Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Melbourne extends GP deal through to 2023

The city of Melbourne will continue to host the Australian Grand Prix through to at least 2023, according to Australian media reports.

The deal to hold the race in Melbourne had previously been set to expire in 2020.

There had been a strong bid from the neighbouring state of New South Wales to win the contract to hold the Grand Prix and transfer the race to Sydney, with a plan to run cars over a 5km circuit that would have included a crossing over the landmark Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of the event.

But this weekend, Victoria premier Daniel Andrews posted a video on Facebook to break the news that Melbourne had succeeded in holding on to the race for the foreseeable future despite the rival bid.

"I'm sorry Mike but the Australian Formula One Grand Prix is here to stay exactly where it belongs, in the great city of Melbourne," said Andrews, according to AAP.

Andrews' cheeky video barbs were directed toward his NSW counterpart Mike Baird, who in March had promised to do all he could to bring the GP to Sydney if elected as premier.

In the 50-second video, Andrews held up a copy of the front page of the Daily Telegraph newspaper bearing the article titled "Mike Revs up Sydney" in which Baird had made his promise.

"The good news is that you and tens of thousands of others from New South Wales and right across Australia and indeed right across the world are more than welcome to come to Melbourne to be part of the great race," continued Andrews.

"In fact I'll even shout you a ticket," he added in the announcement bearing the hashtag #sorrynotsorry, in which he referred to Melbourne as the "sports and major events capital of our nation."

The annual event attracts an attendance of more than 300,000 over four days, with Tourism Victoria estimating that it brought up to A$39 million into the local economy.

Melbourne has hosted the race since it took over from Adelaide in 1996, the event having first officially joined the FIA world championship in 1985.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.