While the Bahrain officials are yet to unveil the information regarding ticket sales for this year's opening F1 event – the potential boost in ticket sales might also relate to the fact that Bahrain will this year host the very season opener – the Australian Grand Prix organizers have recently confirmed that ticket sales are up by 20 percent as compared to last season.
Bear in mind the fact that Melbourne's Albert Park circuit last year hosted the much-awaited season opening event, something that has a tendency to attract more people than during an usual, in-season event. Nevertheless, despite losing that opening spot to Bahrain, the diehard racing fans from Australia will outnumber the 2009 crowd by 20 percent. And that's only the current figures, as there is more than one and a half months to the official start of the 2010 Australian Grand Prix.
“The Schumacher factor has made a big difference,” said Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief Drew Ward at the media launch of the event at Albert Park, according to The Herald Sun newspaper.
Last year, when Schu confirmed he wants to return to F1 racing with Ferrari, the ticket sales at Valencia (European GP) and Spa-Francorchamps (Belgian GP) practically exploded in a matter of days. The German however let go of his racing programme due to his neck injury that he had sustained during a superbike accident, and was replaced in that position by Luca Badoer, and later Giancarlo Fisichella.
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