MACAU GRAND PRIX BUDGET TO HIT MOP200 MLN

2014/10/9

From：Macau Business

Racing costs money. As does track preparation. This year, the Macau Grand Prix Committee will stump up to MOP200 million. That’s an extra MOP10-25 million for the 61st MGP.

From 2012 to 2014, the budget of the Macau Grand Prix has increased by MOP10 million to MOP25 million in order to guarantee that locals will not be overly affected by the track installation, the Coordinator of the Macau Grand Prix Committee, João Costa Antunes, said yesterday during the presentation of the 61st Macau Grand Prix programme.
“The increase in the cost of the Grand Prix is related to the installation works of the track that were carried out during the night and in the summer but also the rising costs of construction works in Macau”, he said. “We knew it would be more expensive if the installation procedures of the track were carried out during the night. But we considered that avoiding any inconvenience for the people of Macau was more important”, he explained.
As the 2013 edition of the Grand Prix was the celebration of its 60th anniversary and spanned two weekends, this year’s budget has to be compared with that of 2012. In these years, races were run over one weekend. In 2012, the cost of the races was MOP175 million; this year, they will increase to some MOP190-200 million.
On the other hand, the organisation has attracted MOP33 million in sponsorship and expects the revenue from ticket sales to exceed MOP44 million.
“When we are talking about the budget of the Grand Prix of Macau we have to think as well of the return on investment. Since the handover [of Macau to China] three studies have been carried out by an independent Singaporean company to assess the relation of investment to return. They proved that every pataca invested in the Grand Prix has a return of MOP8”, Antunes said. “These studies analysed the number of articles in newspapers about the Grand Prix, the number of minutes promoting and talking about Macau because of the Grand Prix on TV and its coverage. We also questioned many tourists, and some admitted that the first time they had heard about Macau was because of the Grand Prix”, he added.

Improving every year

As for the programme, which was revealed yesterday, the organisation stressed the increasing quality of the races. It was also said that the Macau Grand Prix Committee is incessantly seeking new ways to improve the championship.
Last Sunday, a crash during the Japanese F1 Grand Prix injured French driver Jules Bianchi, who is in critical condition and fighting for his life. This issue has raised safety questions about the Macau Grand Prix.
“We’re trying to improve our safety conditions every year in order to make it a better Grand Prix. These situations can happen in any race but we’re always taking new measures to increase our safety. We are training our race officials and the staff more and more”, Mr. Antunes said.
The Coordinator of the Macau Grand Prix Committee also praised the entry list that was revealed yesterday and the capacity of the races to attract a large number of drivers.
“All the races in which we select the entry list are full booked. More and more drivers want to race in Macau and so we have to reject some participants. However, this is a sign of the quality of the drivers on the grid”, he explained.
This year, Max Verstappen will race for the first on the Guia Circuit in the Formula 3 race. The 17 year-old Dutchman has already signed with F1 team Toro Rosso and will be the youngest driver to ever participate in an F1 race next season.

Copyright@Macau Business