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Vietnam style street races are F1's priority

Vietnam style street races are F1's priority

08-11-2018 15:30

The race in Vietnam for 2020 has certainly split opinions in the F1 world, with some fans saying that it is good to spread the sport around the world, while other, more cynical fans have compared it to the failed races in India and Korea.

The street circuit was announced this week and it will start in two years’ time and Sean Bratches, managing director of commercial operations of Formula One says that the race in Vietnam signals the way they want to go with the sport.

Their three priorities are to protect the classic races, promote street tracks and make use of the ready made purpose built tracks round the world.

Bratches said: “We look at it in three ways. Firstly, we want to preserve the heritage races, they are very important to Formula 1 and they are very important to fans. I’m talking about the Silverstones, the Spas, the Monzas of this world.

“Then we have a set of street races and hybrid street races, where we race in parks and on city streets, such as Melbourne, Montreal and Mexico City.

“The third segment features purpose-built facilities such as Shanghai, Austin, Texas and Bahrain.

“Beyond that we are looking to identify further street races, so this race [Vietnam] is a further step in terms of our vision.”