F1 » Middle East has become F1 'focal point'

“From next year, this region will have six world-class racing circuits,”

Doesn''t make them any good though... Great facilities maybe. Great circuits no. Bland, poor racing and no charachter.

FooAtari, you forgot...No spectators, except for some expats and some princes.

But how many middle eastern enthusiasts actually go to the circuit and watch the races? Surely the idea of taking the circus to 18 different countries is to allow millions of f1 enthusiasts the opportunity of seeing and hearing their favourite sport first hand. Why doesnt Bernie just make it a closed circuit, totally televised sport and save on the public liability insurance? If most of the fans are in Europe ,south America, Oz etc then thats where the races should be. Would F1 survive if noboby worldwide gave a stuff about it? The priority has to be the fans not the dollars. When Max quits why dont you go with him Bernie.

and there goes Portugal's hopes then. They're building a new circuit in the Algarve with the hope of tempting F1 back to Portugal, and as a springboard to reinvigorate the economy. Fat chance. They won't have enough dollars for BE.

1) these facilities are 100's of kms apart - it's not like they sit next to one and other

2) "sustainable business model" in this case seems to be - "at $100 / barrel for oil the UAE / Bahrain / Qatar have got money to burn, and motorsport is fun"

six circuits?

i can only count the bland one in Bahrian, the even blander one in Qatar and the orginial bland one in UAE and the new one which should be better with half street style in the UAE.

so what are the other two he's on about???

Is he including Istanbul?

I dont know where this "no fans" thing is coming from, the Bahrain GP is packed out, admittedly the Dubai and Qatar tracks dont often sell out but one of the reasons for that is that most races are held on a Sunday and the Gulfs weeekends are either Thursday / Friday or Friday / Saturday. Another thing is the temperatures and humidity levels, do you fancy being out in 40 degree heat and 90% humidity???

Munro, ok a lot of people say how busy Bahrain is when your there.

but the thing is, you cant see it. when they go racing at Silverstone or budapest say, on the TV you see the crowds, (the majority of the motorsport fan base viewing via TV) but when they race at sakhir outside the obvious main grand stand, theres no one, except maybe a marshall or two. and so it appears emptier.

Qatar is worse for the motoGP, the quite small stand (singular) often doesnt look full as bikes race by but when they zoom in to the stand there are less empty seat. But no one outside of that stand for the reasons you said, makes the circuit look dull and lifeless and the vast expances of runoff dont help...

...look at istanbul however, so many stands, but you look at even the F1 races there, during the race, there are so many empty seats, ok, theres a lot of seats to fill, but still.