‘The biggest F1 race in the world’: New boss wants grand prix festival to spread into surrounding suburbs

New Australian Grand Prix boss Travis Auld is not afraid to spruik his ambition.

Next weekend’s event will feature high-profile music acts Jet, Amy Shark and Empire of the Sun, some of Melbourne’s best pop-up restaurants, and a family park with giant slides, climbing walls and golf simulators. Oh, and a Formula 1 race featuring 20 of the fastest cars on Earth.

New Australian Grand Prix CEO Travis Auld has big plans for the event.Credit: Joe Armao

Ahead of his first race in charge, the former AFL executive has articulated a bold vision to further transform the grand prix into a festival event across the weekend, which would involve spilling into surrounding suburbs for dining and other entertainment.

He also spoke for the first time about his disappointment at missing out on the top job as Gillon McLachlan’s replacement at the AFL, and expressed high hopes for the young Melburnian on the Formula 1 grid, Oscar Piastri.

Since the global rise of Netflix’s Drive to Survive series, F1’s audience has skewed younger and more diverse. Melbourne is a microcosm of that change, in part symbolised by its new boss.

“Our aspiration has to be to be the biggest F1 race in the world,” Auld told this masthead.

But he wants it to be more than just a race. According to Auld, it needs to be an event, just as the Australian Open is now as much a festival as a tennis grand slam.

Auld has already been in contact with local councils about the possibility of closing down streets surrounding the Albert Park precinct and creating a festival across the race weekend.

“It’s one of the opportunities we’ve got in that track activity finishes at six or seven o’clock at night and so you’ve got 130,000 people looking for somewhere to go,” he said.

“Whereas there are other sports that go until midnight or one in the morning. We’ve got to do a better job at helping traders, not just in Albert Park, but Fitzroy Street in St Kilda, Middle Park, all throughout the city, of [helping] them engaging with the race.

“The City of Melbourne is open to that. It’s just that none of this is easy. I’ve spoken to the City of Port Phillip and what they do with Fitzroy Street. Could you close off Fitzroy Street so that people could leave here and go there? We should think about how we can do that.”

Asked about Auld’s vision, Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said: “The grand prix is a highlight of Mad March, with Melburnians expected to pump more than $400 million into the city economy through a packed calendar of events this month.

“I’m thrilled to hear the grand prix is looking to turbocharge its future – we welcome any ideas to drive visitors into the city and are open to working with organisers to unlock opportunities.”

Port Phillip Council mayor Heather Cunsolo was also keen to know more. “We are looking forward to further discussions with the Australian Grand Prix on how to grow the benefits of this popular event for our traders and enhance our city’s reputation as a must-see destination,” she said.

“In recognition of the opportunities presented by this event, we are again supporting Experience South Melbourne’s popular Porsche and Coffee meet on Sunday to kick off the grand prix celebrations and have lots of other ideas to showcase our city.”

Fresh out of a job in which he was a key member of the AFL executive team, as executive general manager of finance, clubs and broadcast responsible for fixturing and the redevelopment of Marvel Stadium, Auld said he was influenced by how the league’s Gather Round took over Adelaide.

“If you get off the plane in South Australia, you know that Gather Round is on because it owns everything from the airport to the ground,” he said. International visitors would judge the grand prix not just on the quality of the race, but the transport, hotels, restaurants and even the weather.

Australian F1 driver Oscar Piastri in action at Albert Park last year.Credit: Eddie Jim

Auld added that the demographic of TV and crowd audiences was changing.

One in four fans of Formula 1 started watching in the past four years, according to F1 statistics. One in three is under the age of 35 and 39 per cent are female, compared with 29 per cent for other sports globally.

In Melbourne, Auld said, crowds have grown by 50 per cent since 2019, but he was reluctant to sell more tickets if that meant compromising on the experience.

“It’s changing a lot,” Auld said.

Last year’s winner in Melbourne, Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen.Credit: Getty Images

“A third of the people that will attend in Melbourne are motorsport fans ... They’re diehard fans. [But] it’s a dynamic where you have a whole lot of new people interested in the sport. They’re younger and there are more females, which is one of the envies of sports around the world.

