F1 confirms: South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia want a GP

Formula 1 is continuing its attempt to capitalize on the media boom experienced by the sport in recent years, trying to find new opportunities to expand the category towards new horizons in other continents.

With three events in the United States, plus three more events on the American continent, F1 is sufficient for that type of market. Instead, there is growing interest in pushing the sport to other regions, especially the Asian continent, where a new event could be added.

Speaking at an F1 event in Monaco on Thursday evening, also run by Autosport Business, Maffei said the successful return of the Chinese Grand Prix to the calendar after a four-season absence showed what is possible and what the interest is towards Formula 1 on that continent.

“We are lucky to have managed to have a GP in China this year after four seasons. It was a great success. The interest in China has exploded partly because now we have a Chinese driver,” said Maffei, underlining the importance of Guanyu Zhou, to whom a special space was dedicated during the Grand Prix weekend, even at the end of the race by having him stop on the starting line to greet the public, with visible emotion on the part of the local driver.

It is no mystery that, behind the scenes, several countries have come forward with F1 to organize a Grand Prix in the coming years, in addition to those already present on the Asian continent. According to what Maffei revealed, three states have shown great interest, namely Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia.

“Cultural identity is key when you have riders and teams from one country. It’s been great to see the growth of China. But there’s a lot of interest across Asia, as we have interest from many cities. But in Asia, as you rightly pointed out there are Thailand, Seoul, and we have also received interest from Indonesia. There are many places that want a Formula 1 race.”

“We looked at the data between where our fans are, where they might be, who could put on a big race, and who, frankly, can afford to put on a race, and also made various intersections between those three aspects. I think you could easily see a second in Southeast Asia [insieme alla Cina]”.

Formula 1 has already raced in South Korea on the Yeongam track, although the event was canceled after only four editions at the end of the 2013 season. At the time it was an ambitious project, because a city was supposed to be built around the circuit , but work has always been slow, which is why after a while interest faded also due to the unsustainable costs of keeping a Grand Prix alive far from other reference cities. The idea would therefore be to organize a race in the city.

The situation is different for Thailand, which has been pushing the accelerator in recent months: as part of an official visit to Italy, Thai Prime Minister Thavisin attended last week’s Emilia-Romagna GP to discuss with Stefano Domenicali on the opportunity to bring F1 to their country.

In fact, the Grand Prix project would also be promoted and supported by the government, although it is known that Thavisin has explored possible support from Red Bull for the organization of the event, given the drinks brand’s well-known links with the state of the Asian continent. The idea would be to organize a race on a city track in Bangkok, the country’s capital, with the hope that it could be included in the calendar in 2027 or 2028.

Srettha Thavisin, Prime Minister of Thailand, Stefano Domenicali, CEO of the Formula 1 Group

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The lesson from Las Vegas

The main representatives who contributed to organizing the Lase Vegas GP were also present at the event held in Monaco. Maffaei explained how F1 was able to better understand the needs of fans thanks to the decision to become the promoter of the event, instead of relying on other organisers.

“We have changed the sport in many ways. We simply gave the product to the local organizer and they sold it. But more and more, between things like F1TV and events that we have created ourselves like the one in Las Vegas, we understand better what fans need. We are a direct-to-consumer company and we need to understand their needs,” Maffei explained. In fact, this year, there should also be cheaper tickets for the US event, after the great controversy over prices last season.

“This allows us to learn better and better meet their needs over time, even in Las Vegas. So I’m excited about what we can do together. I think it will be a great show. And I hope it remains as exciting a race as it has been The first year”.