HERE'S MY THOUGHTS ON A SYDNEY GRAND PRIX

THAT OLD CHESTNUT…

It seems like every ten years Sydney is in line to take over Melbourne’s bid to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix when their contract expires in 2025. So, why are these talks being brought up instead of two years down the track when the contract ends? Well it’s because the Formula 1 management team has told the Victorian government that if they don’t get to host the Australian Grand Prix next year after two cancelled events in 2020/21. They’ll either take Australia off the F1 schedule completely or replace it with another United States Grand Prix, which would most likely end up in Las Vegas due to the American owners, Liberty Media, wanting more grand prix’s in America.

Personally, I don’t mind the idea of having a “Monaco Grand Prix style street circuit” around the harbour City of Sydney. America having three grand prix’s in Texas, Miami and Las Vegas is a bit of an overkill for me. You might as well rebrand F1 as Indycar at that point. Sydney could be a good start point as a clean slate and it would look fucking cool on TV. So I don’t see why we couldn’t hold an event around the streets of Sydney. I say let’s try and keep our race date on the Formula 1 calendar for future years.

As a driver myself and avid racing fan would it actually work? Well that's why you’re here reading this blog to find out my own thoughts on this new Formula 1 venture.

THE PROPOSED TRACK LAYOUT?

The proposed Sydney Grand Prix layout around Barangaroo in Sydney, Australia.

The track layout for a street circuit does need to meet specific guidelines, as set out by the FIA, which needs to be a Grade 1 circuit. What does a Grade 1 circuit mean to the general public?

Permanent circuits in Australia such as, The Bend, Sydney Motorsport Park and Phillip Island, only hold grade 2 licences. So, if something was to be upgraded to a Grade 1 FIA circuit for Formula 1 it would involve a large investment to facilitate an extension to any of those current circuits mentioned above.

Holding a grade 1 license for the FIA means you might be able to host events involving ‘Automobiles of Groups D’. If you look in the FIA’s rulebook, it means you need to be able to host an FIA International Formula (F1/F2/F3) or a “Free Formula” (Formula E) with a power to weight ratio of less than 1 kg/hp if you want to go into the minute details of a circuit upgrade.

So, the track around the City of Sydney is possible, especially the proposed layout drawn around Barangaroo that's been published. That part of the city is still being built by developers from LendLease who I used to work for a few years ago, so technically they could start working on it now if they really wanted to with help from the New South Wales Government.

The street circuit would have to have roadworks going on for several months leading up to the event. Stopping traffic coming into the city and out of it, making sure the racing tarmac is marbleised. Things like drains and parts of the track would have to be welded together tightly due to the vibrations of the F1 cars. Whilst also having grandstands and temporary pits being put in place for the Formula 1 to take place and its support categories like Supercars, Porsches and so on would also need accommodation if it happened.

UPGRADE EASTERN CREEK OR BUILD A NEW CIRUIT INSTEAD?

Former RedBull F1 star Mark Webber doing burnouts in front his home crowd at Sydney Motor Sport Park.

The New South Wales government could extend Sydney Motor Sport Park, which has held the A1 Grand Prix Series back in the early 2000’s or maybe they could even build an extra Sydney circuit somewhere else in the city with the government money. If they decide to go ahead with a plan to host a grand prix in New South Wales from a realistic standpoint, as a racer myself, I’d like that part of the extended circuit designed originally by Mark Skaife fixed at Eastern Creek. They could demolish that and start all over again and build a more forward flowing circuit, that goes out into the unused bushland around the back of the track that could potentially squiggle and curl a bit back around heading towards the original main straight. Extending that circuit could be crucial if Sydney generally wants a “Grade 1” FIA circuit, but will it actually happen? Would it be worth all the millions investing into those upgrades? Who knows?

Another option the New South Wales government could do is build a completely brand new Grade 1 circuit somewhere on vacant land in the city like they’ve done recently in the middle eastern countries for Formula 1. We do need more racing tracks around New South Wales, but will the government actually build more race circuits outside of Sydney Motor Sport Park, especially a grade 1 circuit instead of potentially opting to fix Eastern Creek?… I fucking doubt it.

Don’t get me wrong it would be great to have more race tracks around New South Wales, but we are struggling to hold onto Goulburn’s Wakefield Park due to noise complaints, so getting that fixed first would be the local racers biggest concerns. They got rid of Oran Park Raceway and turned that track into housing many years ago and I can’t see the New South Wales Government building a new track elsewhere when they could just update Sydney Motor Sport Park if they really wanted to host the Formula 1 there instead of a proposed street circuit around Barangaroo.

