Vietnam GP Plans Not Real

Having a Formula One race in Vietnam seemed like a long shot to begin with, yet it was only a few days back that the rumors linking the aforementioned country to a place in the Great Circus were played down in an official manner. And it was the very man rumored to have began discussions about such a project, circuit advisor Hans Geist, that advised people to keep their feet on the ground.

It was less than two weeks ago that such plans surfaced in the media, with Geist reportedly pushing for a $150 million project for a race track in Nha Trang Bay in central Khanh Hoa province. And although the adviser did admit having traveled to Vietnam recently, he insisted no actual plans have even been put on the table.

“My mission is usually to inform interested parties about Formula 1 and what it takes to build a race track to FIA F1 standards and organize a GP,” said Geist, hinting that only preliminary discussions have taken place about the possibility of building such a track in the future, but nothing further than that.

“I would say that of all my informative meetings maybe 10 percent develop into a serious concept. In Vietnam, my job was purely informational,” he added.

In addition to those comments, Geist revealed to the media some nations that do intend to bring F1 in their backyard in the near or long-term future. Southern European countries such as Romania and Bulgaria are on that list, alongside South America's Argentina and South Africa. These last two countries used to host F1 races until recently.

According to Autosport, the 52-year old Austrian also launched the idea of China developing another F1-prone circuit besides Shanghai, only he did not give any names.