Exclusive: For the first time under the Andrews government, there was a real fear that one of the city’s most important events could be wrenched from its grasp
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.A high-octane bidding war over the keys to the Australian Grand Prix, and a personal intervention by Premier Daniel Andrews to keep the race, resulted in Victoria paying an inflated price for an event that is this year expected to post its first $100 million loss.
Australian Grand Prix Corporation executives doubted the F1 wanted to move the event from central Melbourne to Sydney’s outer fringes.There is also a view that, had the Victorian government held its nerve and trusted negotiations to those most qualified to conduct them, it might have kept the race for less.
Within Australia’s F1 community, there was less concern about how the government kept the race than relief that it did.During a series of meetings held over several days within the St James Market corporate headquarters of F1, Ayres, Destination NSW boss Steve Cox and global sports marketing consultant Craig McLatchey – a key figure behind Sydney’s bid for the 2000 Olympics – walked the sport’s senior executives through their well-developed plans.
Instead, when Westacott and Little met with Domenicali inside the well-appointed paddock club of the Bahrain International Circuit, they found the former Ferrari team principal in no rush to ink a new contract. They reported back to an increasingly nervous Pakula that they were being stonewalled. At the same time he was talking to the Victorian and NSW governments about the Australian Grand Prix, Domenicali also had a direct line to Prince Albert II of Monaco over the future of Europe’s most famous street circuit. The long-term promoter of the race, the Automobile Club of Monaco, was clinging to its traditional control over the television broadcast. His Serene Highness, after discussions with Domenicali, convinced the club to loosen its grip.
Little is a self-made billionaire who turned Toll from a small trucking fleet into a global logistics giant. He is renowned as one of the toughest negotiators in Australian business but had no say in the final terms Victoria agreed to with F1. He finishes his term as corporation chairman in September following the government’s decision not to reappoint him. Little declined to comment for this story.
Albert Park is now contracted to stage the grand prix through to 2037; the longest tenure by any host city.Victoria refused to offer a share of ticket revenue but as a sweetener, it reopened negotiations for the three years it already held a contract – from 2023-2025 – and bumped up the licence fee it had previously agreed to. The cost to government of this year’s race – a jump of around 30 per cent from the 2022 event – reflects the first instalment of the new licence fee.
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