Australian GP boss defends ticket price hike, says round 1 swoop ‘difficult’ in 2027

Ticket price hikes for next year’s Australian Grand Prix reflect demand and a need to invest in growing the event, says Australian Grand Prix chief Travis Auld.

The 2027 Australian Grand Prix, set for April 4 next year, will be the third round of the season and will run to the sprint format for the first time in its history.

Melbourne will be one of five venues to host a sprint race for the first time next season as Formula 1 increases the number of 100km races on the calendar to 10, up from six this season.

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Formula 1 claimed in a press release that television viewership up 12 per cent for sprint weekends compared to standard rounds and that sprints were three times more popular with fans than the free practice sessions they replace. The sport also said that 82 per cent of spectators say sprints add value to their ticket.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said earlier this year that sprints are also an “opportunity to increment the revenue stream” of Formula 1.

Ticket prices for the next year’s Australian Grand Prix, the first run to the sprint format, will rise relative to this year, with a new ticketing structure installed to better manage demand.

Four-day general admission tickets will rise by $40, to $425, in 2027. The same ticket cost only $189 in 2022, the first post-pandemic race in Melbourne, an increase of 124.8 per cent over five years.

Four-day tickets in the Fangio grandstand opposite the garages will rise to $990, up $165. The same ticket cost just $454 in 2022, a similar percentage increase.

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Fans can also shell out for various tiers of membership that will give them priority ticket access each year along with other benefits, including early access to Albert Park each day and discounted Australian Grand Prix merchandise.

Top-tier membership for the Brabham grandstand at turn 1 will cost an adult $1275 on top of the usual price of a seat, totalling up to $2365. A standard grandstand membership will cost an adult $750, while membership access to general admission tickets will cost $275.

“We’ve tried to manage ticket prices, like every year, to make sure the event remains accessible but also then to balance that with the interest in the event and the increasing cost of putting on major events but also our desire to keep investing in the event,” Auld said at a media call on Thursday.

“Whether we want to grow our music offering, our food offering, our celebration of Melbourne’s culture — all those things come at a cost, and so we need to balance all those things up.”

Last year’s race was witnessed by a record 483,934-strong crowd over four days, including 137,869 people on race day.

Auld said the number was unlikely to increase substantially this year but that there was room to improve sales on Thursday, a non-F1 day, and also Friday.

“There’s always room to grow,” he said. “We’ve got the demand and could probably increase sales, but we don’t want to do that as a detriment to the experience of our fans.

“We’re very mindful of managing our capacity.

“We’re spending a bit of time now making sure that we get that balance right between managing the level of interest in the event and the experience of those that are attending.

“There’s certainly a big opportunity around Thursday, when we still have some capacity, particularly because it’s in school holidays — Thursday and Friday is a big opportunity for families to come to our event.

“Thursday is $45 for adults and free for kids, so we’re expecting a big crowd on Thursday in particular.”

Memberships will go on sale on October 1, with tickets available to the general public on October 6.

Tickets for this year’s race sold out, with several ticket categories exhausted within hours of going on sale.

F1 backs Middle East return in 2027 | 00:54

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Auld also said it would be “difficult” for the Australian Grand Prix to move from its April 4 date even as Formula 1 searches for alternative season openers amid ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East.

The Australian Grand Prix was confirmed as round 3 on the 2027 calendar published by Formula 1 on Wednesday night, ending Melbourne’s two-year run in top spot.

The season is instead scheduled to begin in Bahrain and then Saudi Arabia on consecutive weekends, as has become standard since the pandemic.

However, both races remain uncertain given the war in the Middle East, and Formula 1 has been forced to consider alternatives to start the season should both be called for a second season in a row.

Reports from Europe suggested Formula 1 was optimistic that Melbourne could be convinced to shuffle forwards into March, with construction of Albert Park’s new garage infrastructure progressing well.

Japan and China would then move forwards too, opening space in April for either the rescheduling of the Middle Eastern rounds or for alternative grands prix to be convened.

But Auld suggested that moving the Melbourne race from its April 4 date was unlikely.

“Our date has been locked in now, 1–4 April, and clearly we’ve got a big asset [the multistorey garage building] being built behind us that has some timelines attached to it,” he said. “We’re pretty much locked in at that 1–4 April date.

“I think it would be difficult for us to move that date now.”

Auld said he wasn’t concerned about where Australia sat on the calendar so long as it was in the opening stages of the campaign.

“Our contract with F1 has us as being somewhere between race 1 and 3 each year,” he said. “We’ve had race 1 the last two years.

“I think what’s worked really well for us has been a race early in the season, when the story of the season is still taking shape.”

Formula 1 is unlikely to need to make a call on next year’s season-opening rounds until January, with preseason testing in Bahrain set for February 24–27, around two weeks before the first race at the same circuit.

But with Melbourne apparently reluctant to contemplate a date change, Formula 1 would appear more likely to tap China to shuffle into the season-opening position, with the Japanese Grand Prix then following, as per reports earlier this year.

To run all three races on consecutive weekends would require the second round to be held during Easter, which in 2027 will fall on the weekend preceding the current Australian Grand Prix date.

Though Formula 1 rarely races on Easter, it would not be unprecedented. The most recent examples are the 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix and the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix, both won by Sebastian Vettel. The 2000 British Grand Prix was also held on Easter weekend.