No Vietnam Grand Prix anytime soon
The FIA and specifically FIA’s CEO Bernie Ecclestone has desperately been looking for new venues for the sport in order to gain global recognition and spread Formula 1 all around the world.
Bernie initially came up with the idea of an Indian Grand Prix and a new venue for the US grand prix. After receiving the approval for both of these ideas from the FIA, the 80 year old CEO started to “lose it” a bit as it seems that he wants to take Formula
1 even to those parts of the world where it is not required yet. And secondly, executing such big ideas in such a short span of time is not as easy as it seems especially when the sport is going through its biggest financial turmoil yet.
Bernie started claiming that the FIA is thinking of hosting a grand prix in Africa, Rome, Russia, Vietnam, Bulgaria and Argentina to name a few. Since the 2011 Formula 1 calendar consists of 20 races, the 2011 Formula 1 season is going to be the longest
season in the history of the sport and most of the teams have already stated that a 20 race season is the limit.
If the FIA believes that they can host all these new venues and stay within the 20 race limit, that is going to be impossible as the FIA has signed with most of the current venues until 2016. Therefore it would not hurt to wait for some time and bring one
venue at a time.
However, FIA’s circuit advisor Hans Geist recently stated it would not be possible for the FIA to organize a race in Vietnam anytime soon. Geist paid a visit to the country recently and had a couple of meetings with the officials there.
It was good to see someone other than Bernie talking about this matter. A Russian Grand Prix is a great idea and it should be arranged sometime soon. However, the FIA should focus on the US track and Indian Grand Prix rather than jumping into conclusions
and indulging themselves into other ideas.
“My mission is usually to inform interested parties about Formula 1 and what it takes to build a race track to FIA F1 standards and organise a GP. I would say that of all my informative meetings maybe 10% develop into a serious concept. In Vietnam, my job
was purely informational,” Hans said.
Tags: