Tue, Mar 06, 2007 page20

• Singapore eyeing Formula One race

  IN THE FAST LANE The nation's Minister of State for Trade and Industry sees an F1 race as a way of creating an "exciting and fun living environment" in the island state

  • AGENCIES
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  Singapore is taking a "very serious look" at hosting a Formula One Grand Prix to give the city-state appeal outside the world of business, a top trade official said yesterday.

  "The F1 is the highest echelon of motorsports and is said to be the third most watched sporting event in the world after the Olympics and [soccer] World Cup," Singaporean Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran said in parliament.

  "The attention and buzz that it generates will expose Singapore to a very different audience from that in the business and financial world," he said.

  While Singapore has gained a reputation as a favoured site for meetings and conventions and as an international business hub, it has to do more, Iswaran said.

  "We must have an exciting and fun living environment offering not just a wide variety of quality lifestyle, leisure and entertainment options but also world class events," he said. "This is why we are taking a very serious look at hosting a Formula One Grand Prix in Singapore."

  Neighboring Malaysia hosts a Formula One Grand Prix at Sepang.

  Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew said two years ago that he regretted not having built a Formula One racing course that would have generated money for the local economy.

  Meanwhile, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone denied yesterday that Singaporean property tycoon Ong Beng Seng had secured the rights to host a Grand Prix in the island state.

  "We haven't entered into any agreement with anyone at the moment," he said.

  Ecclestone, 76, said he had been talking to interested parties in Singapore for three years but rejected media reports in the Far East suggesting that Ong's Hotel Properties had secured the rights.

  "I don't know anything about it," he said.

  Ecclestone, who would not say who he was talking to in Singapore, added that he was keen on a night-time race but no announcement was imminent.

  "I think it would be good, I was the one who suggested night races to them [the Singaporeans], and not only them but other countries in other parts of Asia," the commercial rights holder said.

  Ecclestone has talked before about night races in the Far East, which would be far more attractive to European television companies.

  The Malaysian Grand Prix, on the same time as neighboring Singapore, is broadcast live at a time when many European viewers are still in bed.

  "I would like to do one or two night races. It could be good in Japan or China," the Briton told reporters in Abu Dhabi last month.

  Circuit designer Hermann Tilke said recently that advances in technology had made the concept of night races a realistic proposition.

  "The basic problem is lighting," he told the Autosport Web site last month. "You need a certain amount of brightness in order to allow the cameras to show the cars properly and not as a blurred streak."

  "But then again, both in lighting systems and in camera technology, we have seen tremendous developments so I cannot imagine that those would be real problems," he said.
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