Grand Prix Attendance Figures.

[Raglanparade]

In the course of working on the "Belle Isle" project for Grand Prix Legends with Pirenzo, it got me thinking about the attendance figures at circuits in the days gone buy.

How many people would be at the circuit for a Grand Prix in:

The 1950's
The 1960's
The 1970's
The 80's
The 90's

What is the biggest grand prix crowd in history and what is the smallest ?

I know the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park usually draws about 100,000 people to the track on race day, but i doubt a grand prix 20 or 30 years ago would have done the same.

Does anyone have any info on this ?

[Kicking-back]

The smallest Grand Prix crowd in history was probably Phoenix, 1991.

I'm not sure of the exact figure, but the story goes more people turned up for an ostrich race the next weekend.

[Steve Wilkinson]

At the tiny Cornish circuit of Davidstow in the 1950s they ran an F1 race. Admittedly the standard of car running in the event was pretty low however over 30,000 people turned up to watch!

Your implication that with more primative transport there were fewer spectators does not stand. The biggest crowds for the Oulton Park Gold Cup were in the 50s and 60s; whilst large crowds made it to the circuit for the BTCC events in the 90s they were a shadow of the numbers attending the Gold Cup in its heyday.

[Mackmot]

Back in the 50's 60's and 70's there would be 50,000 people going to local club races. I think that F1 would have been a bit less simply because there is was less room for people to see the track before all the massive grandstands were made. I think F1 has had sell out crowds throughout most of its history except for a few odd occasions.

[Purist]

This is only a small piece of the puzzle, but in the 30s, they had as many as 350,000 people at the Nurburgring for the German Grand Prix. When Ascari won that race, in '51 I believe, 180,000 spectators were on hand.

Monza, I'm sure, has consistently drawn large crowds.

The Dutch Grand Prix, from the photos I've seen, seems to have been quite well-attended.

[Raglanparade]

Just say theorically... if you were building a circuit in GPL.. that just happened to be modelled on the full Belle Isle layout... would you have spectators lining most of the 14km route, or just around the old CART circuit...

(sorta Like Hockenheim has the staduim and the forest)

[Armco Bender]

Mexican GP's of the '60s the crowds were so big they used to sit on the edge of the track.Human armco barriers.

[Kicking-back]

Bear in mind that back in the days of no television coverage, actually going to the event was the only way you would see some racing action, aside from a couple of minutes of Pathe newsreel some weeks later.

[luke]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

The smallest Grand Prix crowd in history was probably Phoenix, 1991.

I'm not sure of the exact figure, but the story goes more people turned up for an ostrich race the next weekend.

I think I read about it some when, and the figure was given, 8,000.

[diz]

Originally Posted by Mackmot

Back in the 50's 60's and 70's there would be 50,000 people going to local club races. I think that F1 would have been a bit less simply because there is was less room for people to see the track before all the massive grandstands were made

From The Unfulfilled Dream - the story of motor racing at Aintree by Tony Bagnall, referring to the 8th RAC British Grand Prix at Aintree on Saturday 16th July 1955

The huge crowd, estimated to be 150,000, was the largest ever to attend a motoring event in Britain according to the Daily Telegraph