Formula 1’s governing body has declared Asia a key growth market as it looks to shift the sport away from its traditional European roots.
The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) confirmed the strategic pivot ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, having posted its best financial results in a decade.
The FIA recorded a healthy surplus of 5.7 million pounds this year, underpinned by new agreements with Formula 1 and Formula E alongside sponsorship deals with Siemens and AI platform Tomorrowi.io.
Lung Nien Lee, vice president for sport in the Asia Pacific region, said the shift toward Asia and China specifically would lead to more Grands Prix being held across the region.
“This is one thing that shows how the world has changed since President Mohammed [Ben Sulayem] has taken over,” Lee said, highlighting a broader transformation in the sport’s geographical ambitions.
“Historically it’s been a very European base, but the FIA is an international organisation and if you look at the races now, you’ve got three in the US, you’ve got the Middle East, you’ve got Asia,” he added.
“China is a big play for the FIA – they’ve got 1.4bn people and over the last 20 years, it’s been doing its own thing,” Lee said, noting that meaningful outreach to China had only begun in the past five years.
“The depth of China is something that is part of the president’s manifesto, which is to double motorsports,” he added, underlining the ambition driving the governing body’s eastward push.
Proposals from Vietnam, Thailand and India to host Formula 1 Grands Prix are already in circulation, with a second race in China also considered a realistic possibility.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand all host MotoGP races, and the two-wheeled racing series has similarly signalled its intent to reduce reliance on a European-heavy calendar by the end of the decade.
Craig Edmondson, the FIA’s chief commercial officer and former Premier League marketing lead, pointed to the governing body’s recent movements as evidence of genuine structural change.
“We’ve just come back from Macau from the FIA conference; we’re going to be in Shanghai in December for the FIA awards; our general assembly is moving to Doha,” Edmondson said.
“Previously these events were always held in Paris and Monaco and nowhere else. So this is a real step change in terms of the global outlook,” he added.
The FIA’s push into Asia reflects a wider ambition to make Formula 1 and motorsport broadly a truly global proposition rather than a sport dominated by its European heritage.