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- #considerthis
This October, Sepang will return to the Formula 1 calendar by hosting the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix after the race was cancelled because of the conflict in the Middle East. So what does this one-off return really mean? And beyond the excitement of F1's return, what should Malaysia actually hope to gain from hosting this race? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Haresh Deol, Co-founder and Editor of the news site, Twentytwo13.
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00:10hi welcome back to consider this i'm melissa idris let's continue our discussion about the
00:15formula one's return to malaysia this october with sepang set to host the formula one gulf
00:21air bahrain grand prix now beyond the excitement of f1's return what should malaysia actually hope
00:29to gain from hosting this one of race joining me now is harish dale who is the co-founder and
00:35editor
00:36of the new site 2213 harish welcome back to the show now this return of the f1 race is that
00:42fundamentally good news for malaysian sport even though it's a one-off event what do you think
00:49i mean um you rightfully first of all foremost thank you for having me on the show um it's been
00:55a while but um yeah uh to answer your question yes it is a one-off um event um nevertheless
01:02um
01:03we should we should uh look at it in a positive manner and the fact the fact that suddenly people
01:10are talking about malaysia uh people are you know remembering the fact that we hosted through a part
01:16of the f1 calendar and the fact i think that everyone is missing um is that sepang was given
01:23the immediately um the opportunity to play host um because of you know the political situation or the
01:32situation in uh in the middle east that forced the the bahrain dp uh to be uh healthier so that
01:39that
01:39that is a good sign that sepang is ready um to host such an event um whether it will be
01:45part of
01:45the calendar and subsequent years remains to be seen but uh let's just uh take this uh really awesome
01:52offer i think because they are paying for everything and we are only paying for what carrying the road
01:58that's a sweet deal isn't it harish what are you hearing so formula one's willingness to return
02:04to sepang so quickly what do you think that says about malaysia's reputation when you speak to sports
02:10commentators around the world what are they talking what are they saying about malaysia's reputation as
02:16um an international sporting destination no i mean logically speaking it shows that sepang is already
02:23on the minds of fia and even f1 it goes to show that sepang is ready to host such a
02:32race
02:33and our track record in the past says it all uh yes there's been a gap between our last race
02:40which
02:40is what 2017 nine years ago right and uh yeah time flies but uh it goes to show that yeah
02:48sepang is
02:48still and the races themselves they are excited to come back to sepang because sepang is a very
02:53technical um uh layout uh the circuit and uh yeah it's it's going to be fun but uh i think
03:00uh beyond
03:02the euphoria of um of this one-off race i think we have to then ask ourselves um are we
03:08ready to be
03:09uh back in into the f1 calendar um does it make monetary sense um how will it elevate our sports
03:17tourism and also the sports industry as a whole i think these are serious questions that we have to
03:22ask ourselves yeah absolutely so so what do you think i mean once the once the engine stops the noise
03:28stops the circus leaves town what lasting benefits should we seek or realistically expect but also
03:37seek to uh retain no look um this this this this circus is just going to be in town over
03:44the weekend
03:45and that's it and then it's over yeah um but if we want to seriously be part of um the
03:54the whole
03:55calendar in coming years um we should then be very honest about um how we want to tackle this for
04:02example um monetary wise um the hosting rights and that's that and then you've got to include the
04:10calculation of manpower um you've got to include inflation rates you know over the next uh you know
04:15three to five years or ten years or so and then you ask yourself do we have enough data to
04:20support
04:21um that there is a spillover effect and how much will that spillover effect be and can we then break
04:26even or can we even make more yeah so these are serious questions that we need to ask ourselves also
04:33we need to um identify our competitors and i think the main competitor here is uh singapore whereby it's a
04:41night race it's a street race it can't get any better than that you know night street you know
04:47and um they are they are um entertainment is you know um they've got their own vibe yeah so then
04:54how
04:54how will we compete with them because we want to learn um the the fans from abroad it's not just
05:00the
05:00fans in malaysia so these are serious questions that we need to ask ourselves and um then we have to
05:06decide whether are we really you know can we really host an f1 uh you know circuit or i mean
05:13f1 race or
05:14should we just forget about it and just enjoy this one-off race that's it okay so so let's break
05:19it
05:19down so when you say look at all what the data says or look at the the kind of return
05:25on investment
05:25of this one-off race what do you think success would look like are we looking at i guess packed
05:32grants and ticket sales tourism receipts are we thinking about our soft power international exposure
05:38are we thinking about the lasting the impact it might have on sports or motor sports in the country
05:44how do we think about what this means i know other countries use major sporting events to promote
05:49investment tourism and soft power what should malaysia be looking at given the constraints that we have
