Albert Park Circuit

How it began

The track follows the roads of Albert Park, a city park laid out around a lake a few kilometres south of central Melbourne. There was racing here as early as 1953 and 1956 — back then the Australian Grand Prix was not part of the World Championship, and it was held on these same park roads.

The Australian Grand Prix joined the World Championship in 1985 and spent eleven seasons on the street circuit in Adelaide. In 1996 the race moved to Melbourne: Damon Hill won the first Albert Park race for Williams on 10 March 1996, while his team-mate Jacques Villeneuve started from pole in his very first Grand Prix.

The track

It is a semi-permanent circuit: for most of the year these are ordinary park roads, and the grandstands, barriers and pit garages are put up for the race. The lap is fast and almost flat, the medium-speed corners run along the water, and a mistake often ends in the gravel.

For the championship’s return in 2022 the layout was changed: the chicane at the former Turns 9–10 was removed and several corners were widened, which made the lap noticeably faster. Today the lap is 5.278 km long, with fourteen corners.

Since 1996 Melbourne has almost always opened the season. The exceptions were 2006 and 2010, when Bahrain was the first round, and 2022–2024, when the race was third on the calendar.

Memorable races

In 2002 several cars collided at the first corner, and Mark Webber brought his Minardi home fifth on his debut. On 29 March 2009 Brawn GP took the top two places in the team’s very first Grand Prix: Jenson Button won and Rubens Barrichello finished second.

In 2020 the race was cancelled on the morning of Friday 13 March, with the teams already in Melbourne: a McLaren team member had tested positive for coronavirus. The 2021 race did not take place either.

The 2023 race is remembered for three red flags and a restart two laps from the end. On 24 March 2024 Carlos Sainz won for Ferrari, two weeks after having his appendix removed, an operation that made him miss the previous round.

The 2026 season

In 2026 the Australian Grand Prix opens the season, with the race on 8 March. It is the first round under the new rules — new power units with about half of their power coming from electricity, active aerodynamics and eleven teams: Cadillac joins the championship, and Sauber is taken over by Audi.