Sepang has sold only 60% of its seats for Sunday

Now that the season has started in Australia, the spotlight turns to Malaysia, the next stop of the Formula One Circus. At present, the organizers’ sales targets are still far from being met as nearly 40% of the tickets are still available for Sunday.

Since the arrival of Singapore, Sepang has lost many spectators since the 2006 record reached 140,000 spectators over the three days, while the goal for the 2011 edition is to attract 100,000, including 63,000 on Sunday alone.

Nonetheless, there is not too much concern from the organizers’ side since a number of factors could lead to an increase in sales in the final stretch before the event. The first is that, according to Razlan Razali, the event director, Malaysians tend to buy their tickets at the last minute. Therefore, we expect to see an increase in sales in these last days before the race.

The second key to growing interest in F1 lies in the roadshows that Team Lotus and Red Bull will conduct in the streets of various Malaysian cities. Thus, the Malaysian team will hold its first public demonstration in Putrajaya this Saturday, while the world champion team will take over the next day in Bukit Bintan: « Fans will be able to see the F1 cars driving through the streets, not just stationary. After seeing that, let’s hope they want to see more and come to watch the race. »

The latest aspect of the organizers’ business strategy isn’t about Formula 1 but rather the attractions surrounding the event. In 2009, FOM partnered with Universal to create F1 Rocks and offer prestigious concerts near the circuits during race weekends. The star featured in Sepang is not well-known in the West but has great fame in Asia: Having South Korean pop star Rain for our post-race concert also helped us boost ticket sales in non-traditional markets like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, or South Korea. This is even more the case because it is Rain’s last concert before taking two years away from show business to fulfill his military service in his country. Fans won’t want to miss that.

All the reasons are therefore valid to attract crowds to the stands of a circuit that already seems much older than its mere 13 seasons… Much older European circuits are in much better condition but do not have the political and financial support that Sepang has.

With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr