Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!
After a great deal of handwringing about safety, accommodations, and track preparations (and here and here) and safety, F1 racing's Grand Prix finally came to Korea — way down south, away from all the people — about a year ago. And while there were plenty of glitches, promoters were confident that things would go more smoothly next time when they weren't in such a hurry.
But if The Telegraph is correct, there may not be too many "next times":
Korea’s future is looking decidedly dicey. The promoter of the Yeongam event, Won-Hwa Park, said earlier this month that he wanted to seek a cut in the estimated £35 million hosting fee because of the huge losses the event is facing. According to local media, the total cost for the race this year was £52 million, with income from tickets estimated to be only £16 million.
Korea’s current deal, which runs until 2016, includes a 10 per cent escalator for hosting rights over its duration.
“There are lots of things in life you can’t afford, and you don’t have to have them,” Ecclestone said. “And it took us long enough to negotiate with them in the first place.”
Of the local lack of support, the 80 year-old added: “It was strange. They didn’t really get behind it. That was a disappointment because it was a big enough effort to get it on in the first place.”
It would have been nice to know about the governing body's fickleness before all that money was poured into the project.
To be fair, it's not just Yŏng•am complaining about the high hosting fee. And it may take a little time for support to grow, as it is a nascent "sport" in Korea. There certainly are lessons to be learned about publicizing such a new event in a place without much of a tradition of car racing.
Let's start with a positive spin on things: Nobody got killed. (That was an actual concern just yesterday.)
But there was serious rain (Korea Sprinkling!™), spin-outs that took out a race favorite, and a brouhaha over ticket sales. And I won't even begin to get into the British press's new meme that Korea's ubiquitous love motels are actually brothels.
Questions have also been raised about ticket-selling practices. A report suggested that government employees were told to sell tickets, and a local taxi driver told the Korea JoongAng Daily that his daughter, who works in the area for Nonghyup, was forced to buy tickets.
Bad weather also hampered the event and caused some more concern for the Korean organizers. Rain started to fall before the race and one driver said he couldn’t even see the front of his car. The Grand Prix was delayed for more than 30 minutes and racers ran several laps behind a safety car.
Not surprisingly, the race itself was marred by a number of spin outs, including the two favorites, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and teammate Mark Webber.
In the end, Ferrari’s double world champion Fernando Alonso drank the champagne, followed by Lewis Hamilton of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Felipe Massa, Alonso’s teammate.
It clearly wasn’t an easy race.
“It’s the worst conditions I ever drove a car in ,” said Alonso over the radio.
Worst conditions ever? South Koreans wear that as a badge of honor, sir! Some of the best "worst conditions" I've ever been in were on Seoul streets (with a fog-enveloped Interstate-5 going through the San Joaquin Valley coming in a distant second).
Ever the cautiously (and pragmatically) pessimistic optimist, I'd say that this was a good first run. And comments like this one at The Marmot's Hole only serve to encourage me:
Finally, talking to people after the race (at the track and at the train station) pretty much everybody said the same thing that the mechanics said; the weekend was far from perfect but was enjoyable nevertheless and that they look forward to returning next year. “better than I expected” seemed to be the tone of most peoples’ comments.
So, let's take a look at what we have. No one died, and there's now a chance to fix what was wrong. There's time now to fix what was wrong with the seats that were prudently closed off for safety concerns, move or alter the pit stop that the drivers warned was dangerous, fix the ticket distribution system, work on plans for better transport and accommodation, and maybe plan more contingencies for bad weather. It's like a B- on a midterm, which gives you a chance to raise it up to A-level. Maybe then the race would live up to the promise:
From what I understand, the big question mark over how much of the construction-still-being-completed facility would be available to the viewing public, as well as the looming prospect that the race would not go through at all, probably hurt plans to provide package deals and what-not, which will not be the case the next time around.
Start with making sure the used condoms are out from under the beds. We don't want to give the British press the vapours.
The pit lane entry is situated on the outside of the anti-clockwise track, with cars braking in the middle of Turn 18, a blind right-hand corner in a narrow section of the circuit.
"The only worry I have is the pit entry, which is a bit dangerous. It's a little bit scary," Button said.
"It's a corner when you're on full speed -- 250km/h on the exit -- and if someone goes in the pits, they have to lift (off the throttle) quite heavily. That's a bit of a worry, and I don't really know how we're going to get around that issue.
"It's a horrible position to be in. What can you do when there's someone right up behind you? You're not going to stay out for another lap."
German Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing said the pit lane entry was "difficult" after finishing in seventh place in afternoon practice on Friday.
"The pit entry is quite on the edge because it is blind," he said.
"You cannot see if someone goes in (to the pits), and they have to go slower than someone who stays out. If you are behind someone trying to pass and he chooses to pit, it could be difficult."
Korean Grand Prix officials noted that not all drivers expressed such concern, and they added that the randomly chosen taxi drivers they picked to test-drive the track had all given it two thumbs up for safety.
