Many mourn the loss of the superb Adelaide street circuit to Formula One, but Melbourne ran its first Formula One race in 1996. With this maiden race, also came the shift of the Australian race from the end to the beginning of the F1 calendar.

The Melbourne track, is contained in a park, the layout smooth and flowing, with no 90 degree street corners to break the speed. It runs clockwise around a lake, and the scenery is breathtaking, the circuit well liked by the drivers.

Damon Hill, still all charged up from his victory in the closing race of the 1995 season, continued where he left off at the inaugural event in 1996 after his new Williams team-mate, Jacques Villeneuve, was forced to slow at the end of the race with engine problems.

1997, Melbourne's' second year, Villeneuve looked was firm favourite to win again for Williams, after dominating qualifying by a massive margin. However, he was taken out on the first corner by Eddie Irvine, and so David Coulthard raced on to McLaren's first win since Adelaide in 1993 and the first with Mercedes power.

The 1998 Grand Prix was dominated by McLaren Mercedes but ended under a cloud. Once again Coulthard looked set to win, after team-mate, Mika Hakkinen, lost time in the pits. Learning of the Finn's predicament, Coulthard controversially slowed to let Hakkinen regain the lead and thus honouring a gentleman's agreement the two had made before the race. Fans left bemused.

1999 saw Eddie Irvine take his first ever win for Ferrari while the Italian team were on top again in 2000, this time a one-two with Michael Schumacher claiming his first ever Australian win and then new team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

The 2001 event was marred by the tragic death of a safety marshal after a collision between the BAR of Villeneuve and the Williams of Ralf Schumacher. Michael Schumacher went on to take his second victory in the land down under, making it a hat trick in 2002. Being at the start of the season, the track is well known as a debut for many rookies, and local driver Mark Webber was immortalized when he crossed the line in his debut race in fifth place last year.

Coulthard took what is likely to be his final F1 race win in Australia in 2003 while Michael Schumacher was back in control in 2004 leading home team-mate Rubens Barrichello in what would be another dominant season for Ferrari and Michael's seventh championship success.

Heavy rain fell during qualification for the 2005 event ensuring those that had been fortunate to qualify early on in the 60-minute session would start up front. Starting from Pole Position Giancarlo Fisichella got his career at Renault off to the perfect start as he took the chequered flag ahead of Barrichello who has worked his way up from 11th position on the grid.

Due to the timing of the Commonwealth Games, Melbourne lost its slot of being the first race of the season in 2006 to Bahrain. Still, the race was one with its fare share of drama as pole-sitter Jenson Button's race ended in a cloud of smoke and flames at the very final turn while second placed Raikkonen recovered from a broken wing in the early stages. Through it all came Fernando Alonso to take victory once again for the Renault team.

The 2007 event returned to it traditional slot at the head of the calendar as Kimi Raikkonen made an impressive debut for Ferrari by taking the victory as team-mate Felipe Massa suffered mechanical problems in qualifying. Lewis Hamilton marked his Formula One debut with a strong race to third position, losing out to new McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso in the second round of pit stops.

Melbourne kicks off the 2008 season with rumours suggesting that the Australian event is far from secure unless it bows to calls to stage a night race in future.