Lewis Hamilton questions F1’s move to new countries like Vietnam as he calls for two British Grand Prixs
The recently-crowned world champion believes Liberty Media should be looking to maximise interest in established racing nations instead of expanding to unknown territories
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Your support makes all the difference.Lewis Hamilton has questioned the benefit of taking Formula 1 to new countries like Vietnam in place of the traditional venues like Silverstone, and believes that Great Britain should be given two races a year to capitalise on the huge following among fans.
The recently-crowned five-time world champion has offered his thoughts in the wake of Liberty Media’s announcement that from 2020, the streets of Hanoi will stage the Vietnam Grand Prix in the latest addition to the growing F1 calendar.
Before the Brazilian Grand Prix last weekend – which Hamilton won to take his 10th victory of the season – Hamilton admitted that he would consider walking away from the sport if the calendar continued to head towards the 25-race mark. Vietnam will increase the calendar to 22 races a year, but its addition has caused widespread debate among fans in the UK given that the future of Silverstone remains under heavy threat.
The British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) has triggered a break-clause in their contract that under the current terms will see Silverstone cease to host the British Grand Prix after next year’s event unless new terms can be agreed, but rather than lose the race off the calendar, Hamilton would prefer to see a second British round added.
“On the racing side, I don’t know how important it is to go to new countries as such,” Hamilton told the BBC.
“If you had the Silverstone Grand Prix and a London Grand Prix, it would be pretty cool.
“We’ve got a lot of real racing history in England, Germany, Italy and now in the States it is starting to grow. But you only have one event per year in those places.
“If it was my business, I’d be trying to do more events in those countries.”
Recent additions to the F1 calendar include Turkey, India and South Korea, all of which have since fallen off the circuit after failing to attract the audiences needed to the keep the grand prix alive. Having had experience of all three during his 11-year F1 career, Hamilton believes that targeting countries where the sport is already strong and trying to maximise interest and revenue there rather than trying to tap into unknown regions should be the business model moving forward.
“I’ve been to Vietnam before and it is beautiful,” Hamilton added. “I’ve been to India before to a race which was strange because India was such a poor place yet we had this massive, beautiful grand prix track made in the middle of nowhere. I felt very conflicted when I went to that grand prix.
“We had a grand prix in Turkey and hardly anyone came. Cool track, cool weekend but poor audience.”
“If you have the German Grand Prix and you’ve got a Grand Prix in Berlin, I think connecting to cities where a lot of people are is probably a good thing, not necessarily going to countries where they don’t know so much about Formula 1.”
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