Just days after F1 hosted a sadly lacking 1000th world championship event in Shanghai, Liberty Media is understood to be very keen on further expanding the sport’s presence in China, with a street circuit the proposed plan according to F1’s commercial chief Sean Bratches.
Bratches said to AFP that a street circuit would provide a nice contrast to the permanent facility in Shanghai. However, he stressed that the meetings are purely to discuss feasibility and a potential host, rather than being the start of some serious planning and commitment.
“In terms of interest, we would be highly interested in a street race. It would be a nice juxtaposition to the purpose-built, extraordinary facility that we have here. Our intent is to bring our show to the people. There’s meetings set up in each with government officials to talk about identifying a second city to host a grand prix. We think there’s an opportunity to grow from that perspective.”
Beijing is understood to be the favoured potential venue, having hosted both Formula E and A1GP events in the past – although the latter ended up being a bit of a disaster after one of the corners turned out to be so tight that the cars couldn’t get around it…
F1 has gone rather street circuit-mad in recent times. 2008 saw the introduction of Singapore, also the first night race, as well as the picturesque but rather forgettable race in Valencia. The now beloved Azeri capital, Baku, has been the latest addition, with Hanoi in Vietnam set to join the calendar next year. This is alongside the ever-present Monaco and a potential race in Miami as F1 seeks to try and bring races closer to population centres.
Never mind an excess of street races, though – are we getting to a point where there are simply too many races? Before you know it, we’ll be looking at a 52-race calendar…
