The news recently has been about possible delays. The track designer was quoted, in a German magazine via ITV Sport and the New York Times' Formula One blog, saying construction is behind schedule. From ITV Sport on Monday:
The inaugural Korean Grand Prix could be in danger of being postponed with work on the new venue having reportedly fallen behind schedule.
South Korea is scheduled to hold its maiden Formula 1 race on October 24 but the German magazine Focus reports that “major problems” with construction work at the track in the South Jeolla region have raised the prospect of the event being called off for 2010.
F1’s pre-eminent track designer Herman Tilke has again designed the 3.5-mile waterfront circuit, but his company is only playing an advisory role in the building process and he has admitted to the publication that work on the venue is not running to plan.
“For the first time I fear that a circuit will not be ready in time,” he is quoted as saying by Focus.
Korean organizers have denied any impending delay. From the BBC:
But Korea racing chief Chung Yung-Cho said: "The construction progress is well ahead of its schedule and we have absolutely no issues with completion."
Actually, last year we learned the race would be held on the 17th. A JoongAng Daily article on the 5th said organizers hope to attract 200,000 people to the event, "from home and abroad."
The participants applauded and cheered as the organizers presented an overview of the Korean Grand Prix, accompanied by a performance by the idol pop singing group 2NE1 and formal speeches by the government dignitaries, including Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yoo In-chon. The event marked the launch of ticket sales to the three-day Korean Grand Prix.
“Think of 24 F1 machines, priced at around 10 billion won [$8.9 million] each, racing in our country Isn’t it great?” said Chung Young-jo, KAVO head, as he led the presentation of the event.
The article four days earlier, though, said they hope to attract 250,000 to 300,000 people from overseas. An October interview with the "director general of the F1 Race Preparation & Planning team in South Jeolla" showed some big ideas:
We plan to develop the city into a motor sport industry cluster on a longer term. We will keep the hat-shaped circuit in the north running more than 200 days of the year by attracting other existing motor events such as A1 Grand Prix, F3 Grand Prix, Kart racing and drag racing. And we hope to create synergy with the local economy through a tourist complex with a yacht yard just next to the circuit.
You can take a look around some of those plans here, in Korean.
Anyway, it looks like people who don't want to try the Korean-language page can purchase their tickets here.
3 comments:
>> Anyway, it looks like people who don't want to try the Korean-language page can purchase their tickets here. <<
When you follow the link it says:
"We highly encourage our customers to make their F1 ticket bookings as soon as possible."
and when you click on the "visit the TICKET shop" you get:
"Dates for the 2010 Formula 1 Korean Grand Prix have not been yet officially confirmed."
The first races of the year had already been history and here people from outside the country get told it's still uncertain ... that's how you attract [quote]250,000 to 300,000 people from overseas[/quote] LOL
Anyway I passed there about two weeks ago and to me it looked very busy there but also it didn't give the impression that this location would be ready for something soon.
I tried to register for volunteering. You can get a link to volunteering from the English page, but it then becomes entirely Korean. I had my Korean co-teacher help me fill out the form and thought everything was a go.
Today a friend of mine tried to do the same thing but his co-teacher called the race organizers and was told that they would not accept foreigners as volunteers. One has to be Korean. So it appears that that option is out.
Dunno, the guy who signed up---hasn't been selected yet, sign-up ends May 1st---forwarded me this:
F1에 관심 있는 대한민국 국민, 해외동포, 주한 외국인으로서 대회기간 3일 포함 5일 이상 근무 가능자
Key term being 주한 외국인. If the race organizers say no, that's weird, and unfortunate.
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