Australian Grand Prix
in Melbourne, AustraliaCategory: Attraction
2 views 
0 shares 
0 comments
set bookmark!
Created/changed by:
System
Address details
35 Lakeside Dr, Melbourne VIC 3004, Australia Print route »
Phone & WWW
Business hours
Info
The Australian Grand Prix is a motor race held annually in Australia currently under contract to host Formula One until 2023. The Grand Prix is the second oldest surviving motor racing competition held in Australia, after the Alpine rally first held in 1921, having been contested 83 times since it was first run at Phillip Island in 1928. It is currently sponsored with naming rights by the Swiss watchmaker Rolex.
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 in most years between 1964 and 1972 and was a round of the Australian Drivers' Championship on many occasions between 1957 and 1983.
Unusual, even for a race of such longevity, as of 2018 the location of the Grand Prix has moved frequently with 23 different venues having been used over its life, a number eclipsing the 16 venues used for the French Grand Prix since its own 1906 start.
The race 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. From 1996 it has been held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit at Albert Park in Melbourne. The winner of the race is presented with a circular plate, recently named the Jack Brabham trophy in a design based on the steering wheel of one of Brabham's racing cars and a perpetual trophy, the Lex Davison trophy. These trophies each date back to the 1960s.Since moving to Melbourne, the Australian Grand Prix has been the first race of the F1 World Championship excluding 2006 and 2010. Previously in Adelaide, it was the final round of the Championship, hosting numerous racing memorable for deciding Championship results, most notably the 1986 and 1994 races which saw the 1986 and 1994 World Drivers' Championships decided.
Australian driver Lex Davison and German driver Michael Schumacher are the most successful drivers in the 86-year history of the event taking four wins each, while McLaren and Ferrari have been the most successful constructors with twelve victories each. Frenchman Alain Prost is the only driver to win the Australian Grand Prix in both Australian domestic and World Championship formats, having won the race in 1982 driving a Formula Pacific Ralt RT4 and in Formula One in 1986 and 1988.
