Vietnam GP April 5.

Three months and five days before the race and this is the state of the construction site?

This was just relayed from a local website by a French one: progress in Zandwoort, Holland looks good enough for timely completion in comparison but this? Even with triple 24h a day shifts I would not bet on them being on time...but wish them to succeed.

https://www.autohebdo.fr/f1/breves/video-les-travaux-du-circuit-de-hanoi-208043.html

 

I hope it flops!

 

Interesting to see where the F1 Market is migrating. Hoping that this venue flops could give the entire sport a black eye though. With the ever increasing difficulty in absorbing sponsorship monies, I hope that F1 can hang on and prosper.
I, for one, would love to see a second event held in the US.
RF

 

Why ?
That wouldn't help F1 at all if the Vietnam GP can't go ahead.

 

Are we taking bets? Because that made me LOL. I think they'd need a miracle to be ready in three months.

 

Well I don't bet but symbolically I will pay one Dong (Vietnam currency) if they manage

 

Appears slow progress. Status for ready Is track and paddock. A local audience is not the point. International yes but tele matters most. Appears mess like Korea

 

Korea had two positive things , the back of the circuit included some excellent challenging curves...and the leggy grid girls were scrumptious...apart of that it was one big mud pit in the middle of Gangnam style nowhere...

 

Not a problem.....spec the cars some mud tires and let them loose. They will have it ready......which is to say Vietnamese Ready.

 

The trend seems to be leave the traditional venues. Why? Did Vietnam outbid to have F1? I wonder how many people that normally go to Hockenhiem will buy plane tickets to see a Vietnamese street race? Liberty Media is ruining F1 as we knew it.

 

I will go if it is ready

 

It's a simple business decision.
F1 can only go to countries that can pay the high fees to host GPs, and not those that can't afford them.
At the end of the day, if Liberty doesn't collect enough money all through the season, it will redistribute less to the teams.
Also, the GP attending public is only a small proportion of the total income; TV rights are the big earners.

 

You got it !

 

I’d like to see the ratio of tv revenues vs paid spectator revenues. Not disputing you, just curious. Always thought the crowds brought in a significant amount of $$. Someone said in another thread the TV viewing has gone down dramatically since Sky was awarded the coverage.

 

I was in Saigon last week. Seems like no one in Vietnam knows anything about it.

If the timing is right I will go. Saigon is pretty hot and humid like Singapore all year round but it's cooler in Hanoi. But it should be in the rainy season.

 

I assume that TV rights sold to different channels all over the world, bring a lot more money to Liberty than their share of the gate revenue which varies from country to country.
The promoters keep most of the ticket price, although they pay a fee up to £5M if not more.
It's probably true that TV viewing has decreased since GPs are on Sky, but the income going to Liberty is higher.
The BBC and Channel 4 never paid for TV rights as much as Sky. So it's a clear choice between spectators or income.
People simply don't like to pay, and having GPs on TV without paying for decades gave them the impression they were entitled to watch F1 for free!

 

Great place, but no one really cares in Vietnam, as they have bigger things to worry about. I recently went down to Sepang after all the years, and they have kigfhts installed for night races. Sepang would be ideal to host a night race in the region. Cooler conditions, a track that's already and a fan/driver fav, should be good to go.

Never understood the reason to tap into a 3rd world country market. We already saw Turkey, India, South Korea collapse.

 

They don't complain about the exhorbitant fees and pay good money to put their country on the map, attract tourism and suchlike.
Most of these GPs were government-sponsored, and you don't get that in Western countries.
So why not tap that market ?

 

^Question is, how long will it last? Will the tracks be good? In modern tracks, only Sepang and Istanbul stands out. The rest is meh..

 

COTA is pretty cool. I've been on it.
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It doesn't matter how long, Liberty will find new venues.
Did F1 miss the Argentine GP, the Portugese GP, the Moroccan GP, the Swedish GP, the Swiss GP, the San Marino GP or the South African GP?
There was no Dutch GP for years, no French GP, no US GP, no Mexican GP either, and F1 survived.

 

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https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/147917/first-images-of-vietnam-gp-pit-building-revealed

 

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I must admit I underestimated them: they must have been incredibly busy: very impressive, they are well on their way to completion with ten weeks remaining, bravo.

 

Has the look of a circuit, yes!