05:56on our fiscal demands and um the way we approach sports in general in the country okay um i think
06:05the
06:05first thing we need to look at is the receipts yeah um how much will be generated composing such an
06:12event um from your hotels your logistics your company the whole works of food and beverage and so on
06:19that's number one number two the spillover effect for the local communities in sepang and in the areas
06:25where the team will be based yeah um if it's not that we've not done it before we've we've done
06:32it
06:32we've done it from 99 to 2017 so these are key lessons that we need to be honest with ourselves
06:39because if you know these these guys are not really spending much here the ticket you know the
06:44receipts are not there so why are we even having this conversation yeah so it's extremely important
06:51for the powers that be especially the ministry sports news and sports industry and also the ministry of
06:56finance to work together and to actually actually to tell you the truth we have something called the
07:02sports satellite account um and it was you know submitted uh quite some time ago um and at that
07:09time the youth and sports ministry had something called the sports industry secretary but the problem
07:14is that um have the accounts been made public no i don't think so and um you know how how
07:21because that
07:22account was done in collaboration with the department department of statistics malaysia
07:28yeah yeah so that there were actual data actual numbers actual um information for us to make an
07:35informed decision about methods like this yeah so with those data we can then um tell ourselves okay
07:42fine it's good to aim to host this or perhaps you know you know what let's forget about this and
07:47host
07:47something else okay okay if you were to look back at malaysia's previous f1 era are there opportunities
07:57that we missed seizing during those days um yes there are always be opportunities that we've missed like
08:06for example um it wasn't very inclusive it was um it was just i think we took it for granted
08:13we took the
08:14whole f1 for granted and after missing it for nine years we suddenly see that excitement back again
08:21yeah so that shows that we took the race for granted um in a sense that um it could have
08:26been more
08:27people-centric um yes admittedly you had the teams like trust for example they went on the ground um you
08:36would see activation i still remember they used to bring the f1 class to klcc you know stuff like that
08:41um yes that that's great but i think more should be done beyond klang valley i mean malaysia is not
08:47sepang or malaysia is not kololumpur you know so so we need to get more people to understand why we're
08:54doing this how this spillover effect will actually impact them as well so it's all about getting people
09:00to understand why we are doing this what what do you think are the um the kind of spillover effects
09:08to to sports in general in malaysia by hosting uh even if it's one of by hosting a major sporting
09:16event in our country do you think that um there there is a positive impact to sports and sports policy
09:24in the country no i i sports policy no um impact perhaps that we are now in the eyes of
09:31the world
09:32um people now remember us as a remember these guys they used to you know host the 1998 commonwealth
09:39game they are hosting the sea games next year so they used to host the f1 that they are still
09:44hosting
09:44the moto gp so yeah we're part of the sporting calendar so that's good um but yeah moving forward i
09:52think the only small lessons that perhaps we can gain from this one-off race would be the refreshment
09:58course for the technical crew uh you know the marshals and so forth and so on because
10:04they would naturally have to go to refresher courses we do have world-class marshals among
10:09our mates but i'm pretty sure some of them will need to go through the refresher courses or if we
10:15don't have enough then you know we've got to retrain them so that's a plus point in in fact for
10:21our
10:21medics as well you know for them to be prepared on the ground and so forth and so on so
10:27yeah we
10:27there will definitely be key lessons right and positive lessons sorry so i do have to ask you
10:34personally are you do you think malaysia should actively pursue a permanent return to the formula
10:42one calendar no melissa i'll be very honest with you i cannot answer that question simply because
10:47you and i do not have the data in front of us i think any decision should not be based
10:52on sentimental
10:53value or emotions but it has to be based on hard data um and it cannot be a situation whereby
11:00the
11:00powers that be will just come up to us and go like no it's good for the country and then
11:04stop
11:05and you some people are harping over the fact that if we host something like this we'll create
11:12more experts i mean when we had the f1 how many f1 drivers did we create
11:20so yeah let's let's be very realistic with our conversation and let's be data centric so
11:25you know if there are receipts to show please uh tell us from 99 to 2017 and then um we
11:32need to look
11:33at the landscape as well uh economy wise i don't think any party would be in a position to
11:38pay that much of cooking rights correct i know it's so difficult to get people to part with their
11:44money disease so yeah absolutely harish thank you so much for being on the show with me i appreciate
11:51your time harish dale co-founder and editor of the new site 2213 wrapping up this episode of consider this
11:57we will be watching how formula one um returns to sepang but you can watch the live coverage of the
12:04race
12:04which will be available on beansports on astro i'm melissa idris signing off for the evening
12:09thank you so much for watching and good night
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