Che Guevara
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The Formula1 in India
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Che Guevara
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Tiger Awan
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Another excellent article from Gray Matter 
Gray Matter: Can F1 make it in India? - Yahoo! Eurosport UK
The Indian Grand Prix is the latest in a long line of new venues on the F1 calendar - but can the new arrival succeed where others have seemingly failed and create a new audience for the sport?
Korea, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Turkey, China, Bahrain and Malaysia are all new nations that have all tried to embrace Formula One over the last 12 years, but only Singapore has truly succeeded in generating the kind of crowds that are needed to sustain the events themselves.
Turkey has already dropped off the calendar, Bahrain is hanging by a thread and Korea's low crowds have raised questions over whether it will last until the end of its 2016 contract. Malaysia is the longest running race of the 'newbies' but after good crowds in the early years the stands are often now empty. The same has happened in China, while Abu Dhabi, despite hosting the season finale in a ridiculously spectacular state-of-the-art venue, failed to sell out to a full crowd.
The first pitfall for many of the new venues has been location - Korea, for instance, is 250 miles away from the capital, the Istanbul circuit in Turkey is about two hours away from the city with the only access via a very busy bridge, while the tracks in China, Malaysia and Bahrain are also all a trek from the city centre. Singapore, however, has succeeded because it is bang in the heart of the city, taking the race to the people rather than trying to draw them out.
Simple demand theory dictates that when you do not already have an audience that desires your product, you must get it into their hands and minds before they will go out of their way to seek it out.
It is, of course, hard to locate a track close to a built-up city without it being a street circuit, but some of the new venues, including Korea and Turkey, have deliberately tried to use F1 to invigorate an area away from the main population, without having an F1 audience in the first place.
It's like building a table tennis centre in the middle of the UK and expecting crowds to flock there to see the sport's biggest stars, none of which have a strong connection with the potential audience.
Drawing the crowds to the venue, however, is only part of the focus, with television ratings now more important than bums on seats. A national race is clearly an important element to inspiring that national audience, but there needs to be something more.
Again, traditional commerce makes it clear that making a breakthrough with a product requires your audience to have a connection - and that takes time, no matter how good or well known you believe your product to be.
Plonking an unrelated event in a new country and trying to make people watch it is clearly much easier when there is national relevance.
In China, a country of 1.34bn residents, the biggest TV viewing figures F1 attained in 2010 was 15m. That audience is tiny compared to the record 110m that tuned in for the China Open snooker final between Ding Junhui and Stephen Hendry in Beijing in 2005 - a figure achieved thanks to the ingredients of a nationally popular playable sport, a successful national player at the top of the game and a national event.
Of the new nations, only Malaysia has had a national driver - Alex Yoong - or a national team involvement - with one of their biggest international businessmen Tony Fernandes running Caterham Lotus, Proton involved with Lotus Renault through Lotus Cars and Petronas major backers of Mercedes GP.
With Yoong failing to make it beyond the back of the grid and no truly nationalistic drive within the team connections, however (perhaps if Lotus used its other name, 1Malaysia, it could have stirred up some national support) that national connection has failed to ignite a following.
India, however, appears to have answers for many of these issues - which is why, despite failing to sell out for its first event, it should be a success in the long run.
Although Narain Karthikeyan will be racing an HRT at the back of the grid and Karun Chandhok will only be taking part in practice for Lotus, their presence has given the event the opportunity for nation-relevant pre-event publicity, which they have done all they can to maximise.
Making the sport part of everyday life, however, is the only way it will reach out to the masses in the long term and India has two team-related opportunities to do just that.
Vijay Mallya, owner of Force India, has already used his nationally known brand Kingfisher - an airline and a brewery - to feed F1 in to a large audience while one of the country's biggest brands, Tata, which sells everything from cars to energy, has leverage as a Ferrari sponsor.
In fact, if viewing figures are to be believed, F1 has built an audience of 68m viewers since it was first televised in India in 1993, and it has doubled since Force India arrived in 2007, making it the second most watched sport after cricket.
If brands like Kingfisher and Tata do push to promote the sport through connection with their customers, F1 could quickly become embedded in the public conscious.
The next barrier, however, is a lack of genuine grass roots motorsport and the funds required to get involved in the sport, which many of general population simply do not have.
Three generations of the Chandhok family have been working to grow motorsport in the country, but with limited success. There is, however, a growing middle class within India (reportedly 300m within the 1.2bn population) who will increasingly have the budget to support take up of motor racing as an active sport, and having an F1 event can only help drive this forward.
So with strong viewing figures, a national team, a national driver and some commercial drive, F1 arrives in its next new destination with some solid foundations - and this time it's got a good shot at building on that..
Gray Matter: Can F1 make it in India? - Yahoo! Eurosport UK
The Indian Grand Prix is the latest in a long line of new venues on the F1 calendar - but can the new arrival succeed where others have seemingly failed and create a new audience for the sport?
Korea, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Turkey, China, Bahrain and Malaysia are all new nations that have all tried to embrace Formula One over the last 12 years, but only Singapore has truly succeeded in generating the kind of crowds that are needed to sustain the events themselves.
