F1 set to widen global horizon

[bahraini spirit]

hi guys check this out i found it in a local bahraini newspaper:





The Formula One world championship, once predominantly European, is becoming increasingly global. The glamour sport breaks new ground this year, travelling to Bahrain for the first race in the Middle East and bringing the world's most populous nation on board with a long-awaited Chinese Grand Prix.

Bahrain is the third round of the championship on April 4 while China's Shanghai debut is on September 26.

The Gulf state has been racing against time to complete a state-of-the-art circuit in the desert before the first chequered flag of the season with next weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

International Automobile Federation (FIA) race director Charlie Whiting was in Bahrain last week to take a closer look at the Sakhir track.

His verdict is eagerly awaited but there is no question that everyone in Formula One, from commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone through to the 10 teams and their sponsors, desperately want the newcomers to succeed.

Ecclestone has said repeatedly that the sport's future lies increasingly in the developing world, with a fistful of countries jockeying for position to replace races in danger of being axed as a result of European Union anti-tobacco legislation.

Malaysia, in 1999, was the last completely new entrant with a circuit that set the benchmark for excellence and left many of Europe's old favourites looking distinctly shabby.

China, a major market for sponsors and carmakers, offers the prospect of a vast audience. Ticket sales could well be the biggest yet for a Formula One race while local television viewing figures promise to go through the roof.

"We will get as big an audience in China this year as in Europe," said Ecclestone last month. "Then there will be Turkey in 2005, Korea in 2009 and probably India.

"In the next 10 years Europe is going to become a third-world economy," added Ecclestone. "There's no way Europe will be able to compete with China, Korea, India.

"That's why we've been trying to do something in China for the past 10 years."

Russia, a second race in the US and possibly a return to South Africa remain on the wish list while the calendar is already bigger than ever before with a record 18 rounds scheduled this year.

Both Bahrain and China will be lavish and highly colourful affairs.

Already a string of Formula One drivers and team bosses have made their way to both venues to enthuse about the prospect of racing there.

"I am amazed at this place," said Eddie Jordan, not a man usually lost for words, when he visited Bahrain in January.

"It's almost beyond description actually. It is going to provide drivers with overtaking opportunities and will, I'm sure, provide the global television audience and spectators with a sensational race."

Williams driver Ralf Schumacher, who could be the man spraying the winner's non-alcoholic champagne come April, said the circuit with its shaded Arabian-style grandstands was the most modern he had ever seen.

"The most important thing is overtaking and I've seen three opportunities for that," he said after being driven around the track. "It will be fast, challenging and very demanding."

It will also be a step into the unknown, both strategically and technically with drivers having to contend with both searing temperatures and, possibly, sand.

"We don't know whether Bahrain will be particularly sandy," Michelin boss Pierre Dupasquier commented at the time of the Jaguar launch in January. "If they get an unfavourable wind and some sand is blown across the track then that will obviously be something we have to look out for.

"That's not an uncommon event- the Dutch racetrack Zandvoort is built among sand dunes and when we used to race there the sand would often end up on the circuit."

Organisers say the problem has been anticipated however, with a binding solution added to the track runoff and high-grip asphalt used.

Both the new circuits are the work of German designer Hermann Tilke, the man also responsible for Sepang in Malaysia, who has tried to give them a local flavour.

"We want to show that we're actually in the desert," he said of Bahrain in F1 Racing magazine. "So the paddock and start/finish line will resemble an oasis. The cars then disappear into the desert before returning to the oasis.

"Chinese culture is also rich in symbolism so we've worked with that. For example, the track itself is shaped like the sign of 'Shang' which means great or rising."

[bahraini spirit]

what do u ppl think of what bernie is sayin here?

[GP Racer]

If I was a European, I'd be flipping mad!

While F1 has a huge global following, the fan base is European, and how Bernie gets away with making those disparraging remarks about the fans that support, and have made F1 into such a success, is beyond me.

I'm sorry to say this, but Bernie needs a failure. He needs to be humbled, and he needs to find out, that you can't take your fan base for granted.

CART's failure in the US, can become F1's failure in Europe, if he's not careful.

[Testure]

In relation to the "third world" comment, well, Bernie is being Bernie there. Colourful. A bit over the top. Am I offended? No. Even if there's more viewers in China this year, there isn't the same amount of money coming from them. Not yet anyway.

As regards having less European races, bring it on. Silverstone, Monaco, Spa and Monza are goodies, but I could live without the rest. In work, my colleagues are people from Ireland, the UK, France, Turkey, America, Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Japan, Brazil and more. I love having F1 as a proper global sport and watching races from all around the world is a big part of F1 for me. Personally, I can't really get to any F1 races without booking flights and accommodation, so I might as well fly to Bahrain as Monza.

People have discussed the CART analogy before and I still don't think it holds. You think British fans are turning off in droves because (shock!) less than 50% of the drivers are British? Or because (shock!) only one race is held in Britain? Did F1 collapse because Spain hasn't been particularly interested for a long time?

[DriverT]

"Chinese culture is also rich in symbolism so we've worked with that. For example, the track itself is shaped like the sign of 'Shang' which means great or rising."

Yes indeed, meaning "up".

Personally I'm quite offended by the European third world tag. Outrageous. Not competing with India. Absolute rubbish.

Going to new places for races - great, fantastic. I fully support it. But "dissing" the fans who have made the sport what it is (and the fact that all the teams are European) is inexcusable.

[Jukebox]

From the picture pasted, there's not a single tree in sight...only sands. Hmm...

[bahraini spirit]

jukebox look properly you can c some with grass, and still thats not how it will finally look.

[Jukebox]

i wasn't tryin to be sarcastic....the hmm thingy was more towards it'll be interestingly be a very hot race event!

[oziengineer]

Imagine the track temps. WOWSA. However, it would only be as hard as being in a V8supercar at the darwin race.

[bahraini spirit]

well the thing that might have lead bernie to say that in a decade the european economies will become third world and india, china and korea will rise is maybe due to the fact that the economies at the moment aren't as good as they were but yet again, he might have different intentions really and he might find personal benefits. who knows.

[Fish_Flake]

Yes, the economic rise of the Far East has potential to trump Europe, but the problem is that the professional class of Asia is, for the most part, not having children. They are so preoccupied in financial and social gain that they see marriage and family as a nuisance. It is a by-product of the capitalist system that was not envisioned when we (the U.S.) completely rebuilt Japan after the Second World War. The religious, political, economical, and sociological structures of Japan were dismantled in favor of the American system with no regard to the traditional values of the country; they were only seen as a threat of future imperialism. America was founded by two types of people: the Puritans and the Entrepreneurs. The United States would not exist without the coexistence of these two groups; the Puritans built the moral foundation that kept the Entrepreneurs in check so that they would remember that there was more to life than land and glory, and the Entrepreneurs made sure that they expanded far enough that the Puritans could not just stay cocooned in their villages oblivious to the outside world. After the reconstruction of Japan, there were no more "Puritans" in Japan, for the traditional system was banned. The "Entrepreneurs" of Japan were able to make their nation thrive, and now its neighbors are following its lead. However, there is now no one to remind them that there is more to life than riches.