Malaysia isn’t ready for an F1 team

8th September 2009, 6:00 by Keith Collantine 62 Comments »

Sepang has struggled to attract large crowds to the Malaysian Grand Prix

Sepang has struggled to attract large crowds to the Malaysian Grand Prix

Malaysia is considering putting money into an F1 team entry. You might expect Malaysian F1 fans to be keen on the idea, but it’s not the case as guest writer Jay Menon explains.

The Malaysian government is supporting a bid for Proton-owned Lotus to return to the F1 grid in 2010.

I can’t say I’m entirely surprised, it’s pretty typical of our government’s mentality. This is and has been the perennial problem with this country, we always want to look good, but with a glaring lack of substance beneath the surface.

As far as I can see, there is absolutely no need for this. They will argue that it’s in the best interest of promoting the sport in the country, to heighten the interest among kids, to make Proton cars better, to maintain the Petronas name in F1 etc…

I can safely tell you it’s got nothing to do with any of the aforementioned, its all got to with… bragging rights.

We in Malaysia are very accustomed to bragging rights – see the Petronas Twin Towers, see Proton. This F1 team idea is just another one of our gimmicks.

To begin with, lets ask how many “real” drivers do we actually have? Two, maybe three. We all know Alex Yoong, who drove a Minardi for a couple years, redefining the term failure in the process, and competed in A1 for team Malaysia.

Then there is Fairuz Fauzy, currently competing in World Series by Renault having raced in GP2 and A1 before. Lastly, there is young Jazeman Jaafar, a very talented 16 year old currently racing in Formula BMW Europe (finished fourth at Spa last week).

So, the talent pool isn’t exactly very deep. Instead of buying an F1 team, which costs millions upon millions to fund, wouldn’t it be a lot better to invest that money in promoting the sport locally?

Set up junior formulae, encourage parents to involve their kids in motorsport, probably even setup state sponsorship programs or funding of some sort with the goal of developing young talent into proper racers. If this was the government’s goal, I suspect buying an F1 team would be way down on the list.

If promotion of local motorsport was in the government’s best interest, why didn’t they support our very successful PERT RallyTeam in their bid to enter the WRC? Karamjit Singh, our superstar driver won the Production World Rally Championship in 2002, after that, not only did he not get the backing for the WRC, he couldn’t even get enough sponsorship to compete in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. (Having said all this, Proton are rumoured to enter the WRC in 2010, but that’s a different story.)

How about the idea of funding a existing race team? Qi-Meritus Mahara is probably the only proper Malaysian race team. The team competed in GP2 Asia for the past 2 years, scoring 17 points (no podiums) last year and nine points with Earl Bamber getting on the podium in China.

They have set modest goals of getting into the GP2 main series in 2011 and designing a F1 car by 2016. For me, this would be a more credible approach to doing this, where they can actually build a team from the ground up, ease local talent in the many positions there are in a racing team before eventually reaching the pinnacle of F1. Extra funding could also allow the team to enter junior teams into lower formulae which can act as a training ground for developing talent.

It’s also understood that Proton are pushing Lotus to a F1 return. Proton, which is owned by our government, being the major stakeholder in Lotus, has the power to do so. But why would they do this? Lotus themselves haven’t shown a great interest in returning in recent years, could it be a ploy to improve the marketability of the Proton brand?

If this is their plan, well, good luck, because it’s going to take a lot more than a F1 team in their repertoire to improve Proton. Although Proton have owned majority of Lotus stocks for the good part of 13 years, can’t say much of their technology has been transferred to our shores.

Instead of pouring the millions into an F1 team, why not invest in improving Proton? They’ve been cash-strapped for the past couple years as their sales have taken a downturn due to stiff competition from the like of Perodua, Toyota, Kia, and others. Their quality isn’t worth much mention either. Would it be a lot better to enter a team into F1 as a credible car manufacturer first?

One of the other mentioned reasons is that Petronas would like to stay on as title sponsor. That’s a pretty stupid reason to start an F1 team if you ask me. If Petronas want to stay in F1 for 2010, well, they should just sponsor the next team that comes along. Which new F1 team would resist money? Petronas have sizeable pockets, it would be a welcoming boost for a newbie.

It’s quite odd that I’m so very against this idea. As an F1 fan, it would be great to have an F1 team or driver who’s flag is common to yours – but I want it to be a credible, not a paddock joke.

I believe as a country, and from a motorsport/F1 perspective, Malaysia does not need this. Before things like this ever get discussed, the culture of motorsport must exist in the country. Motor sport in general must become a lot more accessible and above all, be actually recognised as a proper sport.

When will we know that this has been achieved? When you see a sell out crowd at Sepang!

The next question that begs the answer is, why hasn’t the sport taken off in the country? Racing is not a part of our culture. The only Asian country with a true heritage of racing is Japan, for obvious reasons.

We’ve been racing at Sepang since 1999, that’s 11 years, and we still cant fill the place up even though tickets are fairly cheap. Having pockets of enthusiasts will never sell the sport in a big way, which is exactly the case here in Malaysia.

The masses do not get the idea of racing as vast majority of folk are in the belief that “F1 is boring”, “No overtaking” etc… Of the folk that are enthusiastic about the sport, actually getting the opportunity is extremely difficult. The sport is normally reserved for the wealthy and connected individuals, as it just costs too much, even at karting level.

I spoke to a father who recently pulled his talented son out of karting due to the high costs. Although he earns an above average living in Malaysia, he just could not afford to fund his son’s racing as he started to progress. He mentioned that the sponsorship berths were very limited, and this normally involves politics.

Although there a quite a number of race car and motor cycle clubs here, there are never enough to foster the culture of racing in general to the masses. The only way to improve this, as mentioned, start at the grass roots, give talented kids a chance, the numbers will grow and the so will the interest along with it to evolve in to a culture. Spending millions on a F1 team with our money is not the answer, developing our own racers with it, that’s more like it!

Do you think Malaysia is ready for its own F1 team? Have your say in the comments.

2009 Malaysian Grand Prix

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