Officially, there have only been twelve Australian Grands Prix counting towards the world championship, dating back to 1985 in Adelaide. However, a race bearing that title was held as far back as 1928 at Philip Island, just outside Melbourne. It was won by Captain Arthur Waite at the wheel of an Austin 7.

The first time a grand prix was held in Albert Park was 1953, which makes one wonder why the environmentalists made such a fuss about the event when it returned here in 1996. 40 cars were entered to tackle 64 laps of a five kilometre track.

1956 saw the Olympic Games come to Montreal and a grand prix to Albert Park. Stirling Moss was the winner, beating local boy Jack Brabham amongst others.

The first Australian race to be officially part of the world championship was run on the Adelaide city centre street circuit as the final race of the 1985 championship. Keke Rosberg, now Mika Hakkinen's manager, took his last grand prix win here for Williams. Ayrton Senna started from pole in a Lotus. He was the quickest qualifier on six of his nine attempts at the event.

Adelaide hosted the 500th GP in the history of the sport in 1990. It was won by Nelson Piquet in a Benetton, who just managed to hold off Nigel Mansell's Ferrari in a thrilling finish.

The following year, the Australian race once again earned a place in the record books; this time for the shortest ever GP. The race had to be abandoned after just 14 laps, because of a heavy rain.

Sir Jack Brabham is without doubt the most famous Australian F1 racer. He won back to back world championships in 1959 and 1969 and in 1966 he made history as the first man to win the title driving a car which bore his own name; in this case the Repco Brabham. Tim Schenken, now head of the Confederation of Australian Motorsport raced F1 in the Seventies scoring points three times from 33 starts. Alan Jones brought the title back to Australia, winning the championship in 1980 for Williams. He won a total of 12 grands prix during his career.

McLaren has been the most successful team in the 15 Australian Grands Prix held to date, with seven wins. Williams has five, Ferrari two and Benetton one. Of the drivers, Alain Prost, Gerhard Berger, Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill have both won it twice.