24/05/2024
NEWS STORY
Korea, Thailand and Indonesia being considered by F1 as the sport seeks to expand into Southeast Asia.
Of course, Korea hosted four rounds of the world championship between 2010 and 2013 at the Yeongam circuit, and though scheduled to return in 2015 it was subsequently dropped as the organisers were no longer interested.
However, on the back of the current boom the sport is enjoying, new organisers are very much interested in seeing F1 return, albeit to a street track in Seoul.
Thailand is also interested, indeed the country's Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin attended last weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, at a time Indonesia is also understood to be keen on hosting races, interestingly, both countries currently host rounds of the MotoGP championship which Liberty Media is in the process of buying.
Speaking at an F1 in Depth event in Monaco, Liberty Media CEO, Greg Maffei, pointed to the success of the sport's return to China this year, the first time the country has hosted a race since 2019.
"We're lucky that we were able to get a Chinese race off this year after four years away," he said. "It was very successful.
"The interest in China has exploded in part because we now have a Chinese driver," he added, though that driver, Guanyu Zhou does not currently have a deal for next season.
"There's a lot of interest across Asia," he continued, "Thailand, Seoul, we've had interest from Indonesia... there are lots of places which want a Formula One race and we really look to the intersection of where our fans are and where they could be, who could run a great race and who can frankly afford a race.
"I think you could very easily see a second one in Southeast Asia," he added.
Attending the event were a number of representatives of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, of which F1 was the promoter. Indeed, Maffei says that the experience of promoting the event has given F1 better understanding of what fans want from the sport.
"We've really changed the sport in many ways," he said. "One of them is this really was a B2B business where we really just dropped the product on the local promoter and they sold it. But more and more, between things like F1TV and promotions that we have been doing ourselves like Las Vegas, we understand the fans better. We're a direct-to-consumer business and we understand their needs.
"That allows us to have better learnings and meet their needs better over time, including in Las Vegas. So I'm excited for what we can do together there. I think it's going to be a great spectacle. And I hope it remains as thrilling a race as it was year one."
Referring to the event, which got off to a bad start due to an issue with loose drain covers which caused the second practice session to be delayed, he said: "I think our dry run went very well, and we can only hope that the spectacle is as good. I expect we will learn to optimise and do things more efficiently because in some cases we move so quickly.
"I think we'll be smarter next time," he added. "And we'll be more efficient and will probably be less disruptive to the community and understand better what the fans want.
We would surely like to make more money in Las Vegas, but over time," he admitted, "I expect we will."
Check out our Friday gallery from Monaco here.