The Korean correspondent of the New York Times Monday wrote a very well documented story about the rise and fall of the Korean Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The story began eight years ago with the construction of a $375 million, 3.5-mile Formula 1 circuit with a capacity for 120,000 spectators and funded mostly with public money in the South Korean province of South Jeolla. The track was also located in a remote area that cleared 1,000 acres of rice paddies. Right at the start of the project, a civic group filed suit against former provincial officials over the track, asking prosecutors to bring criminal charges for breach of trust. In 2010, the circuit of Yeongam hosted the maiden Korean Grand Prix in a country that had a very limited automobile tradition. “We started with a big dream of making lots of money. Instead, we ended up with a spectacular flop,” said Park Bong-soon, a South Jeolla Province official. Park Bong-soon added that the main problem with the Grand Prix was that most South Koreans were simply too unfamiliar with Formula 1.
South Jeolla officials had also envisioned the race as a multimillion-dollar advertising billboard for Korean mega corporations like Samsung and Hyundai. But given the sport’s obscurity in the country, no major sponsors were interested. Additionally, ticket sales were dramatically low, which perhaps should have been no surprise, given the track’s location in the remote southwest of the country. By 2013, South Jeolla was deep in debt and unable to come up with the annual fees required by F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone. That year’s Grand Prix was the last.
On the bright side, Koreans’ interested towards motorsport has grown ever since. Since 2010, the number of drivers licensed to use the Korea International Circuit has risen by 30 percent annually, to 3,000. Hundreds of car clubs have formed online, most of them since 2012, when the country eased restrictions on the modifications that can be made to automobiles (previously, all an owner could legally do was change the seats or the stereo system). “Right now, we may suffer so much criticism for our F1 project,” admitted Park Bong-soon. “But in 10 to 20 years, people will see this place as a national landmark, a mecca of South Korean auto racing.”
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