Formula For Success

Singapore need not say farewell to motorsport even if we stop hosting Formula One.

- Christopher Tan

IF Singapore decides to pull out of Formula One when its current contract to hold the world’s top motorsport event here ends after this year, September in the Lion City will certainly become a little dimmer, a little quieter and a little less exciting.

But it would have had a darn good run. F1 has raised Singapore’s profile on the tourism map, and the Republic made history by being the first in the world to hold a night race.

The 2017 season would be Singapore’s 10th inning – as good a time as any to take a step back and take stock of a sport that is seeing declining viewership not only here, but worldwide. It has been reported that F1’s global television audience has shrunk from 600 million in 2008 to 400 million in 2015.

There is also uncertainty with American media group Liberty Media being in the driver’s seat.

Loathe him all you want, but F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been good for the sport.

Under his four-decade dictatorship, F1 rose from being Euro-centric (and obscure) to become the world’s brightest, loudest and biggest circus.