The Middle East has taken to Formula One and vice versa, with Abu Dhabi due to join Bahrain as a Grand Prix circuit in 2009. Will Gray gears up for the event
When Formula One comes to town, there is no escape. Banners adorn the streets, bars open 24-7 and display cars, usually flanked by scantily clad models litter the streets. When the engines roar, the crowds pack the grandstands to cheer on their heroes – all hoping for that ultimate champagne moment on the podium.
Little wonder, then, that there were tuts and frowns when, in 2002, the muslim Kingdom of Bahrain announced the show was on its way to the Middle East, a region where traditional dress for women is all-concealing and alcohol is against the culture. There was, however, never any question the sport would be embraced.
Now, three years after the inaugural Bahrain race in 2004, a second event in the Gulf has been confirmed for 2009, to be held at a spectacular new harbourside circuit in Abu Dhabi. The initial fears have gone and, thanks to cultural modifications including a non-alcoholic rosewater champagne, Formula One is fitting in just fine.
‘This part of the world [the Middle East] is go-ahead with everything,’ says Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s ringmaster and a man who has big ambitions for expanding the sport in this fast-developing region. ‘Anything to do with Formula One in a country is good, whatever it is.’
And the Bahrain circuit is good. It is challenging, has created some exciting races and has been an excellent showcase for Formula One. The organisers continually out-perform their previous efforts at promoting the show to the people of the Middle East, and have won awards for their efforts in the past few years.
Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who won last year’s event for Renault and raced in Bahrain for McLaren in 2007, says: ‘It is a unique circuit because a lot of sand blows onto the surface from outside. It makes it quite complex because as you go into each corner you don’t know what the conditions are like.’
The interesting layout, designed by Formula One’s resident track guru Hermann Tilke, has proved popular and Briton Jenson Button, who drives for Honda, is a big fan. ‘I enjoy racing in Bahrain,’ he says. ‘There are several overtaking opportunities, which always makes things exciting, and the fast-flowing sections are great.’
While the racers may enjoy the challenge, the locals have taken time to make tracks to the dusty desert circuit and crowd figures remain comparatively low. Local attendance does not matter too much in the grand scheme of things. The world’s eyes are watching from afar, and those billions of global television viewers are what makes Formula One a big draw.
There is nothing like the buzz of an international sporting event to draw the world’s attention. And while Australia promoted itself with the Olympics in 2000 and South Africa aims to do the same with the Soccer World Cup in 2010, the Gulf has now firmly gone down the route of Formula One.
The high-profile circus mixes sports giants, A-list celebrities and multibillion-dollar corporations, making it a perfect combination for a region desperate to put itself on the map on a global scale. And that is why every slice of the Gulf is fighting it out to grab a piece of the action.
Bahrain slipped in unannounced to snatch the flagship Grand Prix from under the nose of neighbouring Dubai and, after sitting in its near neighbour’s shadow, the emirate’s $150m circuit, developed on the site of an old camel farm, suddenly put the tiny island on the sporting and sponsorship map.
Now, with the extension of Bahrain’s race contract into the next decade and the announcement of the race in Abu Dhabi, the Gulf really is taking notice of the sport. If people thought the Bahrain circuit was impressive, they are likely to find Abu Dhabi’s offering even more exciting. Abu Dhabi’s circuit, designed by Tilke and constructed on Yas island, will run around a purpose-built harbour, making it the Monaco of the Middle East. Around it, by 2014, will sit a resort with golf courses, beaches, pools and plush hotels. It could turn Grand Prix racing from an event for fans to a sideshow for holidaymakers.
‘There is now a trend to take the tracks to the fans and not the other way around, and closer to the fans naturally means racing in cities,’ says Tilke. ‘The fact that the Abu Dhabi track is a completely new area allowed us to incorporate the marina much better into the racetrack.
‘We have a tide lift of only half a metre and practically no waves, so we can have the yachts sitting there incredibly high in comparison to the track. It is different to Monaco in that people on the boats will be able to look down on the cars. It will be truly magnificent.’
There will be a marked difference between the experience in Bahrain and that in Abu Dhabi. Where the Bahrain track is a racetrack, pure and simple, the Abu Dhabi venue represents a step change in Formula One thinking. It is an overall entertainment zone, a place where the Grand Prix is immersed in the venue, not put aside.
