Australian Grand Prix organisers delighted at record crowd after two years of cancellations

The Victorian government is convinced the record crowd at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix over the weekend is a sign Melbourne is returning to normal after two years of COVID-19 disruption.

The attendance at Albert Park over the four days of the event topped 419,000, breaking the previous record for the race.

It also breaks the record for the most people at any Formula 1 grand prix anywhere in the world.

More than 128,000 people attended the race on Sunday, while 123,247 people were track-side for race qualifying on Saturday.

Race organisers put the growth in attendance partly down toa new audience that had come to the sport through the Netflix series Drive To Survive.

Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO Andrew Westacott described the race as «the event that kickstarts Melbourne's mojo» after two years of event cancellations and disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

«I just love that when we all walked around the venue that people were smiling, people were having fun, and people were rejoicing about what makes our city great,» he said.

The Australian Grand Prix was cancelled on the eve of the race in 2020, and called off again in 2021.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation said it would push for the Melbourne race to be reinstated as the season opening Formula 1 race, or be part of a double or triple-header with other races in the region.

«It's a long way to come along to Melbourne for a single race,» Andrew Westacott said. 

«MotoGP do it really well in the back end of the year where they have Malaysia, Japan and Australia in consecutive rounds.

»It might be possible to do that from a Formula 1 point of view, but it's not possible right now from a scheduling perspective."

Deputy Premier James Merlino said the record