With Malaysia set to stop hosting the Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix from 2018 onwards, the Sepang International Circuit could play host to the Australia Supercars Championship (also known as V8 Supercars) next year.
According to a post on race series’ official website, Sepang International Circuit CEO, Razlan Razali has been in discussions with Supercars for a potential race in 2018. “We need to ensure whatever event we take on after Formula 1 has to be a win-win situation between us as a circuit and the right holders,” he said.
“We need to ensure it has a necessary awareness and pull to get the crowds, because the Sepang circuit is a huge facility with 100,000 people capacity. In fact we are talking to V8 Supercars to see if an event can happen in 2018,” he continued. The race series had previously put on a demonstration race dubbed the V8 Supercars Street Challenge, fielding a small number of cars during the inaugural KL City Grand Prix. A follow up race was supposed to take place in 2016, although that was eventually cancelled.
Razali also said discussions for a Malaysian to join the Supercars field have also been held, a move which could attract the crowds. “What’s important is that we must have a program to have awareness to Malaysians, so that 60% of the capacity will be Malaysians themselves. What we’re discussing is potentially a car with Malaysian drivers. We have ex-F1 drivers, ex-F1 test drivers, young drivers who could represent Malaysia in V8s. That would be exciting,” he explained.
“We’ve discussed with James Warburton (Supercars CEO) somewhere between the April-May-June periods. We are fine to accommodate them in any time period they wish, it’s just the logistics to work out,” he noted.
On the race series itself, Razali said, “the size of the cars, the looks are completely different to GT cars, like Lamborghini and Ferrari. They’re massive, they’re loud, there’s fire coming out the exhaust. I think it’s a real spectacle and it’s important that both do it right the first time to have a multi-year agreement in place.”
“The off-track activities we won’t have problems discussing with the V8s. They’re happy to do all kinds of stuff to engage with fans. The engaging and activation with racing fans, drivers and teams isn’t a problem. I think the real challenge of racing in Malaysia is the heat and rain. But that creates a whole bunch of excitement. It’s unpredictable. It can be really hot the first half and rain the second half. Motor racing is always more exciting when you don’t know who is going to win,” he furthered.
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Asian Festival Of Speed lah
So bodoh lose F1. Anyway F1 boss said they don’t care a damn cause there is Singapore.
Despite loss making at least our name International. We still keep Proton, loss making too, so might as well keep F1
See, another bonus for Singapore! Singapore will join Thailand and Indonesia in becoming richer and richer whilst we head to be like Zambia or Zimbabwe
Personality No1: Bash SIC, bash Gov for continuing F1.
Personality No2: Bash SIC, bash Gov for stopping F1.’
May i knows which personality comes next?
No umbrella girls Walawey..
The point is, the audiences don’t give a damn about F1 in the first place.
Do you know singapore also quiting f1 for the same reason as us? They don’t make money as much as they used to and in fact motogp actually makes more than f1
But guess you still lives in cave and only believe what water dripping sound tells you, even how brain dead you are
Ooh, savage! But gips him what he deserves.
expect another failure incoming..
YES !!!
More exciting tebo than F1
Bring back Super GT as well. It was a great event before, why stop?
Back in the heydays of SuperGT rounds in Malaysia, it was indeed a festival of racing with big attendance & numerous support races (Asian GT & Single seater race) prior to the main showdown which is SuperGT. But then gradually, the number of attendance started to wane..
Where’s the pic of Volvo S60? Damn shame Volvo pulled out of the series.
Lucky I got to witness it live 2 years ago. So sexy and naughty <3
DNF 4Eva.
I think V8 Supercars are more exciting than F1. As the cars are mostly the same spec, it is down to the driver skill, car setup, and pit crews to make a difference. Lots of exciting overtaking action and occasional big crash due to racing very closely. Much fun yeah!
v8 Supercars are definitely better than crazy mat rempits races….