Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix is set to remain on the calendar through at least 2037 after a two-year extension was announced.
A 10-year contract, securing the status of the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne’s Albert Park until 2035, was signed earlier in 2022.
On Thursday the government of Victoria, the state in which Melbourne is located, announced a two-year extension on top of the original contract.
Part of the revised contract means Melbourne is now due to host the Formula 1 season opener on four occasions between 2024 and 2037, when the timing of Ramadan complicates matters for other venues.
Melbourne’s race was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 but returned in 2022 with a record-breaking attendance across the course of the four-day weekend.
Next year’s Australian Grand Prix is due to take place as the third round, on April 2, with Formula 2 and Formula 3 on the support package for the first time.
“To have secured what is now 15 years of further tenure for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne is an outstanding outcome,” said Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO Andrew Westacott, who is due to step down from his role after the 2023 event.
“It provides so many benefits to our city, our economy and our exceptional events industry, not to mention the aspiration it provides to young Australians pursuing their dreams in motorsport.”
Melbourne’s Albert Park has been the host of Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix since 1996.
