Mike and Sherryn Richmond have attended the Australian Grand Prix every year since Victoria poached the race from Adelaide in the 1990s.
“I used to drive a rally car, so it’s in my blood. I just love it,” Mike said.
He is gutted that this year, for the first time since 1996, he and Sherryn will have to watch the Formula 1 race on the TV. They missed out on securing tickets for the race days of this year’s grand prix, almost certain to attract a record attendance.
Mike and Sharyn Richmond are gutted they won’t be able to attend this year’s grand prixCredit:Simon Schluter
The burgeoning popularity of Formula 1 has been well-documented, a largely celebratory chronicle of new-age audiences, record attendances, and the hit TV show Drive to Survive.
But what hasn’t been documented is how the sport’s popularity has left some of F1’s most faithful fans, like Richmond, feeling side-lined, no longer able to attend the event that brings them so much joy.
“Loyalty meant nothing – and that’s probably one of the biggest things,” he said.
In past years, Richmond has been able to secure two grandstand seats for him and his wife thanks to a loyalty program called GP Advantage that prioritised fans like Richmond, giving them pre-sale access, and the ability to reserve seats of their choosing through preferential ticketing.
The seats he normally reserves are the best in house, he reckons. Positioned high enough to see over the caged fencing, and sitting over the part of the track to see the cars drive into the pits before what can be seen on the broadcast.
But he can no longer reserve those seats – GP Advantage was scrapped in 2019, a program which Australian Grand Prix’s general manager for corporate affairs Haydn Lane said was very popular.
“Due to the incredible growth in demand for tickets to the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, the program, simply, was no longer sustainable,” Lane said.
Some of the perks offered within the program are still available to fans, though they are offered at a cost, rather than on the basis of loyalty.
“We’ve been coming for a long time, and spent a lot of money. Not that I regret that, but when I sent an email to them saying ‘over the years I’ve probably spent around $20,000’ – and to not get a reply, is not very nice,” Richmond said.
A month later the Australian Grand Prix Corporation did reply, suggesting he purchase soon-to-be-released grandstand seats in an area with an obstructed view. They were also going to cost upwards of $500 – a price too dear for Richmond.
Australian Grand Prix chief executive Andrew Westacott said choosing to purchase a preferential ticket was entirely a discretionary purchase for fans.
“They choose to do it so that they can get first access to the seats that they want to have. By increasing the amount of seats in response to demand, there is still the ability for people to purchase those tickets on the open market and the choice to spend that money to get the preferential booking was entirely a decision the individual made.”
The Grand Prix Corporation also drew criticism from fans after it changed the modelling of its VIP ticketing program, Access23, that saw the base price for the same ticket increase by $150 – with fewer perks included.
Over the past three years, general admission tickets to the event have increased. Between 2020 and 2023 an adult four-day general admission ticket has increased by 35 per cent.
Westcott said the Australian Grand Prix benchmarked very well against international Formula 1 events and other motorsport events in Australia. He acknowledged general admission prices had gone up.
“Yes, they’ve gone up, but we’ve gone up because we were underpriced perhaps to where we should have been,” he said.
“A small proportion of those tickets was linked to a dynamic pricing capability where scarcity coming down to the final numbers led to a higher amount. So I think the numbers show that it is still extremely great value for money.”
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He spent six years in London working for The Guardian.Connect via Twitter or email.
