This year’s 483,934 F1 attendees beat the 2025 record of 465,498 event patrons.
It was an event-filled long weekend in Melbourne with the Moomba festival taking place, an opening round AFL match at the MCG, plus an NRL fixture, thoroughbred racing and concerts all held in Melbourne.
While some international attendees were prevented from reaching Melbourne by the conflict in the Middle East, the Grand Prix crowd was helped by hometown hero Oscar Piastri – even though he was ruled out of contention before the Grand Prix race began.
Having just completed a lap of honour as a back seat passenger in a Mini Moke, Piastri crashed his McLaren during the warm-up lap to the huge disappointment of fans seated in a new grandstand bearing his name.
The F1 organisation itself has fielded some controversy this year with this season’s introduction of new rules which had the effect of forcing drivers to employ different strategies with larger batteries and a new hybrid power system for overtaking.
Another success factor for this year’s Grand Prix race appeared to be the ease of public transport access with the new Anzac Station opening up right beside the Albert Park racetrack since last year’s event.
The station and underground metro rail system was estimated by authorities to have handled more than 500,000 trips over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the City of Melbourne forecast that the annual Moomba festival would draw more than one million people to the CBD and the Yarra riverbank over the Labour Day weekend.
Additionally, the the first-ever opening round AFL match at the MCG drew 82,528 fans to Australia’s largest stadium on Sunday.
Alongside all of this, Rod Laver Arena featured a Linkin Park concert on Saturday, followed by a Hilltop Hoods concert on Sunday, while G Flip performed at Margaret Court Arena on both nights.
On Thursday night, local NRL team Melbourne Storm played its season opener at AAMI Park and there was a full card of horse racing at Flemington on Saturday.
