OCTOBER 18, 2002
Formula 1 in China
Getting a Grand Prix in China has long been one of the goals of Formula 1 and the sponsors will be delighted as the race will give them direct access to the country's estimated 1.2bn people. The economy has been improving recently and the economy is now the second largest in the world behind the United States and has annual growth of around seven percent. The average income per capita remains relatively low with an estimated figure of $4,300 but increasingly there is a consumer class emerging and the car companies and other luxury goods firms associated with F1 have been pushing hard to get into the market.
The announcements in China and Bahrain mean that the pressure is now on in Europe to see which races are going to be dumped from the 2004 calendar. All the indications are that Austria will be one and San Marino will be the other.