{"id":517641,"date":"2026-03-04T07:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/517641\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T07:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:28:11","slug":"cost-of-new-melbourne-f1-grand-prix-pit-building-soars-due-to-asbestos-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/517641\/","title":{"rendered":"Cost of new Melbourne F1 Grand Prix pit building soars due to asbestos work"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cost of a lavish rebuild of the Melbourne’s Grand Prix’s pit lane, designed to boost hospitality for corporate guests, has blown out more than $100 million after asbestos was discovered at the site.<\/p>\n

The Pit Lane building is set to be demolished following Sunday’s F1 Grand Prix season opener and replaced a new building featuring better facilities for events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was initially expected to cost around $350 million, but early works in June last year detected asbestos in the ground, sending estimated costs soaring.<\/p>\n

A report from the state’s financial watchdog into major projects uncovered that the cost to remove the asbestos and finish construction would be up to $395 million \u2014 $115 million higher than initially budgeted for.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The new pit building is due to be constructed in time for the the 2028 \u00a0Melbourne Grand Prix. (Development Victoria)<\/p>\n

The Victorian Auditor-General Office’s report said it was likely the government would need to scale back the project due to the blow outs.<\/p>\n

“The Project team is assessing value management options however it is likely that these will result in breaching the [Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s] contract with F1 and\/or not delivering scope previously announced by government,” the report said.<\/p>\n

The existing pit building was constructed in 1995, but currently does not meet the standards required by Formula 1 and the motorsport governing body, F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de l’Automobile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Government says no choice but to pay up<\/p>\n

Treasurer Jaclyn Symes told ABC Melbourne Radio that due to “a contractual arrangement”, the government had no choice but to stump up.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do apart from deal with asbestos when you find it to ensure that you’re providing a safe workplace and a safe building going forward,” Ms Symes said.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Treasurer Jaclyn Symes says the government does not have much choice and must deal with the asbestos appropriately. (AAP Image: Diego Fedele)<\/p>\n

Ms Symes spruiked the benefits of hosting the race.<\/p>\n

“I can point to the fact that the Grand Prix is a major economic contributor to the state and I know that many people are going to get along to that race this weekend,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It fills beds in hotels and people going out for dinner and it keeps everyone busy and it supports thousands of jobs.”<\/p>\n

Despite ticket sales nearly tripling in the space of a decade due to the surging popularity of Formula 1, the Australian Grand Prix continues to run at a loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the state government spent more than $102 million to fund the race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cost of a lavish rebuild of the Melbourne’s Grand Prix’s pit lane, designed to boost hospitality for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[60147,40659,64,63,138102,41262,16553,817,813,816,2683,841,647,85,660],"class_list":["post-517641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-albert-park","tag-asbestos","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blowout","tag-cost","tag-development","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-gp","tag-grand-prix","tag-melbourne","tag-sports","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}