Where is f1 going next?
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Where is Fl next?
Our map shows where the FIA Formula One World Championship currently goes and where we think it might be going in the next decade as, among other things, factors such as tighter tobacco advertising laws threaten some of the more traditional European venues and force the FIA to cast its net wider
ARGENTINA Fl last went south of Sao Paulo back in 1981 when Nelson Piquet took his Brabham-Ford to a dominant victory with its trick hydraulic suspension. In its day the Argentinian GP was always a popular seasonal starter, and after its miscue this year the race now looks set to go ahead next March, probably as season opener in a doubleheader with Brazil.
AUSTRALIA Melbourne is due to take over from Adelaide in 1996 with a revised track set in Albert Park. Venue is currently being revitalised with a $45M spend, but protesters are having a field day.
BARBADOS Rumours for some time now have suggested plans to host a GP on an as-yet unidentified circuit, but full plans have yet to reach fruition.
CHINA A country on the move, China is keen to embrace Western concepts such as Grand Prix racing, and as well as its Macau-like street circuit at Zhuhai it has the bespoke, similarly-named race track which boasts the highest level of infrastructure. INDIA Like Barbados, Calcutta has been mentioned on and off as a potential
GP venue. India’s time as a motor racing nation may not yet have arrived, but the interest is certainly beginning to grow rapidly at domestic level. INDONESIA A GP at Jakarta’s
purpose-built facility has long been mooted, and was very close to reality for 1993. The track is excellent, with all modern conveniences, but right now the major sticking point appears to be money.
JAPAN Against most expectations the Fl circus really did go to the cramped little TI Circuit Aida this year for Mr Tanaka’s Pacific Grand Prix. It remains to be seen whether we’ll ever be ‘on the buses’ again, though, despite talks of five-year deals.
RUSSIA The idea of a Russian GP is as old as Methuselah, but it keeps coming round every now and then, and the time is probably more suitable now than it has been for the last decade. Moscow and McDonald’s (who were in evidence in Canada), right-handers in Red Square? SINGAPORE A smart street circuit in the great gateway to the Orient could make a lot of sense, not to mention a lot
of money. Talks have been going on for years, but so far progress seems to have stalled.
SOUTH AFRICA Now getting back on to a stable political base after the first free elections and the switch to Black rule, South Africa is desperate to resume its sporting links with the outside world. Cyril Ramphosa of the ANC is known to be a great fan of racing and visited the last two South African GPs in 1992 and ’93. And Nelson Mandella’s daughter (married to South African AA director Prince Thumbumuzi-Dlamini) was present at the recent FIA meeting in Geneva . . . UNITED STATES Washington’s Brandy Station has been mooted for some while now as Bernie Ecclestone’s ‘secret weapon’ in America, after attempts in Road Atlanta City and San Diego came to nought. Certainly Brandy Station owner James Lazer, who was involved with Phoenix, is building some sort of facility, and was in Cagada for the recent GP, but whether this adds two and two the right way remains to be seen. Ideas of Indianapolis and Fl getting together round a common formula, as was once suggested, now seem totally far fetched. DAVID TREMAYNE