Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Formula One Paves a New RoadBy BRAD SPURGEONPublished: September 26, 2004
HANGHAI, Sept. 25 - The drivers' title has been won, and the team title has been decided, but that seems almost beside the point as Formula One conducts the first Chinese Grand Prix here Sunday.
The locale of the luxurious and gargantuan new track in Shanghai may well threaten Monaco's position as the favorite place for the teams and the drivers, although it probably will not for the core fans who follow the races around Europe.
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Still, the organizers had no problem filling the seats. Even though the majority of China's 1.3 billion people could not afford to go - tickets cost from about $45 to about $450 - all 150,000 tickets were sold by August.
The walls of Pudong International Airport are lined with billboards for DHL, a Formula One sponsor, depicting a racecar driver and its connection to the sport. Along the roads into the city, the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, another sponsor, has draped red Formula One flags bordered by a checkered flag. Other Formula One ads appear in the city, which is in the middle of its Tourism Festival. Hotels have raised their room rates, and beds are still hard to find.
"Everyone's talking about it, from the C.E.O.'s of big companies to my baby sitter," said Laurie Underwood, head of communications and publications for the American Chamber of Commerce here. "There's a general sense of euphoria about having Formula One come to Shanghai."
While the poverty is still visible beneath the gleaming modern skyline, the city's economy, like that of China as a whole, is booming. And the motor car is the symbol of the aspirations of the country's new middle class. The streets of Shanghai teem with bicycles and other strange, wheeled variants. This week The China Daily reported that there are only 10 million private cars in the country.
Formula One's car manufacturers salivate over this potential market, and even those struggling in the wake of all-conquering Ferrari are desperate to do well this weekend.
The modern Shanghai International Circuit, covering 5.4 kilometers, or 3.3 miles, was built on swampy farmland in Anting, an auto manufacturing town about 18 miles west of Shanghai.
The race and the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing are part of a larger plan by China to develop as a power in world sports. The race is also intended to promote the image of Shanghai and China abroad and to help develop its motor industry.
Yu Zhifei, the deputy general manager of Shanghai International Circuit, is known for having brought the Manchester United soccer team here in 1999 to play his club, Shanghai Shenhua. The event made a $1.8 million profit, he said.
Yu expects the Formula One race to pay off within a decade. He said it had created 10,000 jobs locally, although many are only for race week.
The influx of tourists for the race and the 2,000 team employees and members of the news media will also contribute to the local economy.
At the same time, Formula One is flooding Shanghai with its merchandise. The T-shirts, stationery, jackets and other souvenirs were introduced in China last month through Internet sites and cellphone messages.
"We received an overwhelming response from the market," said Qiu Ping, general manager of the Shanghai Racing Commercial, which owns the exclusive rights to sell the merchandise for Formula One in China.
"We gave them some designs with a China touch, but they were all denied," Qiu said.
That raises the question of whether a sport so rooted in Europe can adjust to the Chinese market it wants to conquer.
HANGHAI, Sept. 25 - The drivers' title has been won, and the team title has been decided, but that seems almost beside the point as Formula One conducts the first Chinese Grand Prix here Sunday.
The locale of the luxurious and gargantuan new track in Shanghai may well threaten Monaco's position as the favorite place for the teams and the drivers, although it probably will not for the core fans who follow the races around Europe.
Advertisement
Still, the organizers had no problem filling the seats. Even though the majority of China's 1.3 billion people could not afford to go - tickets cost from about $45 to about $450 - all 150,000 tickets were sold by August.
The walls of Pudong International Airport are lined with billboards for DHL, a Formula One sponsor, depicting a racecar driver and its connection to the sport. Along the roads into the city, the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, another sponsor, has draped red Formula One flags bordered by a checkered flag. Other Formula One ads appear in the city, which is in the middle of its Tourism Festival. Hotels have raised their room rates, and beds are still hard to find.
"Everyone's talking about it, from the C.E.O.'s of big companies to my baby sitter," said Laurie Underwood, head of communications and publications for the American Chamber of Commerce here. "There's a general sense of euphoria about having Formula One come to Shanghai."
While the poverty is still visible beneath the gleaming modern skyline, the city's economy, like that of China as a whole, is booming. And the motor car is the symbol of the aspirations of the country's new middle class. The streets of Shanghai teem with bicycles and other strange, wheeled variants. This week The China Daily reported that there are only 10 million private cars in the country.
Formula One's car manufacturers salivate over this potential market, and even those struggling in the wake of all-conquering Ferrari are desperate to do well this weekend.
The modern Shanghai International Circuit, covering 5.4 kilometers, or 3.3 miles, was built on swampy farmland in Anting, an auto manufacturing town about 18 miles west of Shanghai.
The race and the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing are part of a larger plan by China to develop as a power in world sports. The race is also intended to promote the image of Shanghai and China abroad and to help develop its motor industry.
Yu Zhifei, the deputy general manager of Shanghai International Circuit, is known for having brought the Manchester United soccer team here in 1999 to play his club, Shanghai Shenhua. The event made a $1.8 million profit, he said.
Yu expects the Formula One race to pay off within a decade. He said it had created 10,000 jobs locally, although many are only for race week.
The influx of tourists for the race and the 2,000 team employees and members of the news media will also contribute to the local economy.
At the same time, Formula One is flooding Shanghai with its merchandise. The T-shirts, stationery, jackets and other souvenirs were introduced in China last month through Internet sites and cellphone messages.
"We received an overwhelming response from the market," said Qiu Ping, general manager of the Shanghai Racing Commercial, which owns the exclusive rights to sell the merchandise for Formula One in China.
"We gave them some designs with a China touch, but they were all denied," Qiu said.
That raises the question of whether a sport so rooted in Europe can adjust to the Chinese market it wants to conquer.
