Steve Price: Grand Prix loss shows Melbourne losing its sporting edge
Melbourne has just lost the F1 Grand Prix — maybe forever — with the Aussie Open now on the chopping block. So much for the title of the sporting capital.
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In March last year as Formula One fans waited outside the gates of the Albert Park circuit on the Saturday morning of the three day event, nobody could have predicted what a mess Victoria — the self-appointed sporting capital of Australia — would find itself in.
Decked out in Ferrari merchandise expecting the gates to open at 8am, fans instead were told by megaphone to go home.
Slamming the gates shut on the Melbourne motorsport fans and the images that invoked was just the beginning of a long, dark, dreary and sportless winter.
Not long after that, AFL teams fled to Queensland – taking the Grand Final with them – and suddenly the events capital of Australia became the shutdown capital instead.
A lame Australian Open – complete with tennis stars forced to slam tennis balls into the walls of their quarantine prison cells – couldn’t save our major events reputation.
Group one races at Flemington last Spring — including the famous Melbourne Cup — were for the first time in history run in front of a few trainers and officials, as the third Melbourne lockdown lasted for 112 long days, peaking at 700 Covid cases a day.
Bungled hotel quarantine contributed to more than 800 deaths and still Melbourne desperately clung to the idea — pushed by state and local government officials — that 2021 would be back to normal.
Cue a media conference this week to break the devastating news the F1 event was being cancelled for the second year running, after having already been delayed eight months.
But it wasn’t fronted by Premier Daniel Andrews or his loyal deputy James Merlino (visibly absent), rather it was the bearded Minister for Racing, Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Industry Support and Recovery, Trade and Business Precincts.
I kid you not about the titles: Surely the Andrews Government is taking the p--s out of Victorians.
Minister Pakula is expected to run trade during a global pandemic, help business recover from the longest shutdowns in the nation and get tourists back to the state.
In his spare time he runs racing of all varieties, is the point man for the financially decimated AFL and is expected to manage major events like the Formula 1 Grand Prix and Australian Open tennis.
Pakula might be a genius but I defy anyone to pull that workload off and clearly he has struggled.
Sent out by his superiors to put the gloss on the Grand Prix loss, you couldn’t help but feel for the bloke.
All the tricky language in the world couldn’t hide the fact the world body running F1 wasn’t interested in visiting anywhere that required a two week quarantine.
Having staged F1 races this year in Austria, Azerbaijan, France, Spain, Monaco, Italy, Portugal and Bahrain the circus is off to Silverstone in Britain then Hungary and Belgium.
If you read that list slowly you will probably realise F1 has worked out it doesn’t need Melbourne, if Melbourne can’t make it easy for them.
Put simply, sadly Melbourne needs F1 more than it needs us.
The late Ron Walker would be turning in his grave.
As F1 boss Stefano Domenicali said, the space vacated by the Australian Grand Prix will have to be filled.
Language in F1 is very important and he talks of course of Australia — meaning Victoria — vacating the space.
F1 didn’t decide not to come here — the authorities clearly made it too hard. I suspect the ‘Minister for Everything’ Martin Pakula was pushed out to deliver the bad news his bosses delivered to him after he put up a brave fight.
With a contract for the race signed until 2025 but F1-crazy nations around the world desperate to get on the calendar, it wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t come back here — ever.
And tennis stars have made it clear their quarantine experiences of 2021 won’t be repeated, so our tennis Grand Slam could be on the chopping block as well.
Can anyone imagine Melbourne without the Grand Prix and Australian Open? It doesn’t bear thinking about. The idea of these events disappearing being our Covid legacy and inability to pivot more quickly is too depressing to consider.
Do yourself a favour and take a trip down memory lane on YouTube and watch the very first lap of the first Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix in 1996.
The late Murray Walker is commentating, and I was producing the 3AW radio coverage, with the legendary Alan Moffat on our commentary team.
On the right-hander – before the old Lake Oval grandstand – Martin Brundle got airborne, landed upside down and his Jordan race car snapped in half.
Uninjured, he was pulled from the wreckage and transported back to the pits, jumped out of the rescue vehicle and ran back to his garage for the spare car and rejoined the grid.
The main straightaway and circuit were packed with more than 100,000 people in the March sunshine.
Watch it and weep … Melbourne was the centre of the sporting world and we loved the bragging rights.
Those were the days.
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