KEEP IT IN MELBOURNE OR GIVE THE GP TO SOMEONE ELSE?

Formula 1 was a huge hit back in the late 80’s and early 90’s around the Adelaide Grand Prix street circuit. Selling out crowds and being known for its huge party atmosphere around town. Could F1 return to Adelaide…who knows?

Look, I am a man who loves his nostalgia no doubt about it. If I had the budget and billions of dollars in the bank myself to pour money into a motor racing circuit that I’d still want around for my own entertainment sake then I’d bring back the Adelaide Grand Prix circuit from the 1980’s, which has held V8 Supercar events since the early 2000’s and late 90’s. The thing that Adelaide and Melbourne both have over Sydney is its parklands area for a temporary street circuit to be put in place from the get-go. Albert Park in Melbourne hasn’t lost it’s venue spot from the F1 schedule due to the parklands area because it’s so big. It provides plenty of run off space for the F1 cars if something does go wrong. One massive crash I will always remember is Fernando Alonso’s accident back in 2016 where he took a wild ride through the gravel trap tumbling into a fence after going airborne when he hit Esteban Gutierrez.

Now, I’ve never been to the Adelaide parklands circuit for the V8 Supercars, but that street circuit has always looked like it provided a party atmosphere more so than the current Melbourne Albert Park event. I’ll give Sydney one thing, if we did hold a grand prix around our streets we would turn it into quite a party atmosphere, because it would be pretty fucking cool to have Formula 1 cars fly around our streets, but having a “Monaco Style Grand Prix” around our streets, I just really can’t see it happening. If the New South Wales Government takes over Victorian’s bid for a Grand Prix we better have all our ducks in a row to show that our state can really hold something special otherwise Sydney could look like a joke to the rest of the world. A bit like how our general traffic around the city is now. We can't even fix all our potholes properly in the city and surrounding suburbs, so from what I’ve felt in my day-to-day road car, they better fix up the roads as soon as possible.

The other realistic opportunities, which no one really talks about in the media, are The Bend in South Australia and the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit that currently holds MotoGP races. Both of them are Grade 2 circuits registered with the FIA whilst Sydney Motor Sport Park is currently a Grade 3 level circuit. So there’s a few options out there around Australia to be updated to get Grade 1 licenses to hold a Grand Prix if need be. But, if our country is serious about holding a grand prix past it’s 2025 use by date at Albert Park, they have plenty of options to make it work if Melbourne doesn’t happen anymore.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

Honestly, I would love Formula 1 to come here to the city of Sydney. It would be pretty awesome if Sydney could host an F1 event. But, if we’re being serious about it all, it's failed in the past because of many things that I’ve mentioned and even F1 experts themselves have weighed in on it over this past week. Our streets need a lot of resurfacing, it also holds the flow of Sydney traffic leading up to the event. The proposed Barangaroo layout would need a lot of work done to it including things like grandstands, the pit lane layout, support categories being placed around the city, large fencing areas and that's just barely scratching the surface that it takes to build a proper race track.

Ex-Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber sits on his Williams F1 car before his drive over the Sydney Harbour Bridge February 27, 2005 in Sydney, Australia. Credit: Getty Images

Even though Seven News released a news story on Sydney potentially taking over the Grand Prix bid, I personally just can’t see it happening as a street circuit. The only way I do see it happening is if they extend Sydney Motor Sport Park and upgrade the venue massively. This includes an underground train station, more buses to and from the circuit and an extended track layout, which creates a bigger lap time so the F1 cars can scoot around the race track quicker.

News Stations and outlets have said there has been talks about it happening sooner rather than later, but F1 normally brings out the news first on new track layouts that they’re going to use. So, it’s honestly just white noise at this point in my opinion and I highly doubt it’ll happen.

Either leave it in Melbourne, which until COVID hit, have done a great job hosting the Grand Prix’s or give it back to Adelaide where they can boost their economy with having a Grand Prix around the original parklands circuit. Yes, the Sydney Grand Prix would be a shiny new toy and would 100% look cool on TV for the fans' enjoyment but, there’s just so much stuff that goes into organising a grand prix and I just don’t see how it could logistically be possible at this point in time.

We couldn’t even handle the V8 Supercars sticking around at Homebush, Olympic Park. So I doubt the New South Wales government would be able to host an international street race. I say pour that money into building another race track outside of Eastern Creek and Wakefield Park in New South Wales so our local racers have more areas to race on. That would be the dream for me, having more race tracks around Sydney, just like a few years ago when we had Oran Park, Eastern Creek Raceway and Wakefield Park in our state.

Anyways what’s your thoughts I’d love to know.

Thanks for reading, DH.