Australia poised to return to opening round on 2025 F1 schedule

The Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne is poised to return to its traditional opening slot on the Formula 1 schedule for the 2025 season.

F1 fans won’t have to cast their minds too far back to when the season-opener in Melbourne was commonplace, a tradition that kicked off with Albert Park’s debut in 1996, mere months after Adelaide closed out the 1995 season and dropped off of the calendar for good.

In recent years, Bahrain has stepped in as the annual F1 curtain-raiser, but Journalist Joe Saward reports via his JSBM Newsletter that the holy month of Ramadan necessitates a reshuffle next year.

Nothing is confirmed as of yet, however, with the 2025 F1 calendar expected to be published earlier than normal this year.

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As it stands, Australia is set to open F1’s 2025 proceedings for the first time since 2019 on March 9 followed a week later by the Chinese Grand Prix (which is poised to make its F1 comeback soon after a five-year absence.)

A week break would then proceed to a triple-header led by the Japanese Grand Prix (March 30), followed by Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs (April 6, April 13).

The Australian Grand Prix enjoys the most sizeable F1 contract of all among the current crop of circuits, slated to be a part of proceedings through 2037.

This came off the back of two extensions in 2022.

Firstly, the Albert Park venue announced a 10-year extension in June 2022 ensuring its stay on the calendar from 20225 through 2035, stipulating it to be the F1 season opener on five occasions through that period.

This was followed by a further two-year extension in December 2022.

F1’s confidence in Albert Park to put on a Grand Prix show is reflected in the growing attendance figures for the Australian GP.

Following a two-year Covid-infused hiatus in 2020 and ’21, the 2022 Australian GP saw a weekend attendance of over 419,000, which was a record-setting figure for Melbourne at the time.

That record was then pushed to over 444,000 in 2023 and this year’s event set an even higher benchmark of 452,055 spectators.

Incredibly, that puts the race third all-time for largest weekend attendance, behind the 2023 British Grand Prix at Silverstone (480,000 spectators) and Adelaide’s 1995 F1 swansong (520,000 spectators).

This year’s record-breaking crowd witnessed somewhat of an upset as reigning World Champion Max Verstappen was forced to retire in the opening laps due to a rear brake failure, paving the way for Carlos Sainz to romp to victory, leading a Ferrari one-two finish ahead of Charles Leclerc.