Time for a Polish Grand Prix?
Yesterday I gained a new appreciation of just how popular Robert Kubica is in his native Poland.
Monday’s poll on “Which F1 drivers do you like?” was picked up by several major Polish sports sites. Robert Kubica, who had been leading comfortably with a few hundred votes, suddenly rocketed to over 10,000.
Poland is a potentially huge market for F1 with a population of over 38 million. Has the time come to tap into the popularity of Kubica with a Polish Grand Prix?
Kubica, Poland’s first and only Polish driver, scored his maiden Grand Prix win at Montreal earlier this year and remains in the championshp hunt despite his BMW not quite being on the pace of the Ferraris and McLarens. For that, I picked him as my driver of the year so far.
There is only one Grand Prix in Eastern Europe at present, the Hungarian round, which has been on the calendar since 1986. Is it time for a second race in Eastern Europe in Kubica’s home country to capitalise on his success?
One obstacle to it would be the lack of racing circuits in the country I’m not aware of any tracks of substantial size in Poland. Kubica moved to Italy while progressing through the junior formulae because of the lack of motor racing infrastructure in Poland.
However plenty of countries with little motor racing history now have Grands Prix – Turkey, Bahrain and Malaysia for example. And none of these have had talented home drivers to cheer on – the closest being Malaysia’s Alex Yoong.
Given F1′s new-found appetite for street racing perhaps a race could be held on public roads in Warsaw? BMW made a visit to the city last month where Kubica gained a rapturous reception (pictured).
Of course, if we’re talking about countries with talented drivers that have never had a home Grand Prix, we can’t ignore Finland, home of Kimi Raikkonen, Heikki Kovalainen, Mika Hakkinen, Keke Rosberg…
Read more about Robert Kubica: Robert Kubica biography
Polak said on 17th July 2008, 16:29
Thank You BG!!! Somebody finally said Central Europe. People fail to realize that the communism has been abolished in European countries and that Poland is in fact in the center of Europe.
A Polish GP will not happen without a guaranteed contract. Kubica made it clear to polish reporters that a plan to build an F1 circuit in Poland would be highly risky and foolish. Millions would be invested and everything would be in the hands of Bernie. By that time Kubica might not be around, (I hope not!) or there might not be a spot on the calendar. What happens then? You have a brand new state of the art track that would feature some local car races at best.
It would be great if Poland had a GP but economically it wouldn’t make sense. Bernie wants F1 to spread around the world were its sponsors can really shine. Poland is a few hundred km from all the great European circuits. Also if you look at it as the EU there are a lot of GPs in one place.
Kubica for World Champ!!
donwatters said on 17th July 2008, 17:41
Having a Grand Prix in Poland would be the ultimate Polack joke.
Polak said on 17th July 2008, 18:41
donwatters: for future reference it is spelled “polak” and its a polish word meaning a person from Poland.
johnbbs said on 17th July 2008, 19:12
yh i d prolly go for polish GP. sounds pretty nice tho.
in add, someone said in one of the above comments that poland is not ready for GP yet, i just want to say that i jus got back from Krakow (Kubica’s home town ;) ) and in my opinion, Poland is now a normal european country such as belgium France or anyother. so i dont see any problems.
cheers!
luna said on 17th July 2008, 20:25
I have to agree with my countryman airman. In Poland nobody will think about building an F1 track until 2012 because the biggest cities are concentrated on Euro 2012. Even if we had a track, it would be still hard to bring there an F1 race.
As for me, I would like to see a street race in Kraków (just dreaming…:P).
lukasz said on 17th July 2008, 20:38
alonso,kubica,hamilton no doubt the best drivers
kimi is over rated, massa lack of skills
alonso needs better car,hamilton cold head sometimes
kubica needs a title
matthew said on 17th July 2008, 21:25
Toby: I agree that the USGP needs to return to the schedule, at a different venue. I personally would love to see it at a lengthened Laguna Seca. The Indianapolis course is boring and it’s in a terrible location. Indiana isn’t exactly a hotbed of road racing interest. But that’s a discussion for another day.
Regarding your point about Bernie’s thirst for big ticket race fees, never under estimate the steps he will take to capitalize on a winning, popular driver in that driver’s home country. In the past decade we’ve seen F1 explode in popularity in Germany and Spain with the success of Schumacher and Alonso. I don’t think that a European GP in Gdansk would be a far fetched idea.
donwatters said on 17th July 2008, 22:42
Polak: Thanks for the correction. I appreciate it.
Wesley said on 18th July 2008, 0:48
Ahh…looks like we now have even more BMW fans on our site thanks to the Kube.
Welcome
Gman said on 18th July 2008, 5:46
Toby, I’m right with you on the need for a USGP return! I don’t know how long you’ve been posting on here, but I have a history of referring to that in many of my comments, so keep up the spirit!! The only thing I disagree to, with respect, is Matthew’s wish to move the race. I think Indy is a great venue, and hopefully the USGP will return there in the next few years.
As for a future European GP in Krakow, Gdansk, or Warsaw, it could very much be a possibility in the near future. Bernie will put a race wherever it best lines his pockets with ticket and sponsorship sales. However, if it dose happen in the near future, the orginisers will need to call ti something other than the European GP, as there’s no way Valencia lets go of that event as long as Fernando is in an F1 car.
KB said on 18th July 2008, 19:07
BG – I completely disagree, how is that financially viable for any circuit, standards must be maintained even in years where there is no GP…
BG said on 18th July 2008, 19:32
KB, I think you misunderstood me. I meant that one circuit, either in Poland or in Finnland should host a race which could be called Baltic GP. Finnish and Polish investors could join efforts in building and maintaining it, and the relative proximity would be great advantage for the Finnish/Polish fans, who now have to travel quite a lot (even if they’re attending the closest race, the Hungarian GP) to see Kimi or Robert.
Polak said on 18th July 2008, 19:53
BG, the only way a Baltic GP would work is if you had a Fin and Pole in the same team. That way the fans could all come together and root for the same colors. I don’t think Polish fans would mind wearing white and red team colors ;)
Adam said on 18th July 2008, 20:27
This polish voting has qiute long tradiction, if you really want to know which driver peolple like the most do not use the internet:)