Vietnamese Grand Prix 2020
Discussion
coppice said:
I don't doubt Vietnam's beauty and the charm of its people. But it will almost certainly share the same fate as Turkey, S Korea , India and Malaysia , even if it does get a GP .
F1 is a European sport -with hon mentions to Japan , N and S America and Australasia - and most of the people who care about it passionately are in Europe. Most of the drivers are European , most of the cars are made within 30miles of Oxford and exactly why are we so keen to push for races in countries with little , often zero, motor sport activity ? GPs may be a feather in the cap of some 3rd world dictator, oligarch or sheikh but why we even consider races in Abu Dhabi , Russia , Azerbaijan or anywhere else we've either never heard of or never want to visit is beyond me .
If the Man City v Man U game were played in Kyrgistan , Wimbledon fortnight held in Riyadh , the Ashes contested in Beijing or the Open played in Ulan Bataar there'd be an outcry . But what does the F1 ..err..fanbase do ? Shrug its shoulders , mutter something about market forces and go back to sleep in front of its big telly .
a better analogy would be tennis as a whole. Wimbledon is a single venue with heritage that enhances its value and audience, like Monaco or Silverstone. however, tennis is played throughout the world, including Dubai and elsewhere with little local interest in the sport, by the same players as F1 (euro, us, s.america and oz).F1 is a European sport -with hon mentions to Japan , N and S America and Australasia - and most of the people who care about it passionately are in Europe. Most of the drivers are European , most of the cars are made within 30miles of Oxford and exactly why are we so keen to push for races in countries with little , often zero, motor sport activity ? GPs may be a feather in the cap of some 3rd world dictator, oligarch or sheikh but why we even consider races in Abu Dhabi , Russia , Azerbaijan or anywhere else we've either never heard of or never want to visit is beyond me .
If the Man City v Man U game were played in Kyrgistan , Wimbledon fortnight held in Riyadh , the Ashes contested in Beijing or the Open played in Ulan Bataar there'd be an outcry . But what does the F1 ..err..fanbase do ? Shrug its shoulders , mutter something about market forces and go back to sleep in front of its big telly .
F1 has a dwindling business model and a failure to connect with a wider audience. Tennis is televisual, quite exciting to watch and easy to understand.
F1.com guide
With video of the circuit
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.everyth...
Grandstand 3 day ticket is said to be marketed at 100 USD.
With video of the circuit
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.everyth...
Grandstand 3 day ticket is said to be marketed at 100 USD.
CABC said:
coppice said:
I don't doubt Vietnam's beauty and the charm of its people. But it will almost certainly share the same fate as Turkey, S Korea , India and Malaysia , even if it does get a GP .
F1 is a European sport -with hon mentions to Japan , N and S America and Australasia - and most of the people who care about it passionately are in Europe. Most of the drivers are European , most of the cars are made within 30miles of Oxford and exactly why are we so keen to push for races in countries with little , often zero, motor sport activity ? GPs may be a feather in the cap of some 3rd world dictator, oligarch or sheikh but why we even consider races in Abu Dhabi , Russia , Azerbaijan or anywhere else we've either never heard of or never want to visit is beyond me .
If the Man City v Man U game were played in Kyrgistan , Wimbledon fortnight held in Riyadh , the Ashes contested in Beijing or the Open played in Ulan Bataar there'd be an outcry . But what does the F1 ..err..fanbase do ? Shrug its shoulders , mutter something about market forces and go back to sleep in front of its big telly .
a better analogy would be tennis as a whole. Wimbledon is a single venue with heritage that enhances its value and audience, like Monaco or Silverstone. however, tennis is played throughout the world, including Dubai and elsewhere with little local interest in the sport, by the same players as F1 (euro, us, s.america and oz).F1 is a European sport -with hon mentions to Japan , N and S America and Australasia - and most of the people who care about it passionately are in Europe. Most of the drivers are European , most of the cars are made within 30miles of Oxford and exactly why are we so keen to push for races in countries with little , often zero, motor sport activity ? GPs may be a feather in the cap of some 3rd world dictator, oligarch or sheikh but why we even consider races in Abu Dhabi , Russia , Azerbaijan or anywhere else we've either never heard of or never want to visit is beyond me .
If the Man City v Man U game were played in Kyrgistan , Wimbledon fortnight held in Riyadh , the Ashes contested in Beijing or the Open played in Ulan Bataar there'd be an outcry . But what does the F1 ..err..fanbase do ? Shrug its shoulders , mutter something about market forces and go back to sleep in front of its big telly .
