Noise might annoy, but the lack of noise annoys a formula one fan more than anything else.

And the relative silence of the F1 cars as they sped around the Albert Park circuit on the weekend could lead to a legal battle between the Australian race organisers and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Australian Grand Prix chairman Ron Walker, while delighted with the overall success of the event and the strong showing of Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo, was far from happy with the ''sotto voce'' sound of the new V6 engined turbo grand prix cars, which provided a stark contrast to the visceral howl of the previous generation of high speed, 2.4-litre V8 engined racers.

''I was absolutely delighted with the whole weekend, but I was not too happy with the sound," Walker said on Monday. "We are resolving that with Bernie. It's clearly in breach of our contract. I was talking to him last night [Sunday] and it's not what we paid for. It's going to change.