Austrailian Grand Prix In Stats

F1 Circuit	Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit
Circuit Name	Albert Park
Country	Australia
City	Melbourne
Circuit Type	Road
Capacity	90,000
Designer	Jules de Their
First Race Held	1996
Number of Races Held	17
Number of Laps	58
Circuit Direction	Clockwise
Total Number of Corners	16
Number of Right Hand Corners	10
Number of Left Hand Corners	6
Maximum G-Force	4.5 G
Circuit length	5.303 km (3.295 mi)
Race length	307.574 km (191.071 mi)
From Startline to First Corner	290m
Pit Lane Length	280m
Longest Stretch at Full Throttle	10s (on the pit straight)
Time Spent At Full Throttle	66%
Number of Gear Changes	54
Most Successful Team	Ferrari/McLaren, 6 wins
Most Successful Driver	Michael Schumacher, 4 wins
Lap Record	1:24.125 - M Schumacher, Ferrari, 2004
Lap Record Average Speed	227kph, 141mph
Top Speed Recorded	310kph (192.36 mi)
Wins From Pole	8- 47.06%
Time Zone	UTC +10
Coordinates	37° 50′ 49.2″ S, 144° 58′ 26.4″ E
Average Temperature	25°C
Average Weather	Dry

CIRCUIT INFO

The Albert Park circuit is a temporary track which is only used once a year to host the Australian Grand Prix - typically the opening round of the season.

The track made up of sections of the public road that circles the man-made Albert Park lake. The sections used were completely rebuilt in 1996 to ensure consistency and smoothness of the surface and, as a result, it is considered the smoothest of the road circuits currently in use.

Although fast, the track is thought of as to be easy to drive, although the flat terrain around the lake combined with the design means the circuit has very few proper straights making overtaking particularly hard.

Despite talks of a night race to make viewing easier for Europeans, a compromise was reached between the FIA and the race organisers and the 2009 race started at 5pm local time and proved a great success. As a result the contract was extended, meaning Albert Park will host the Australian Grand Prix until 2015.

NOTES

In 2001 marshal Graham Beveridge died after being struck in the chest by a flying wheel. His death lead to the introduction of wheel tethers in F1.