schumacher went off the track, a result of oversteer, and this allowed Hill to catch up with Schumacher and take the inside line for the next corner. Schumacher turned in on Hill's Williams (whether on purpose or accidentally remains unknown) which sent the Benetton up on two wheels and into the tyre barrier, Schumacher retiring on the spot. Hill came out of the incident with a broken wishbone on his front-left suspension, he pitted and retired from the race, handing the title to Schumacher. The sister Williams of the 41-year-old Nigel Mansell went on to win the race, becoming the oldest Grand Prix winner since Jack Brabham in 1970.

2001

The 2001 race saw Michael Schumacher take pole position and win the race and three drivers, Fernando Alonso; Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya, all made their Formula One debuts during this race. The race, however, was struck by tragedy in when a flying tyre from a crash between Williams' Ralf Schumacher and BAR's Jacques Villeneuve flew through a gap in the barrier fence and killed a volunteer track marshal, Graham Beveridge, who was 52 years old.

2002

The 2002 event saw the best performance by an Australian driver since 1984 when Mark Webber, in the perennially uncompetitive Minardi, took advantage of the misfortune of other competitors, after a first lap pile up eliminated 9 cars, 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.

2008

Lewis Hamilton won from pole in a chaotic race that featured 3 safety car periods. None of the six Ferrari powered cars made the finish in the blistering heat, and there were also the fewest number of finishers in a Formula One race since the 1996 Spanish Grand Prix.

2009

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello scored a 1-2 finish for Brawn GP in the team's début race. The team was formed from the remnants of Honda Racing F1 who had withdrawn from the sport following the 2008 season. The race ended with Button, who had led from the start, leading the field over the line after the safety car had been deployed with 3 laps remaining following a crash between Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica, who had been fighting for 2nd. Toyota's Jarno Trulli was given a 25 second penalty for passing Lewis Hamilton for 3rd place under yellow flags during that safety car period, which promoted Hamilton into that position. However, Hamilton was later disqualified and docked his points for "deliberately misleading stewards", with Trulli reinstated in third. The results earned by Brawn, Williams, and Toyota were awarded, despite an appeal being held two weeks later against a ruling on the legality of the teams' diffuser design. The outcome of the appeal was in favour of the teams and that their diffusers were legal under the new rules and there were no changes to the results of the race.

Recent attendance

Celebrity Challenge, 2008 GP

Jenson Button, winner of the 2010 Australian Grand Prix

An area of recent debate regarding the move of the Australian Grand Prix to Melbourne is the dwindling crowd attendances. Crowd numbers have not peaked since the Melbourne record of 401,000 in 1996, and have never reached the level seen in Adelaide in 1995. This has resulted in many questioning whether the event is bringing the economic benefits first promised when it was announced in 1993 that Melbourne would host the race.

In 2009, the global financial crisis, higher unemployment and a snap public transport strike were cited by Victorian Premier John Brumby as a reason for a slight drop in crowds.

However, crowd figures bounced back in 2010 with an estimated 305,000 people attending the race weekend - the largest crowd since the 2005 race.

• 1995 (Adelaide) - 520,000
• 1996 - 401,000
• 2004 - 360,885 (121,500 Race Day)
• 2005 - 359,000
• 2006 - 301,500 (103,000 Race Day)
• 2007 - 301,000 (105,000 Race Day)
• 2008 - 303,000 (108,000 Race Day)
• 2009 - 286,900
• 2010 - 305,000 (108,500 Race Day)
• 2011 - 298,000
• 2012 - 313,700 (114,900 Race Day)

Future

Beyond 2010, the Victorian Government announced that Melbourne would retain the Australian Grand Prix until at least 2015. The race starting time will be moved to 5pm in order to satisfy Bernie Ecclestone's ultimatum earlier this year, stating to the Sunday Mail that the only way Melbourne would retain the race is a move to a night race in order to increase European television audiences. However the later start will not result in a 'night race' as Geoscience Australia has calculated dusk for 29 March 2009 at 7:45pm It has been reported in recent days that a consortium may plan to construct a purpose-built GP track near Avalon Airport, on the outskirts of Melbourne and Geelong, as a new permanent home to the Australian GP. The move has been gathering momentum and would allow a night race to be staged to maximise TV audiences in Europe and Asia.

