The COVID-19 pandemic, which exploded in Asia in 2020, has had serious consequences all over the world, starting with the most significant ones related to the measures for collective health such as the implementation of lockdowns. Inevitably, the global emergency has also had strong repercussions on sport in general, including Formula 1. Precisely for the 2020 season, in fact, the FIA had drastically changed the calendar, canceling certain GPs in favor of others, most of them on European soil.
Among the events that were canceled there was also the Vietnam Grand Prix, which was ready to make its debut in that Formula One world championship on the Hanoi street circuit. However, with the international situation gradually returning under control, this event has not been reintroduced at a later date, neither for the 2021 world championship nor for this year’s, as well as for the next campaign.
Fenced off to the public and dotted with plastic waste, Hanoi’s motor race circuit is now mainly abandoned as hopes fade that Vietnam’s capital can ever host a Formula 1 race. Given the circumstances, the fans stands have been removed and most of the track sits empty, except for some hobby cyclists who manage to sneak in to take advantage of the open space in the normally bustling arteries of congestion hotspots like Hanoi.
They race past yellowing grass, weeds and trash blown in by the wind, but the circuit itself still seems like new, with “Vietnam” still clearly visible where it was painted on the tarmac.
Looking outside the surrounding metal fence, Hanoi’s ubiquitous motorbikes have already reclaimed the roads once earmarked to form part of the 5.6-kilometre track.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
Vietnam signed an agreement available for ten years with Formula 1 back in 2018, with the hope that the interest in the sport could help change Hanoi’s sober image, and also have an impact on the country’s economic rush.
Costing Vietnam nearly US$60 million per year, the costs should have been supported in full by VinGroup (the largest conglomerate of Vietnam, focusing on technology, industry, real estate development, retail, and services ranging from healthcare to hospitality), that was confident it would be able to impress with a great Formula 1 event.
However, after the decision to call off the Formula 1 Grand Prix two years ago, the event was also dropped from the 2021 F1 calendar after Nguyen Duc Chung, a former Major General of the Vietnam People’s Public Security and Vietnamese politician, was arrested.
He was later sentenced to ten years in jail for abusing his position and power while on official duty.
“Without Chung, the future of the race in Hanoi is gloomy,” a source close to the race said in an interview for AFP two years ago. In 2021, local authorities confirmed that hosting the race before 2029 is no longer possible.
Two-and-a-half years after the first race should have taken place, there is still disappointment among the country’s small but growing Formula 1 fanbase.
“It would have been my first opportunity to see the drivers, the F1 cars, the racing teams in real life… and I wanted to feel what it was like to sit next to an F1 circuit,” said 23-year-old Bui Viet Giang, as reported by thestar.com.my- “I am sorry that it will not happen. I do hope it can be organised again in the future.”
Leave a Reply