Have you ever wondered about the construction of a temporary F1 circuit. It is something that I have always felt would be an interesting feature. Thankfully those nice folk at the Australian Grand Prix have made this video to do the job for me. It is an interesting story.
Meanwhile in Valencia, the circuit has been looted of its copper and other metals and parts of it squatted according to AS newspaper…
Just months after Alonso’s great truimph of 2012. I hope F1 in Spain can outlast FA’s career as a driver.
I am so exited. March is just around the corner.
Excited that is. I should be exited from my typing on my computer at 2:00 AM local time. Off to bed.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
It’s pretty clear it’s aimed at the vocal idiocy in the state who constantly look at the headline figure of the cost to slam the event without taking everything else into account.
Happy memories. I worked putting up/taking down the marquees at the 2002 event during my backpacking days in Australia. The change from open park, to race track and back to open park is phenomenal!
Great video!…cant wait for the season to start.
That Mr Ecclestone is a clever fellow! all that money to construct the circuit and then they pay on top for the privilege!
Incredible. I wonder how and who weights up the expense and effort versus the repayment of these temporary circuits ?! I find it amazing that these events go ahead.
Daniel: It depends on which math you want to use. In a straight count of actual jobs created against expenses – then no. If you use the formula of having to buy world wide advertising for your tourist departments budget then yes. Somewhere in between these two positions is the real number. The key to making money is the actual out of town race fan attendance. Creating an event where most of your attendance is ‘local’ does nothing but shift your citizens after tax income from one pocket to another. I’ve been involved with the Toronto street race for several years – this is where we are now (mostly locals) – compared to when it started in 1986. Montreal and locations like Austin are successful because they are able to bring in ‘new’ (offshore) money. I suspect the race in OZ is rather popular as it becomes part of peoples vacation plans compared to say – the British GP where the attendance is mainly local and not (mainly) part of any other plans that create tourist income for other areas of the country.
True – but even when shifting the citizens after tax income from one pocket to another the government makes out because a portion of that shifting is taxed as income. The more you can get the local people to shift each year, the more you revenue you can generate for the government (at least in the States).
Sorry, I put an extra “you” in there!
Increasing taxation (shifting – not improving wealth) is not the goal of countries involved in F1 – it’s about improving your GNP.
Melbourne is exciting. the track is barely look like a street circuit. always bring incredible race. Hope that it will be on the calendar for a long long time
Why don’t the dumb Aussies just leave it set up? Bit of a poor excuse of a park anyway!
Because the park is very nice when it is not a race track. Ever been there?
I ran around Albert Park Lake this morning, it is in fabulous shape….45 days to go, cant wait.
Will there an “Audience with Joe”?
Yes, Wednesday evening.
Bummer. I arrive Thursday morning
Perhaps a Beer with Joe on Thursday arvo at the track? You can’t work all weekend…
As for value to the economy, Melbourne retailers will be getting a fair few of my hard earned dollars thanks to my wife who is tagging along for a shopping trip..
I am afraid that this is the only day I can do.
It’s a great track, but Adelaide was better
I’m heading to the Melbourne GP and can’t wait. Will you be hosting ‘A Evening with Joe’ event?
Yes. On Wednesday night
Bugger, in on Thursday… will get there a day earlier next year just in case!!
Hope you have a great evening. Cheers
Pity it’s such an utterly boring track. Not one interesting corner. One of the best things about the event is Mr Costaduros’ (?spelling) on track commentary. The other commentators should mute their microphones and let him get on with it.
I don’t think Melb want the race anymore. I hope NSW pick it up. The best place for it would be Mt Panorama at Bathurst but the NSW Government won’t pay to slightly alter the track for FIA F1 standards or decent roads, rail and airport so it’s easy for people to get to/from track. (They haven’t built a significant new railway lines for more than a generation so hardly likely to start now for anything important.)
I’m quite looking forward to it.
Love the typical event optimistic/marketing way of counting attendees at the end of the video – “More than 300,000 attendees from all over the world.”
Well 300000 only if you cant count.
Closer to the truth: “The entry gates are used by attendees 300,000 times over 4 days”
I’d love to know what the actual unique attendee count over 4 days is – I’m guessing somewhere around 120000
You may have missed it, but this is how spectator numbers are counted by the whole world.
Of course there are not 300,000 different people. The race day crowd will be around the figure you mention. The rest of the numbers will be the same people coming on the other days. There might be a few who do only one day, but these will be in the hundreds.
Great video. It reminded me of the current wailing and gnashing of teeth because the Valencia Street Circuit has apparently been vandalised and fallen into disrepair.
This made me laugh because, by definition as a street circuit, it should all have been dismantled and put into storage the day after each year’s race. So surely it’s just the streets that have been vandalised?
Otherwise what is it? Just a rather poor permanent circuit. I guess ‘Valencia disused scrubland next to the port circuit’ didn’t have the right ring to it.
Having had the misfortune to attend the first year’s race one of the first things I learnt was a) Valencia is beautiful, b) the circuit is located in a rough part of town. Large stretches of the surrounding area were little more than wasteground. This wasn’t Monaco. Hell, it wasn’t even Long Beach (another rough old town when the racers aren’t there!)
So I can muster zero sympathy if no one had the sense to pick up their barriers, grandstands and bollards and put them in a lock up.