Victoria government orders independent audit of Australian Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Latest reports have revealed that the government of Victoria has commissioned an independent audit of the recently held Australian Grand Prix in order to evaluate the amount of losses it had to suffer by hosting the race.
Ron Walker, one of the organisers of the Australian Grand Prix, has revealed that the race cost them around AUD $50 million in losses for the second year in a row.
He told the media that the organisers and the local government are hoping that the audit will help reduce their losses from the event.
“I'm very hopeful it will be the same as last year, perhaps a little bit less, but who knows. It takes a while to get all the numbers put together and the auditors will present the [Victorian] government with the figures in the next three or four weeks,”
said Walker.
Reports suggest that the Australian Grand Prix of the 2011 Formula 1 season attracted around 298,000 paying fans that travelled to the circuit with around 111,000 people turning up for the race day.
Walker believes that these figures are extremely impressive and he claims that they can be compared with the Australian football season that is expected to start soon.
“When you think we had three football matches over the weekend to compete with the grand prix, we still did very well and maintained the status of the grand prix as the largest single-day sporting event in Australia,” he added.
However, Bernie Ecclestone and the organisers of the Australian Grand Prix have exchanged some harsh words with each other recently as the local government of Melbourne claims that the cost of the race has increased a lot. As a result, they are unwilling
to extend their contract with the International Automobile Federation (FIA) beyond 2015.
On the other hand, FIA president Jean Todt claims that Australia is a major part of the sport and he is looking to extend the contract beyond 2015 after holding talks with the organisers of the Australian GP.
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