The 1985 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held in Adelaide on 3 November 1985. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1985 Formula One season. It was the 50th Australian Grand Prix and the first to be held on the streets of Adelaide on a layout specifically designed for the debut of the World Championship in Australia. The race was held over 82 laps of the four kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 310 kilometres.
The new circuit was received extremely positively with glowing reviews from those within the paddock despite the circuit's temporary nature as it wound through streets, parkland and across horse racing venue Victoria Park Racecourse immediately adjacent to the Adelaide central business district, with the drivers enjoying a street circuit that was unlike Monaco and Detroit with their endless short straights, narrow roads and hairpin or right angle corners. The Adelaide circuit was wide and fast in places, and included an 890 metre long straight (named the "Brabham Straight" for Australia's three-time World Champion Sir Jack Brabham) where the faster cars reached over 200 mph (322 km/h). The reception was sufficiently positive to see the promoters awarded the Formula One Promotional Trophy.
Dual World Champion Nelson Piquet confirmed the drivers' positive view on the circuit when he said early in race week "After Detroit and Dallas, we all expected another bad street circuit" while his Brabham team boss (and the head of the Formula One Constructors Association) Bernie Ecclestone told the assembled media that he believed that the standard the of the organisation and the circuit itself was bad news for Formula One, explaining that the Adelaide GP had raised the standards of what would be expected in the future and that several tracks in Europe already on the calender, or hoping to be, would have to lift their own games in order to match it.
The only Australian driver in the field, 1980 World Drivers' Champion Alan Jones who was driving the Haas Lola team's Lola THL1-Hart, was given the honor of driving the first Formula One car out onto the new circuit when first practice opened on the Friday morning. Jones also had the honor of having a section of track named after him, with the Rundle Road section of the track renamed as the "Jones Straight" when the circuit was in use.
Read more about 1985 Australian Grand Prix: Qualifying, Race, Championship Permutations, Lap Leaders, Standings After The Race
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