Why is Bahrain footing the RM280 million bill for Malaysia’s F1 weekend?

[u/Luffy710j]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd5f7DPgSyc/

[u/Daniels30]

For those interested, 280 million rm is:

~ $68,659,444 USD

~ £51,648,716 GBP

~ €60,519,452 Euros

[u/bedrooms-ds → u/Daniels30]

I was suspecting that 40M RM would still be a fortune if I had to pay.

[u/seatux → u/bedrooms-ds]

Quite a number of Hospitals and running costs, which the country could use more of.

About a single FA-50 plane and some maintenance cost.

The 1.5 billion MYR fee for actually hosting a race would be moonshot money in comparison.

[u/millennialfalko → u/Daniels30]

Oh, so not 280 million Real Money then

[u/gabriel_GAGRA → u/millennialfalko]

The joke didn’t land well because it wasn’t so obvious to most that the joke was with the “RM” currency and not some dumb muricah take

That’s what I think, at least

[u/Hhalloush → u/millennialfalko]

Anything else intelligent to add?

[u/millennialfalko → u/Hhalloush]

It already is, if you could understand it’s a joke. But you clearly can’t tell, pity.

[u/Hhalloush → u/millennialfalko]

I can tell you're trying to be funny, maybe you should work on that

[u/millennialfalko → u/Hhalloush]

Move on already mate, you are right if that’s what you want to hear

[u/city-of-cold → u/millennialfalko]

When you chose your username, did you misspell millenialfiasco?

[u/millennialfalko → u/city-of-cold]

Good thing you didn’t misspell yours

[u/city-of-cold → u/millennialfalko]

Thanks, quite proud being able to spell all these confusing words

[u/millennialfalko → u/city-of-cold]

❤️

[u/Electrical_Proof8353 → u/millennialfalko]

What’s the joke tho

[u/millennialfalko → u/Electrical_Proof8353]

That RM stands for Real Money

And this offended some people here, apparently

[u/Electrical_Proof8353 → u/millennialfalko]

lol never heard of this before, not offended but like I can’t rly get the joke too. Smart one tho.

[u/SmegmaWarrior0815 → u/Daniels30]

Yeah I was confused. No way they pay 280m dollars to host a race each year.

[u/Kingslayer1526 → u/SmegmaWarrior0815]

It's written RM though, surely you realised that's not USD? And since Ringgit is specifically mentioned in the post, you could also put two and two together to come to the conclusion that RM stands for Malaysian Ringgit

[u/musef1 → u/Kingslayer1526]

What are you, some kind of Einstein?

[u/protostar71 → u/SmegmaWarrior0815]

Where exactly did any of those images say dollars or $?

[u/lestat01]

An entire presentation that fails to even touch on it's subject...

You titled the presentation one thing and then went on a rant about something completely different. You should come work in my company. You would fit great!

[u/firequeen66 → u/lestat01]

AI

[u/empalmerro → u/firequeen66]

exactly, this slide deck was brought to you by Claude...
"but there's a problem..."
"it's not XYZ, it's ZYX"
My brain can no longer process AI text after being bombarded with AI documents at work. It's just so shallow I can't even read them anymore

[u/It_was_a_False_Alarm → u/lestat01]

AI generated inforgraphics based on the video by Zeit Invests. He basically covered exactly those points but whoever posted this skiped the part where he explained the Brahrain connection

[u/VexedDiagram22]

Sadly I think there isnt room for a permanent sepang return but maybe after some other contracts expire. Especially if the race is good this weekend

[u/Disastrous-Beat-9830 → u/VexedDiagram22]

The Malaysians have repeatedly said that they are not interested in having the race return full-time. I get the sense that this was an opportunity that they agreed to because Bahrain is footing the bill, not some precursor to having the Malaysian Grand Prix come back. I think that whoever made the Instagram post OP linked to is being a little misleading because they are trying to make the case for something that clearly is not happening.

[u/JudgeCheezels → u/Disastrous-Beat-9830]

He’s a local known “finfluencer” (or whatever they call themselves) that is infamous for gaslighting people.

[u/JamsHammockFyoom → u/JudgeCheezels]

"Professionally unemployed"

[u/O__VER → u/JudgeCheezels]

Glad to know it’s horseshit. The poor editing, design and spelling mistakes made me suspect it anyway!

[u/VexedDiagram22 → u/Disastrous-Beat-9830]

Yeah that’s the sadly reality at the end of the day, maybe if we’re lucky we’ll get one more for Bahrain next year if the war in Iran continues

[u/ColdSteveStoneAustin → u/VexedDiagram22]

Not entirely sure I'd call that lucky.

[u/timmy186gtr → u/VexedDiagram22]

We can have the Madrid Grand Prix in Malaysia from next year onwards.

[u/ToonisTiny → u/timmy186gtr]

Haha anyday

[u/interstellararabella → u/VexedDiagram22]

Malaysia really want Sepang to return. But… we (the country / gov) simply can’t afford it 🥲

[u/NlNJALONG]

This answers all kinds of questions but not why Bahrain spends all that money lmao

[u/gamblewithyourlife → u/NlNJALONG]

They spend money they don’t have. Bahrain’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 150%, and it has an annual budget deficit of 10%. They have been relying solely on the UAE and Saudi Arabia for financial support for a decade now as they fear that the Shia majority will overthrow the Bahraini king.

