When Sepang held its last F1 race back in 2017, mixed reactions were received from the local fans and motorsports community. Some are sad that they would no longer be able to catch the race locally, and some welcomed the move with the idea that Sepang could focus more on bringing up the local racing scene.
But the chances of seeing F1 cars zipping through Sepang is not totally gone as the circuit’s new CEO, Azhan Shafriman Hanif, is open to the idea of bringing the race series back to Malaysia.
“It (hosting the F1 again) is not on my top priority at the moment, but if the opportunity comes by and the offer is good, I’m very supportive of this idea because this event (F1) brings the branding part of Malaysia”, said Azhan to Bernama.
“Let’s say if we agree to host the F1 race for a longer period, we will hold a discussion with the government since the hosting fee is not cheap and also the money that we spend must be worthy to the government and also the fans”, he added.
According to Forbes.com, Malaysia paid USD 46.7 million (RM 204.78 million) annually to host the F1 at Sepang. However, Sepang’s former CEO Dato’ Razlan pulled the plug on F1’s second oldest Asian race pulled the plug after 18 years as “since 2014 the numbers don’t add up any more”.
What do you think? Should F1 make a return to Sepang, or should we be focusing more on bringing the local scene to new heights? Some said that the novelty of the Malaysia GP had worn off due to the Singapore GP, so will we have a tougher time with the Vietnam GP now in the calendar?