F1 has a dwindling business model and a failure to connect with a wider audience. Tennis is televisual, quite exciting to watch and easy to understand.
"why are we so keen to push for races in countries with little , often zero, motor sport activity ?" Yes, okay, it's a sport, but it's also a business that needs to make money. They're trying to broaden their base, and expand the revenue stream. If you look at the other examples you gave, I'd say that a lot of those places are already saturated. Squeezing revenue out of there may not be so easy when competing against so many other events (including things that have nothing to do with sports, like concerts, etc).
I also like the tennis analogy; if for no other reason, than if I, as a fan, wanted to somehow get closer to the sport, I can go down to a sports store and buy the equipment for a few hundred quid, and take part myself. If I wanted to participate in F1, I'd struggle to raise the several hundred million pounds, so I think something in there about accessibility for the fans needs a shout? Standing in a crowded Silverstone mudbath and taking several hours to get out of the car park doesnt seem like much fun to me.
andburg said:
straights are so long the overtakes will be done before the corner, the rest of track looks pretty much single file traffic
yawn
Yep, I did look at the circuit and think that yes, there will be lots of overtaking - but it will be car 1 takes car 2 using DCR down long straight A, car 2 follows car 1 around the roundabout, car 2 retakes place from car 1 using DCR down long straight B. Rest of circuit will be 'follow me' with the result being decided based on who gets lucky by being closest to pit in when someone crashes, bringing out the safety car during the pit window.yawn
Can't say I'm seeing anything to make me miss live races FTA.
DeltaTango said:
The track design looks great, don't know what all the moaning is about.
It'll be a great event. Vietnam is a fantastic place. It's only going to have a positive impact on the place.
If it’s half as good as Baku then It'll be a great event. Vietnam is a fantastic place. It's only going to have a positive impact on the place.
& TBH a flight and ticket from London is roughly silverstone prices.
It has NOTHING, repeat nothing to do with expansion.
it is only about who wants to pay for a race, that is ALL there is to it and all there has been for about 20 years.
We used to go to hideous places with no interest like Bahrain for money, we go to Azerbaijan, that place of enormous sporting heritage that is so swollen with oil money they tried for about 5 years to host just about anything vaguely world sport based. We go to Singapore, why coz it is the finance capital of the east same as Beijing. Same as Abu Dhabi, Fair play last race at COTA crowd looked huge that might work. Japan works, Canada works. Beijing looks to be working finally.
Vietnamese people are not rich I think, same as Korean and Indian or Turkish, it's why no-one went to the races there, so this might fail, unless the tickets are made cheap for locals to attend. Or the people who own and pay fir it are prepared to do what China did and be patient or even better don;t care if it makes money or not, it might take 10 years for it to work with a strategy for inclusion, but most people with that kind of money don't work like that and neither does F1. Singaporean, Bahraini and Abu Dhabi people are rich, mostly coz they are white businessmen! Look at the crowd in those races next tiem and see the demographic, it is very mixed, not all locals.
Even Malaysia didn't get big crowds, yet see a MotoGP race there and they do, cheap and local riders. Can't see any Vietnamese rushing to get into f1.
it is only about who wants to pay for a race, that is ALL there is to it and all there has been for about 20 years.
We used to go to hideous places with no interest like Bahrain for money, we go to Azerbaijan, that place of enormous sporting heritage that is so swollen with oil money they tried for about 5 years to host just about anything vaguely world sport based. We go to Singapore, why coz it is the finance capital of the east same as Beijing. Same as Abu Dhabi, Fair play last race at COTA crowd looked huge that might work. Japan works, Canada works. Beijing looks to be working finally.
Vietnamese people are not rich I think, same as Korean and Indian or Turkish, it's why no-one went to the races there, so this might fail, unless the tickets are made cheap for locals to attend. Or the people who own and pay fir it are prepared to do what China did and be patient or even better don;t care if it makes money or not, it might take 10 years for it to work with a strategy for inclusion, but most people with that kind of money don't work like that and neither does F1. Singaporean, Bahraini and Abu Dhabi people are rich, mostly coz they are white businessmen! Look at the crowd in those races next tiem and see the demographic, it is very mixed, not all locals.
Even Malaysia didn't get big crowds, yet see a MotoGP race there and they do, cheap and local riders. Can't see any Vietnamese rushing to get into f1.
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