In July 2011 the Victorian government released an economic report which showed that for approximately $50 million in costs, the state received benefits worth around $39 million.

Sponsors

Mitsubishi Australian Grand Prix 1985
Foster's Australian Grand Prix 1986–1993, 2002–2006
Sensational Adelaide Australian Grand Prix 1994
EDS Australian Grand Prix 1995
Transurban Australian Grand Prix 1996
Qantas Australian Grand Prix 1997–2001, 2010–2012
ING Australian Grand Prix 2007-2009

Winners

Multiple winners (drivers)

Wins which did not count towards the Formula One World Championship are indicated by a pink background.

As of November 2011 three times World Drivers' Champion Alain Prost from France remains the only driver to win the AGP in both World Championship and domestic formats winning the Australian Drivers' Championship 1982 race before winning in Adelaide in 1986 and 1988.

Number of wins	Driver	Years Won
4	Lex Davison	1954, 1957, 1958, 1961
	Michael Schumacher	2000, 2001, 2002, 2004
3	Bill Thompson	1930, 1932, 1933
	Doug Whiteford	1950, 1952, 1953
	Jack Brabham	1955, 1963, 1964
	Graham McRae	1972, 1973, 1978
	Roberto Moreno	1981, 1983, 1984
	Alain Prost	1982,	1986, 1988
	Jenson Button	2009, 2010, 2012
2	Les Murphy	1935, 1937
	Bruce McLaren	1962, 1965
	Frank Matich	1970, 1971
	Max Stewart	1974, 1975
	Gerhard Berger	1987, 1992
	Ayrton Senna	1991, 1993
	Damon Hill	1995, 1996
	David Coulthard	1997, 2003

Multiple winners (constructors)

Embolded constructors are competing in the Formula One championship in the current season
A pink background indicates an event which was not part of the Formula One World Championship.

Number of wins	Constructor	Years Won
12	McLaren	1970, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2012
10	Ferrari	1957, 1958, 1969, 1987, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007
6	Williams	1980, 1985, 1989, 1994, 1995, 1996
5	Cooper	1955, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965
4	Bugatti	1929, 1930, 1931, 1932
	MG	1935, 1937, 1939, 1947
	Lola	1974, 1975, 1977, 1979
	Ralt	1981, 1982, 1983, 1984
2	Talbot-Lago	1952, 1953
	Maserati	1956, 1959
	Brabham	1963, 1964
	BRM	1966, 1967
	Matich	1971, 1976
	McRae	1973, 1978
	Renault	2005, 2006

By year

Adelaide, used in Formula One from 1985-1995

Events which were not part of the Formula One World Championship are indicated by a pink background.

