AGP WANTS RETURN TO FIRST RACE IN ’22

Australian Grand Prix wants to return to first race in ’22 – Image: LAT

Australian Grand Prix organisers and the Victoria government want the event to return to its traditional Formula 1 season-opener status next year.

By MARK FOGARTY

Following the postponement of this year’s AGP to November, officials have confirmed the intention is to reclaim the first F1 race in March 2022.

The Melbourne GP has been the opening round of the F1 world championship all but twice since 1996.

The delay to November 18-21 is a return to the glory days of the Adelaide GP at the end of the season.

But Victoria’s Minister of Tourism, Sports and Major Events, Martin Pakula, and Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO Andrew Westacott are committed to the AGP returning as the first F1 race in March next year.

“This is a one-off change to the calendar,” Pakula said. “We would like to see the calendar revert to ourselves being at the start of the calendar in 2022, but that’ll be the subject of discussions with Formula 1 management.”

He also confirmed that the state government’s requirement for F1 personnel to hotel quarantine in Melbourne for two weeks beforehand was “non-negotiable” for the AGP to go ahead this March.

While proclaiming the Melbourne GP’s move to November as making “a month of horsepower” in Victoria, with the Phillip Island MotoGP on October 24 and horse racing’s Melbourne Cup on November 4, Westacott also covets the F1 season-opener.

“I love us being the first race,” he said. “We want it back in 2022.”

However, he allowed that switching to the third last race this year made it historically likely the world champion would be crowned in Melbourne.

“In three of the past four years, Lewis Hamilton has clinched the world title in the third last race,” he said.

Westacott confirmed the plan was for the AGP to continue as a ‘twilight’ race, with longer daylight hours in November enhancing the 4 pm race start time.

AGPC and the Vic government are banking on COVID quarantine for international visitors being eased by November to allow the AGP to go ahead.

F1 and AGPC hope strict coronavirus testing and hotel-to-track bubble will be accepted by health authorities by then.

“I suspect, in many respects, things will look quite different in November to how they look now,” Minister Pakula said. “We now have time to negotiate with Formula 1 in terms of pre-arrival testing, vaccinations, bubbles, all sorts of things, and that’s the beauty of having all the additional time.”

Added Westacott: “What will be required is a very, very stringent regime of operation to ensure that the pre-resting operations that F1 has done very successfully in the 2020 season can be transferred, enhanced, improved and made even more robust in 2021 to stage it very successfully here”.

That will involve charter flights from the preceding race in Brazil, regular coronavirus tests, hotel quarantine with controlled movement to the track and back, and no interaction with the public at Albert Park.

Up to 1600 visiting personnel would exist in isolation in the F1 paddock and pit lane.

Similar strictures would enable the Phillip Island MotoGP to happen.

F1 and MotoGP “have a very strict approach” to COVID-safe operation, Westacott declared.

If the F1 AGP returns to Melbourne just four months later, the Albert Park track infrastructure may stay in place over the summer.

It takes eight to 10 weeks to ready the lakeside street circuit and another four to five weeks to return the site to a public park and sporting precinct.

Pakula and Westacott were non-committal on keeping the track intact between events.

“The 2022 calendar hasn’t even started being talked about,” Pakula said. “There’ve been no discussions about it. We don’t know when the 2022 race will be as yet and I’m not going to speculate about the situation might be with Albert Park after this year’s event.

“The pack down will start after the race unless some other decision is made.”

Added Westacott: “It’s too early to say anything with respect to infrastructure here. We’ll be working with the local community and authorities to make sure that the inconvenience is absolutely minimised.”

The AGP chief is hoping new modular grandstands– smaller and many more – spread out around the circuit will allow a big crowd to attend in November in a COVID-safe environment.

“We have a massive outdoor facility that can be tailored to those health requirements and from a COVID point of view, I think that will be something that will allow us to go on sale with large ticket numbers,” Westacott said.

The 10.6 km frontage of the Albert Park course and hectarage of the parkland site is tens of times larger than stadia like the MCG and Melbourne Park.

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