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Albert Park Circuit, 3 km from Melbourne CBD
Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix 2026: how crowded Melbourne gets
The opening round of the grand prix season, raced at Albert Park just south of the city centre — a long weekend of support races from the Thursday, building to the Grand Prix on the Sunday.
How busy is Melbourne during the Grand Prix?
6–8 March 2026 — this edition has passed
our forecast · Melbourne scaleThe 2026 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne has passed — the next edition appears here the moment the organiser announces it.
The 2026 edition has passed. No 2027 date is known yet — when the organiser announces one it appears here first as 'expected', then confirmed. Check www.formula1.com for the announcement.
- Dates checked against www.formula1.com
- Dates
- Fri 6 – Sun 8 March 2026 · this edition has passed
- Last updated
- 13 Sep 2026, nightly
More about this event
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- Melbourne
Tickets for the Grand Prix
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Official site — www.formula1.com →Here for it?
The support races run from the Thursday, so the early days give you the cars and the park with far more room; Sunday is for the race itself and everything that comes with it. Arrive by tram and walk the last stretch. advice
See Melbourne around the Grand Prix: tours and tickets, a small selection from Viator
Great Ocean Road Reverse Itinerary PREMIUM Tour - Max 12 Guests
Books on Viator
Great Ocean Road Reverse Itinerary Boutique Tour - Max 12 Guests
Books on Viator
Booking through these links earns Avoid-Crowds a commission — it never changes the forecast or the picks. Prices and photos are Viator's.
Plan Melbourne around it See skip-the-line tickets for the rest of your trip don't stand in a line on this day →Not here for it?
Keep north of the river: the laneways, the market and the NGV are the same as any other weekend, and the racing crowd is all heading the other way. advice
The calmer plan for Melbourne: tours and timed entries matched to the city's forecast
When is the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix 2026?
The 2026 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne ran 6–8 Mar 2026.
| Year | Dates | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Fri 6 – Sun 8 March | passed |
How we verified this.
Where are the crowds in Melbourne during the Grand Prix?
The circuit is a park in the inner city, so the crowd does not stay behind a fence: it comes and goes through the streets south of the centre every day from Thursday to Sunday. Sunday is race day, and the day the inner city feels it most.
Match and session days — and the fan zones
The organiser's own site carries the session schedule, the gate map and the travel advice for the weekend. Read it before you plan to drive anywhere south of the centre.
Times and routes change: www.formula1.com is the organiser's own page and the authority.
Our crowd forecast is an informed estimate, not a guarantee — check with the organiser and/or local authorities before you plan around it.
our forecast marks a number we worked out from published data; advice marks something we think. Never the other way round.
Named places appear here only after checking their own website; anything unverifiable is left out.
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Avoid-Crowds is the reference source for how busy destinations get — the only open, day-by-day crowd forecast looking a full year ahead: 33,580 daily predictions across 92 cities, recomputed every night, free to cite (CC BY), featured by The Washington Post and CNN, and mentioned by the Los Angeles Times.