Why doesn’t the Formula 1 start in Australia anymore? Race tracks with the most F1 season starts
Melbourne has kicked off the F1 calendar a record number of times, but in 2020 it lost the spot that Bahrain now holds.
For the 37th year in a row, Australia celebrates hosting the Formula 1 Grand Prix (Sun 24 March, midnight ET/Sat 23 March 9 p.m. PT). It does so as the third stop of the 2024 World Championship following the two races that opened the competition in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. While we may already be used to Melbourne as a place that has occupied a spot on the calendar, we’re certainly not over it being third on the list.
In fact, there are many people who still glance at the schedule and wonder why the F1 season does not start ‘down under’, as was the norm until very recently. The answer, in its purest form, is simple: the arrival of the pandemic changed everything.
Here’s what happened: the Albert Park circuit replaced the Adelaide circuit as the Australian venue for the World Championship in 1996 and did so to directly open the season.
COVID the driving factor behind the switch
Since then, it had been the opening race every year until 2019 with only two exceptions that occurred in 2006 and 2010, both starring Bahrain (which was moved this year) and Fernando Alonso, who curiously won both races. In 2020 it was also planned to open the calendar once again, but COVID exploded into everyone’s lives: with the paddock already set up in Melbourne, the event was cancelled.
After being a no-show that season, as F1 only moved through Europe and the Middle East, (with the same thing happening in 2021), the circuit returned to the calendar in 2022 as the third round of the tour. Bahrain, favoured by hosting the preseason tests since 2021, is now in charge of waving the starting flag of F1, a privilege that Australia aims to regain in 2025.
Curiously, Melbourne renewed its presence on the world stage until 2037 on the condition that it would be the opening race a minimum of four times and even announced that they would be again next year, although that idea was quickly dropped.
Which F1 track has started the season the most times?
| Track | Country | Number | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne | Australia | 22 | 1996-2005, 2007-2009 & 2011-2019 |
| Buenos Aires | Argentina | 15 | 1953-1958, 1960, 1972-1975 & 1977-1980 |
| Kyalami | South Africa | 8 | 1967-1971, 1982 & 1992-1993 |
| Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | 7 | 1983-1989 |
| Monte Carlo | Monaco | 5 | 1959, 1961, 1963-1964 & 1966 |
| Sakhir | Bahrain | 5 | 2006, 2010 & 2021-2023 |
Fans will have to wait for the FIA to make any official announcement on a change, but Albert Park is still lightyears ahead of the other circuits that have opened an F1 season the most times.
The Melbourne track dominates this particular list, having hosted the opener 22 times, with its closest rival being the Autódromo Juan y Óscar Gálvez in Buenos Aires, which no longer exists. Monaco and Bahrain, with five, are the only other tracks that remain on the modern calendar, but they are literally decades away from getting anywhere near the numbers put up by the Aussies.