Turkey has already dropped off the calendar, Bahrain is hanging by a thread and Korea's low crowds have raised questions over whether it will last until the end of its 2016 contract. Malaysia is the longest running race of the 'newbies' but after good crowds in the early years the stands are often now empty. The same has happened in China, while Abu Dhabi, despite hosting the season finale in a ridiculously spectacular state-of-the-art venue, failed to sell out to a full crowd.
The first pitfall for many of the new venues has been location - Korea, for instance, is 250 miles away from the capital, the Istanbul circuit in Turkey is about two hours away from the city with the only access via a very busy bridge, while the tracks in China, Malaysia and Bahrain are also all a trek from the city centre. Singapore, however, has succeeded because it is bang in the heart of the city, taking the race to the people rather than trying to draw them out.
Simple demand theory dictates that when you do not already have an audience that desires your product, you must get it into their hands and minds before they will go out of their way to seek it out.
It is, of course, hard to locate a track close to a built-up city without it being a street circuit, but some of the new venues, including Korea and Turkey, have deliberately tried to use F1 to invigorate an area away from the main population, without having an F1 audience in the first place.
It's like building a table tennis centre in the middle of the UK and expecting crowds to flock there to see the sport's biggest stars, none of which have a strong connection with the potential audience.
Drawing the crowds to the venue, however, is only part of the focus, with television ratings now more important than bums on seats. A national race is clearly an important element to inspiring that national audience, but there needs to be something more.
Again, traditional commerce makes it clear that making a breakthrough with a product requires your audience to have a connection - and that takes time, no matter how good or well known you believe your product to be.
Plonking an unrelated event in a new country and trying to make people watch it is clearly much easier when there is national relevance.
In China, a country of 1.34bn residents, the biggest TV viewing figures F1 attained in 2010 was 15m. That audience is tiny compared to the record 110m that tuned in for the China Open snooker final between Ding Junhui and Stephen Hendry in Beijing in 2005 - a figure achieved thanks to the ingredients of a nationally popular playable sport, a successful national player at the top of the game and a national event.
Of the new nations, only Malaysia has had a national driver - Alex Yoong - or a national team involvement - with one of their biggest international businessmen Tony Fernandes running Caterham Lotus, Proton involved with Lotus Renault through Lotus Cars and Petronas major backers of Mercedes GP.
With Yoong failing to make it beyond the back of the grid and no truly nationalistic drive within the team connections, however (perhaps if Lotus used its other name, 1Malaysia, it could have stirred up some national support) that national connection has failed to ignite a following.
India, however, appears to have answers for many of these issues - which is why, despite failing to sell out for its first event, it should be a success in the long run.
Although Narain Karthikeyan will be racing an HRT at the back of the grid and Karun Chandhok will only be taking part in practice for Lotus, their presence has given the event the opportunity for nation-relevant pre-event publicity, which they have done all they can to maximise.
Making the sport part of everyday life, however, is the only way it will reach out to the masses in the long term and India has two team-related opportunities to do just that.
Vijay Mallya, owner of Force India, has already used his nationally known brand Kingfisher - an airline and a brewery - to feed F1 in to a large audience while one of the country's biggest brands, Tata, which sells everything from cars to energy, has leverage as a Ferrari sponsor.
In fact, if viewing figures are to be believed, F1 has built an audience of 68m viewers since it was first televised in India in 1993, and it has doubled since Force India arrived in 2007, making it the second most watched sport after cricket.
If brands like Kingfisher and Tata do push to promote the sport through connection with their customers, F1 could quickly become embedded in the public conscious.
The next barrier, however, is a lack of genuine grass roots motorsport and the funds required to get involved in the sport, which many of general population simply do not have.
Three generations of the Chandhok family have been working to grow motorsport in the country, but with limited success. There is, however, a growing middle class within India (reportedly 300m within the 1.2bn population) who will increasingly have the budget to support take up of motor racing as an active sport, and having an F1 event can only help drive this forward.
So with strong viewing figures, a national team, a national driver and some commercial drive, F1 arrives in its next new destination with some solid foundations - and this time it's got a good shot at building on that..
Che Guevara
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---------- Post added at 11:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:11 PM ----------
---------- Post added at 11:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:11 PM ----------
Another excellent article from Gray Matter
Gray Matter: Can F1 make it in India? - Yahoo! Eurosport UK
The Indian Grand Prix is the latest in a long line of new venues on the F1 calendar - but can the new arrival succeed where others have seemingly failed and create a new audience for the sport?
Korea, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Turkey, China, Bahrain and Malaysia are all new nations that have all tried to embrace Formula One over the last 12 years, but only Singapore has truly succeeded in generating the kind of crowds that are needed to sustain the events themselves.
Turkey has already dropped off the calendar, Bahrain is hanging by a thread and Korea's low crowds have raised questions over whether it will last until the end of its 2016 contract. Malaysia is the longest running race of the 'newbies' but after good crowds in the early years the stands are often now empty. The same has happened in China, while Abu Dhabi, despite hosting the season finale in a ridiculously spectacular state-of-the-art venue, failed to sell out to a full crowd.
