F1 News
F1 too expensive for Malaysia, Vietnam and South Africa on radar for 2024
- GPblog.com
With the regular expansion of the Formula 1 calendar, there is also the need for more circuits to hold these races. For 2024, it seems Vietnam and South Africa are in the running to host a race, while in Malaysia, the will is there but practical concerns stand in the way of a race.
Vietnam should have hosted a Grand Prix as early as 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic threw a spanner in the works. It could have been done a year later, but even then it did not happen in the end. Indeed, the Vietnamese politician who was the main booster of the race was arrested for corruption. Although the charges had nothing to do with the organisation of the race, the Grand Prix did lose its biggest supporter with the arrest, and so the race disappeared from the calendar completely.
Now, however, Vietnam seems to have reappeared on Formula 1's radar. Rumour site GrandPrix.com reports that Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali has made a stopover in Hanoi on his way to the Australian Grand Prix to hold talks with the capital's mayor, president, and prime minister of Vietnam. The venue for the race would again be the circuit near Hanoi, which consists partly of a permanent track and partly of the capital's streets.
Finance important factor for South Africa and Malaysia
The same site reports that South Africa has also set its sights on a 2024 return. The intended circuit should be that of Kyalami, where Formula 1 also raced for several years in the second half of the last century. Earlier, it seemed that South Africa would not be able to come up with the finances, but it is now rumoured that, due to a lack of investors, the government will pick up the bill itself. With that, the circuit would only have to make some changes to the last corner to meet Formula 1 and FIA requirements.
Whereas with South Africa, the financial hurdle now seems to have been cleared, the opposite is the case in Malaysia. The country last hosted a race in 2017, which was then won by Max Verstappen. Malaysian sports minister Hannah Yeoh reiterated this week at TheVibes that the cost of Formula 1 is simply too high. "F1 is very expensive. We had to wait for RM20 million from the government just to upgrade the track. If we could host an F1 race we would already have done it, but for now, we can’t afford to have the races. "