Year	Driver	Constructor	Location	Report
2012	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	Albert Park	Report
2011	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	Albert Park	Report
2010	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	Albert Park	Report
2009	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	Albert Park	Report
2008	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	Albert Park	Report
2007	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	Albert Park	Report
2006	Fernando Alonso	Renault	Albert Park	Report
2005	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	Albert Park	Report
2004	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	Albert Park	Report
2003	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	Albert Park	Report
2002	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	Albert Park	Report
2001	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	Albert Park	Report
2000	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	Albert Park	Report
1999	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	Albert Park	Report
1998	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	Albert Park	Report
1997	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	Albert Park	Report
1996	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	Albert Park	Report
1995	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	Adelaide	Report
1994	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	Adelaide	Report
1993	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Ford	Adelaide	Report
1992	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	Adelaide	Report
1991	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	Adelaide	Report
1990	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	Adelaide	Report
1989	Thierry Boutsen	Williams-Renault	Adelaide	Report
1988	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	Adelaide	Report
1987	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	Adelaide	Report
1986	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	Adelaide	Report
1985	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	Adelaide	Report
1984	Roberto Moreno	Ralt-Ford	Calder	Report
1983	Roberto Moreno	Ralt-Ford	Calder	Report
1982	Alain Prost	Ralt-Ford	Calder	Report
1981	Roberto Moreno	Ralt-Ford	Calder	Report
1980	Alan Jones	Williams-Cosworth	Calder	Report
1979	Johnnie Walker	Lola-Chevrolet	Wanneroo	Report
1978	Graham McRae	McRae-Chevrolet	Sandown Raceway	Report
1977	Warwick Brown	Lola-Chevrolet	Oran Park Raceway	Report
1976	John Goss	Matich-Repco-Holden	Sandown Raceway	Report
1975	Max Stewart	Lola-Chevrolet	Surfers Paradise	Report
1974	Max Stewart	Lola-Chevrolet	Oran Park Raceway	Report
1973	Graham McRae	McRae-Chevrolet	Sandown Raceway	Report
1972	Graham McRae	Leda-Chevrolet	Sandown Raceway	Report
1971	Frank Matich	Matich A50-Repco-Holden	Warwick Farm	Report
1970	Frank Matich	McLaren-Repco-Holden	Warwick Farm	Report
1969	Chris Amon	Ferrari	Lakeside	Report
1968	Jim Clark	Lotus-Cosworth	Sandown Raceway	Report
1967	Jackie Stewart	BRM	Warwick Farm	Report
1966	Graham Hill	BRM	Lakeside	Report
1965	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	Longford	Report
1964	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	Sandown Raceway	Report
1963	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	Warwick Farm	Report
1962	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	Caversham	Report
1961	Lex Davison	Cooper-Climax	Mallala	Report
1960	Alec Mildren	Cooper-Maserati	Lowood	Report
1959	Stan Jones	Maserati	Longford	Report
1958	Lex Davison	Ferrari	Bathurst	Report
1957	Lex Davison Bill Patterson	Ferrari	Caversham	Report
1956	Stirling Moss	Maserati	Albert Park	Report
1955	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Bristol	Port Wakefield	Report
1954	Lex Davison	HWM-Jaguar	Southport	Report
1953	Doug Whiteford	Talbot-Lago	Albert Park	Report
1952	Doug Whiteford	Talbot-Lago	Bathurst	Report
1951	Warwick Pratley	George Reed Special-Ford	Narrogin	Report
1950	Doug Whiteford	Ford	Nuriootpa	Report
1949	John Crouch	Delahaye	Leyburn	Report
1948	Frank Pratt *	BMW	Point Cook	Report
1947	Bill Murray *	MG	Bathurst	Report
1940 -46	Not held
1939	Alan Tomlinson *	MG	Lobethal	Report
1938	Peter Whitehead *	ERA	Bathurst	Report
1937 +	Les Murphy *	MG	Victor Harbor	Report
1936	Not held
1935	Les Murphy *	MG	Phillip Island	Report
1934	Bob Lea-Wright *	Singer	Phillip Island	Report
1933	Bill Thompson *	Riley	Phillip Island	Report
1932	Bill Thompson *	Bugatti	Phillip Island	Report
1931	Carl Junker	Bugatti	Phillip Island	Report
1930	Bill Thompson	Bugatti	Phillip Island	Report
1929	Arthur Terdich	Bugatti	Phillip Island	Report
1928 #	Arthur Waite	Austin	Phillip Island	Report

• * From 1932 to 1948 the winner was determined on a handicap basis.
• + The 1937 event was staged as the "South Australian Centenary Grand Prix" on 26 December 1936.
• # The 1928 event was officially known as the "100 Miles Road Race"

External links

• The Australian Grand Prix official website
• Australian Grand Prix Statistics
• Melbourne Formula 1 Statistics
• Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix on Kinomap Kimi Räikkönen in 2007