up Crowds but faith in F1 chiefs is a downer

Discontent and rows hurting a sport that continues to grow

- Matt Majendie

FORMULA ONE revealed this morning that 124,113 people had come through the turnstiles simply to watch two practice sessions for the Australian Grand Prix - a record attendance.

Partly, it is the lure of the Australian contingent on the grid: Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo, not to mention adopted Aussie Valtteri Bottas, whose mullet-wearing, ute-driving antics have been causing a ripple this week.

But also it is the ongoing Drive to Survive effect and the monumental rise in the sport's popularity both on track and for those watching from the sofa back at home.

Those numbers are all the more remarkable in that this season has the makings of being another monumentally one-sided one, even though the indications in practice were that Charles Leclerc might at least push Max Verstappen to pole in qualifying tomorrow.

F1 has become obsessed with cracking the United States and, it has to be said, with three grands prix there, it has done so successfully.