Spectacle of Singapore offers F1’s best chance of attracting a new audience | Giles Richards


The dazzling race on a floodlit cityscape circuit is a vital tool for selling the sport to potential fans when there is precious little free-to-air coverage available, particularly in the UK

The floodlit cityscape of Singapore will host Formula One again this weekend, a race the sport positively revels in promoting. The street circuit set amid the skyscrapers at night enjoys a backdrop like no other. The speed, spectacle and drama is accentuated by the walls that loom over the track, unforgiving of error. Singapore, a visual feast, is perhaps the most cinematic in its presentation of any race on the calendar.

F1 knows how good Singapore looks and in its drive to encourage new, younger fans, the race that bears the closest resemblance to a video game is of no little import. It is a shop window but in terms of really selling the sport, the bigger picture of how F1 ensures it can still reach a wide audience remains one of its most imperative and complex concerns.

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