The first pitfall for many of the new venues has been location - Korea, for instance, is 250 miles away from the capital, the Istanbul circuit in Turkey is about two hours away from the city with the only access via a very busy bridge, while the tracks in China, Malaysia and Bahrain are also all a trek from the city centre. Singapore, however, has succeeded because it is bang in the heart of the city, taking the race to the people rather than trying to draw them out.
Simple demand theory dictates that when you do not already have an audience that desires your product, you must get it into their hands and minds before they will go out of their way to seek it out.
It is, of course, hard to locate a track close to a built-up city without it being a street circuit, but some of the new venues, including Korea and Turkey, have deliberately tried to use F1 to invigorate an area away from the main population, without having an F1 audience in the first place.
It's like building a table tennis centre in the middle of the UK and expecting crowds to flock there to see the sport's biggest stars, none of which have a strong connection with the potential audience.
Drawing the crowds to the venue, however, is only part of the focus, with television ratings now more important than bums on seats. A national race is clearly an important element to inspiring that national audience, but there needs to be something more.
Again, traditional commerce makes it clear that making a breakthrough with a product requires your audience to have a connection - and that takes time, no matter how good or well known you believe your product to be.
Plonking an unrelated event in a new country and trying to make people watch it is clearly much easier when there is national relevance.
In China, a country of 1.34bn residents, the biggest TV viewing figures F1 attained in 2010 was 15m. That audience is tiny compared to the record 110m that tuned in for the China Open snooker final between Ding Junhui and Stephen Hendry in Beijing in 2005 - a figure achieved thanks to the ingredients of a nationally popular playable sport, a successful national player at the top of the game and a national event.
Of the new nations, only Malaysia has had a national driver - Alex Yoong - or a national team involvement - with one of their biggest international businessmen Tony Fernandes running Caterham Lotus, Proton involved with Lotus Renault through Lotus Cars and Petronas major backers of Mercedes GP.
With Yoong failing to make it beyond the back of the grid and no truly nationalistic drive within the team connections, however (perhaps if Lotus used its other name, 1Malaysia, it could have stirred up some national support) that national connection has failed to ignite a following.
India, however, appears to have answers for many of these issues - which is why, despite failing to sell out for its first event, it should be a success in the long run.
Although Narain Karthikeyan will be racing an HRT at the back of the grid and Karun Chandhok will only be taking part in practice for Lotus, their presence has given the event the opportunity for nation-relevant pre-event publicity, which they have done all they can to maximise.
Making the sport part of everyday life, however, is the only way it will reach out to the masses in the long term and India has two team-related opportunities to do just that.
Vijay Mallya, owner of Force India, has already used his nationally known brand Kingfisher - an airline and a brewery - to feed F1 in to a large audience while one of the country's biggest brands, Tata, which sells everything from cars to energy, has leverage as a Ferrari sponsor.
In fact, if viewing figures are to be believed, F1 has built an audience of 68m viewers since it was first televised in India in 1993, and it has doubled since Force India arrived in 2007, making it the second most watched sport after cricket.
If brands like Kingfisher and Tata do push to promote the sport through connection with their customers, F1 could quickly become embedded in the public conscious.
The next barrier, however, is a lack of genuine grass roots motorsport and the funds required to get involved in the sport, which many of general population simply do not have.
Three generations of the Chandhok family have been working to grow motorsport in the country, but with limited success. There is, however, a growing middle class within India (reportedly 300m within the 1.2bn population) who will increasingly have the budget to support take up of motor racing as an active sport, and having an F1 event can only help drive this forward.
So with strong viewing figures, a national team, a national driver and some commercial drive, F1 arrives in its next new destination with some solid foundations - and this time it's got a good shot at building on that..
Thanks for your worry dude but it will be successful in India...
JanjaWeed
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Another excellent article from Gray Matter
Gray Matter: Can F1 make it in India? - Yahoo! Eurosport UK
all those newbies mentioned on the above article are missing couple of things when compared to India. I don't think none of those countries have a team of their own or a driver representing them. that alone can make a lot of difference when it comes to sustaining the interest in the sport!!
Tiger Awan
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Tiger Awan
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another failure article discuss is the distance between population and F1 tracks
what about new Delhi?
Noida has very good conductivity with New Delhi, probably one of the best in India with the Yamuna Expressway coming ..And as far as target audience is concerned some of the richest people live in Delhi and surrounding areas. The economics is right. Hope the business plan works out
Mujraparty
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JanjaWeed
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that's a lame excuse by the author. that's shows his lack knowledge about the sport. does he know how far is Silverstone track from London Heathrow? population only adds success to the sport. his article clearly failed to mention the advantage India holds compared to other countries. India has a team of its own.. has drivers representing one team or the other. On top of that Indian companies are actively involved in sponsoring various teams.
Tiger Awan
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Force India will attract a large crowd for sure
but most interesting part of this race for me will be how teams will respond to Indian conditions, pit stop strategy soft tyre/hard tyre because i don't think any other country offer the same condition
Tiger Awan
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