Part of that incredible concept is a Ferrari theme park, something that the country is hoping will be as successful as a Disney venue, making Formula One a year-round experience rather than a one-off weekend event. It is another example of how the Middle East is trying to bring Formula One to a new home.
Just one year after the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix, Union Properties, one of the UAE’s leading developers and the creator the Dubai Autodrome racetrack that hoped to bring Grand Prix racing to the Gulf, signed an agreement with Ecclestone to create a $360m Formula One World theme park in Dubailand.
The news immediately led to suggestions that Bahrain would lose the Grand Prix to Dubai at the end of their contract in 2009. Then, one month later, Abu Dhabi unveiled its plans for Ferrari World, a park that would include amusements, an interactive Ferrari museum, rollercoasters and a racetrack.
Keen not to lose out to motorsport’s profile and the money-making opportunities that go with it, Dubai’s Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum set up and bankrolled a whole new championship, the A1-GP series, marketed as ‘The World Cup of Motorsport’, that would pit country against country in identical cars.
The concept clearly planned to knock out the Formula One monopoly but, curiously, no Middle East country had a team in the championship and the series only visited the Dubai Autodrome once before the Sheikh pulled his funding out of the venture. If you cannot beat them, it seemed, then try to join them.
For a time Dubai focused on the team angle, attempting to lure existing outfits from the UK to the Gulf with the temptations of tax breaks and impressive new factories in the ideal location to follow Formula One’s expansion away from Europe. Nobody bit, and attempts to set up a new Dubai-based team also floundered.
Instead, again, it was the other countries that made Formula One bedfellows. Back in 2005, just before the announcement of their theme park plans, Abu Dhabi’s ruling al-Nahyan family had purchased, through the Mubadala Development Company, a five per cent stake in Ferrari SPA for $137m.
In a similar step, earlier this year the Bahrain government’s Mumtalakat consortium bought a 30 per cent stake in the McLaren Group, which runs the McLaren Formula One team, giving the Gulf another stronghold in the sport and uniquely turning the organisers of the Bahrain Grand Prix into part team owners.
That cemented Bahrain’s place in the future of Formula One, while Abu Dhabi’s agreement signalled Ecclestone’s intent to move Formula One to pastures new and underlined the Gulf’s ambitions to make the sport its own. It is clear, though, that there is still strong competition between the two races and the rest of the Gulf. Bahrain, determined not to lose its early advantage to the new player, has begun to market its race as ‘the Gulf Grand Prix’, developing a promotional roadshow covering the entire GCC region, including Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the UAE, promoting to potential attendees of the event.
Two official Formula One test sessions were set up at the Bahrain circuit in February, stealing teams away from their traditional Spanish winter testing haunts with the promise of better climate and conditions in a further push to pull in the sport. And it could be just a matter of time before it succeeds.
The teams, who fight among themselves for commercial backing, are desperate for new markets and the Gulf offers them the perfect expansion opportunity, not only into that area but, due to the favourable time zone, also into the Far East, where a new race has recently run in China and South Korea has been pencilled in for 2010.
It is, therefore, not inconceivable that the heartbeat of Formula One could yet swing towards the Middle East. The post-Michael Schumacher era looks set to be played out on shores far from Formula One’s European roots. If so, the battle between the neigh-bouring countries for all that comes with it is only just beginning.
HOW THEY FINISHED IN 2007
1. Felipe Massa, Brazil, Ferrari
2. Lewis Hamilton, Great Britain, McLaren
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Finland, Ferrari
4. Nick Heidfeld, Germany, BMW Sauber
www.bahraingp.com.bh
www.abudhabigp.com
www.grandprix.com
WHERE TO STAY
RITZ CARLTON BAHRAIN HOTEL & SPA
PO Box 55577 Manama Tel: (+973) 580 000 www.ritzcarlton.com
REGENCY INTER-CONTINENTAL
King Faisal Highway PO Box 777 Manama Tel: (+973) 227 777 www.ichotelsgroup.com
SHERATON BAHRAIN
6 Palace Avenue Manama Tel: (+973) 533 533 www.sheraton.com