UPDATE:
Though he gave a hat tip not to me but to someone who commented on this topic nine hours after I first posted about it, I'll link to The Marmot's post on the track's dangers (and other issues).
In a follow-up to this post, the Korean Grand Prix scheduled for October 22 to 24 is good to go as the track in Yŏng-am (Yeongam) has passed inspection by the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
Doubts had been raised whether the new circuit, in Yeongam province 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Seoul, would be completed ahead of the race on October 24.
The circuit is yet to pass an official inspection from the FIA, the sport's governing body, but Ecclestone said the event will take place.
"They had problems, but have done wonders in the last few weeks," Ecclestone told Britain's Daily Express newspaper.
"I will be there, the world will be watching, and we will have a great race. I've seen photographs, and the top layer of the track has been laid. They will pass the inspection."
This reassurance has been necessary, given the questions raised about whether Yeongam (Yŏng-am) will be ready for prime time.
They still have a month and a half or so, but one has to wonder if that's enough for the new track in southwestern Korea's Yŏng•am County to play catchup.
Karun Chandhok did the first demonstration laps of the track on Saturday in a Red Bull, admitting that the venue is not yet complete.
Photos showed some buildings and grandstands are half built, fences missing, run-off areas unpaved and the track with only an initial layer of asphalt.
"How can a Grand Prix take place here?" wondered the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, captioning a photo of a construction worker carrying materials against the backdrop of a half-built building.
The newspaper said even a full supply of water and electricity is not yet present.
Additionally, many seats in the main grandstand are not installed, while parking lots are not ready to accommodate cars.
"There are problems," admitted F1 chief executive Ecclestone, "but we assume that the race can take place.
"The circuit is definitely ready, but as for all the buildings, perhaps not," admitted the Briton.
"So we may have to put up some tents," Ecclestone joked.
All this, of course, is a follow-up to this story.
I'll just say that I've seen bigger construction projects that were further behind than that finish (barely) on time, though the paint and cement were drying in some spots and, yes, tents or some sort of temporary structure was used. What's wrong with tents for a one-off opening? As for the parking, hire the local Lotte Department Store to get a few toumi and some young ajŏshi-in-training together out there and you could pack a thousand cars into just about any space you want to.
I don't know when the above photo was taken, but since Karun Chandhok obviously completed a run (in front of 4000 spectators), this can't be too recent a photo. After all, this is Formula 1, not podracing.
UPDATE (September 28, 2010):
Brian in Chŏllanam-do has a more recent story on whether or not it will be done on time.
South Korea aims to complete work by late August on the track for its first Formula One race, a month later than scheduled, organisers said Wednesday.
The 5.6-kilometre (3.5-mile) track at Yeongam, 320 kilometres south of Seoul, will be ready by the end of next month at the latest, the Korea Auto Valley Operation (KAVO) said.
"Our initial plan was to complete it in July but construction has been delayed," a KAVO official told AFP, declining to give details.
KAVO, a joint venture between a private firm and the provincial government, is building the circuit for the Korean Grand Prix on October 24, which will be the 17th leg of the 19-race season.
Organisers say the track boasts the longest straight stretch in Asia.
I have mixed feelings about things like this. On the one hand, racetracks are like golf courses in that they can be huge wastes of land that cause more environmental impact than they should. On the other hand, however, anything that provides jobs and development outside of Seoul — particularly in the Chŏlla region — and a reason for capital residents to leave the city is a good thing, I s'pose.
I wonder if they will hit their target of two hundred thousand Korean and international visitors. They'll have to make it awfully easy for people to get there if they want those kinds of numbers, but I guess train service is pretty good.
It will be kind of cool to watch cars zip along the coast, and that "longest straight stretch in Asia" may come in handy for television commercials and test drives, and may even inspire some more musculature among the local automakers.
On a Romanization note, for those who either prefer or don't mind the current "Revised Romanization," I might add that names like "Yeongam" are regularly misspelled even according to RR rules. Wherever a combination of letters might lead to confusion between two possible Han•gŭl spellings, a separator such as a hyphen or dot is to be used. Look it up; it's in the rules.
"Yeongam" could either be Yeong-am [Yŏng•am, 영암] or Yeon-gam [Yŏn•gam, 연감], and someone unfamiliar with this southwestern county might have to look it up if they haven't seen the Han•gŭl before.
The eu [으] used in place of ŭ also presents a problem, since there are words where e [usually, 에] is followed by u [우], as in Seun Sangga, a well-known electronics district (sangga) in downtown Seoul. Writing Seun Sangga in McCune-Reischauer presents no problem, but doing that with Revised Romanization without a hyphen, leads the reader to wonder if the the place is 슨 or 세운. The word for shrimp, saeu in both Romanizations, presents the same problem for RR: Is it sa-eu [사으] or sae-u [새우].
