To host its first F1 Grand Prix in 2020, Vietnam will have to overcome the financial obstacles that punctuate the organization of such an event and have already led several Asian countries to throw in the towel, say the experts.
An F1 race can certainly bring tens of millions of dollars each year to the host country, but it also requires huge investments and remains financially risky.
In 2018, Malaysia ceased to organize, for lack of profitability, the Grand Prix that it hosted since 1999, particularly victim of competition from Singapore. South Korea did the same in 2013, failing to attract a sufficiently large audience to Yeongam, a remote town in the far south of the peninsula. And India had withdrawn the same year because of financial problems.
This time, Liberty Media officials, who bought F1 in 2017 and are trying to conquer new markets in North America and Asia, "can not really afford a failure," said Laurence Edmondson, a journalist. specialty of the US television channel ESPN.
Hanoi, however, was far from being the obvious choice: the city is not the richest in the region, and motor sport remains marginal in the country, a fan of football and where most people still ride their motorbikes.
Long-term perspective
But organizers are banking on developing a burgeoning middle class in Southeast Asia, home to some of the continent's most dynamic economies.
"It's important to have a long-term perspective, I think in the past we had a short-term vision in a lot of things we did," said Formula 1 boss Chase Carey in a interview at AFP.
Vietnam, which has signed a 10-year contract with Liberty Media, has several strengths in its sleeve. The 5.6-kilometer circuit, planned around the National Stadium, will use several existing sections of road, which will avoid creating an entirely new track. And the entrance fees paid each year to Liberty Media must be fully funded by Vingroup, the largest private sector company in Vietnam.
This consortium, whose 50 companies operate in real estate, shopping centers, agricultural production and amusement parks, is led by the richest man in the country, Pham Nhat Vuong, whose fortune is estimated at $ 6.3 billion.
According to the local press, entry fees should be around $ 60 million a year. But the total cost by also counting the construction of the circuit, the financing of the safety device and the budget of promotion of the event could amount to "hundreds of millions of dollars" , estimates Truong Anh Ngoc, sports correspondent of the Official Vietnamese news agency.
The main thing will be to provide a maximum of show to the public like the Singapore Grand Prix where the race that starts at dusk has been a success for ten years. This year, the GP of the city-state has gathered on three days 263,000 spectators.
Hanoi, more sleepy capital, will she be able to do the same? "You have to create interesting events, you can not create something without soul, without feeling," says Alex Yoong, a former Malaysian F1 driver and commentator for Fox Sports Asia. "You have to know what you are doing and how to spend money," he added.