“The temptation is to continue to want to sell more tickets. We’ve got 130,000 fans a day coming into a venue of 175 hectares.”

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation has secured new technology that will this year monitor foot traffic at the event. The digital technology is used around the world at theme parks and train stations.

“Where they move around the site, where they enter, which parts of the site they return to. That will help us get a better understanding of the capacity,” Auld said.

“We can fit more in the park, and we can sell more tickets. But we need to make sure the experience is OK.

“The challenge is getting the right balance between growth and quality of experience. So, not growing beyond the ability to continue to provide a great experience for fans. Making sure
that the offering is broad enough to capture the change in demographic.

“The other issue is getting people in and out of the park and then, getting people to and from, given they are largely relying on public transport.”

The new Anzac train station is due to be operational by 2025 and Auld is hopeful that it will help ease pressure on the tram network.

″⁣I don’t know the answer right now as to how many more people you could get in here, but you could sell more tickets. But your aspirations in terms of attendance can’t get ahead of the experience. We can’t afford that.”

A general admission or “park pass” on Sunday for the race starts at $149. This does not include a grandstand seat.

“The sales data and trends tell you that you could charge more. You could charge more for grandstand, you could charge more for hospitality, you could charge more for park passes. But you want to give people the opportunity to attend. And as the demographic changes, we need to change the experience, we need to evolve the experience.”

This year’s attractions include a family-friendly area with slides and rock-climbing walls, and pop-up stores including Melbourne pastry giant Lune.

The cost to taxpayers

In August last year this masthead revealed that a NSW bid to steal the Australian Grand Prix, and a personal intervention by then Premier Daniel Andrews to keep the race, resulted in Victoria paying an inflated price for the event, which was expected to post its first $100 million loss.

Auld said it was his job to ensure that when the contract to host the GP came up for renewal in 2037, the Victorian government and Formula 1’s governing body were convinced of its value to the state.

“There’s no doubt that holding an F1 race in a park is not an inexpensive exercise. It’s justified by the size of the crowds we get here,” Auld said.

“What we should be held accountable to is the economic contribution that the race makes to this state. It’s about $2.66 for every dollar that the government or the taxpayer puts in.”

Auld estimated an economic return of about $270 million to Victoria.

“We saw when the contract came up that other states, and in particular one other state pitched and pitched hard for it, and you can see why with those sorts of returns.

“It’s our job to make sure the next time we have this conversation that F1, FIA and the state of Victoria are all aligned in terms of extending beyond 2037.”

The Piastri factor

Piastri dodged a series of crashes to finish eighth in his first home grand prix last year and Auld said the sky was the limit for the young McLaren driver.

Popular Australian driver Oscar Piastri.Credit: Getty Images

“The people I talk to who know what they’re talking about think the sky is the limit with him and everyone who knows him says that one of his greatest strengths is that he’s incredibly level-headed,” Auld said.

“He’s handled the transition to Formula 1 really well, he’s not getting carried away with his progress.”

The dominance of Max Verstappen

Verstappen won in Melbourne last year, dominated the 2023 season and is coming off two wins to start the 2024 season. Is it making the sport predictable?

“It happened with [Lewis] Hamilton for a while, and then they chased him down. There’s nine teams chasing pretty hard and with the season just starting it looks like, again, he’s going to be hard to beat,” Auld said.

“I think the excitement exists beyond him, though. I think F1 would like a situation where it’s probably a bit more unpredictable than what it is at the moment.

“I would like to see two Aussies on the podium in Melbourne ... and if Max happens to be third then good luck to him.”

Leaving the AFL

Auld revealed his disappointment at missing out on the top job at the AFL to his long-time colleague Andrew Dillon.

“I had my sights set on the AFL CEO job. I had been there for quite some time and I wanted to give it a go and I didn’t want to hedge my bets. I was deep into that process emotionally. When it didn’t happen, it was just through pure good fortune that this other role came up,” he said.

“ I don’t know whether I would have stayed or not, I’ve got huge respect for Andrew Dillon and I think he’ll do a really good job. But when you go through that process it does remind you how much you like to lead and that’s what I’ve enjoyed about this role.”

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