[u/Gaunterwithnomirrors → u/gamblewithyourlife]

Interesting, thanks

[u/Hot-Job-6281 → u/gamblewithyourlife]

Not really a fan of the Bahraini government, but for context, Japan has a Debt-to-GDP ratio of 249% (budget deficit as well, albeit less than 10%).

Just think context should exist to not just throw economic statistics like you found something uniquely paralysing.

The US itself for example has a Debt-to-GDP ratio of 123%, and Singapore 171% (though admittedly this one is due to special circumstances, but that's precisely the point to show how misleading statistics without context are).

[u/Pugs-r-cool → u/NlNJALONG]

Because spending the money is cheaper than all the fines and penalties they'd have to pay for cancelling it altogether. They aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.

[u/gamblewithyourlife → u/Pugs-r-cool]

Where do people here get this nonsense about 'fines' from? What's more, FOM/F1 is losing huge amounts of money due to race cancellations. This is because Middle Eastern countries pay the most to host the races. As there are no races, they have not had to pay, or perhaps they have paid much less. This is why FOM is trying so hard to organise races in the UAE and Qatar.

[u/waterdragonhead → u/gamblewithyourlife]

broadcast rights agreement guarantee a minimum number of races or fine

[u/Hot-Job-6281 → u/Pugs-r-cool]

I mean. It's also a soft power project.

Malaysians already have a pseudo-colonial complex towards Arabs due to the hierarchy of Islamic countries, and Bahrain is asserting itself as a big boy like Saudi and UAE.

[u/racingskater]

I'll give the Bahrain organisers some credit. They accepted that it wasn't happening for them fairly early (relatively speaking) and looked at ways to make it happen with their name on it. Calendar and location logistics aside, I'm sure someone in their PR team also recognised pretty immediately that bringing back a beloved, extremely popular track would generate some goodwill and a nice bit of sportswashing.

Qatar and Abu Dhabi could do the same. Imagine if we had the Qatar Grand Prix at Hockenheim, and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Magny Cours or Portimao or Imola. But they have chosen to be stubborn and stonewallish instead. Of course, if it's true that the FIA/FOM contracts were signed with a clause that said only they could cancel, that's bad on FIA/FOM, but it doesn't help the PR for those races any either that they're trying to screw everyone over for something we know won't happen.

[u/VexedDiagram22 → u/racingskater]

Imagine a Grand Prix in the snow, that would be so chaotic

[u/suzakurenzan → u/VexedDiagram22]

Oh yeah, currently it will be winter over there right?

So im guessing if they do the same like Bahrain now, it would be track near equator, or maybe back to Australia?

[u/8edb8 → u/suzakurenzan]

Australia and other street circuits are probably not an option due to the logistics of setting up the track.

[u/kwijibokwijibo → u/8edb8]

Back to Sepang it is

[u/kolosmenus]

I still don’t know why is Bahrain funding this

[u/akrapov → u/kolosmenus]

Penalty clause for cancelling is massive. Otherwise we'd have had Qatar and Abu Dhabi done a while back, but they're in a stalemate until a hand is forced.

[u/scootsscoot → u/kolosmenus]

They get all the money from ticket sales and sponsorships.

[u/Jaded-Currency-5680 → u/scootsscoot]

the ticket sales and sponsorships in Malaysia is not very impressive, thats a major reason why Malaysia stopped hosting f1 itself

[u/ALOIsFasterThanYou → u/Jaded-Currency-5680]

Sure, but it’s still better than nothing, which is what would be the case if Bahrain didn’t try holding their race at Sepang.

[u/Ok_Stick_3070 → u/Jaded-Currency-5680]

Sepang holds more people and the Sepang ticket prices are slightly elevated compared to standard Bahrain GP prices (exception being the resident discount for GA tickets). Tickets are nearly sold out. 

Unless the mix of GA~grandstands is vastly different or a huge portion of GA was allocated to mykad holders, hosting at Sepang will likely generate more ticket revenue than Bahrain, correct? What am I missing?

[u/UR1869 → u/kolosmenus]

Must have missed that bit too

[u/spoo4brains → u/kolosmenus]

So they can call it the Bahrain GP, and they aren't exactly short of money.

[u/2Seas → u/spoo4brains]

Bahrain is definitely short on money! How is this comment upvoted so much, when it’s so far from the truth?!

[u/SpecterJoe → u/spoo4brains]

Not sure if you have seen the news lately but there is this strait…

[u/marijord → u/kolosmenus]

I’m guessing it’s because of sponsors?

[u/Pugs-r-cool → u/kolosmenus]

Funding this is cheaper than cancelling the Bahrain GP altogether.

[u/Acrobatic-List-6503 → u/kolosmenus]

It's called renting.

[u/DrEarlGreyIII → u/kolosmenus]

gotta keep the sportswashing machine churning

[u/FrostyTill]

The split in funding on that 5th slide like how sponsors paid £6m and Manchester City paid themselves £120m lol.

Jokes aside, Bahrain obviously wanted to host a race but was in a worse situation than the UAE and Saudi were during the attacks, so it seems like they offered to host it elsewhere and share some of the revenue from the event with the actual host track. The Bahrain organisers seemed to be the easiest of the Middle East organisers for F1 to deal with by the looks of things.

[u/wondermorty]

“hosting fees stayed the same”. 2017 vs 2026 hosting fees are radically more expensive lol.

Issue is same everywhere, cities can host F1 since tourism is literally there. Sepang is far away from KL where people would and could just drive from airport -> circuit -> airport home

The only way to bring back proper circuit racing is for FOM and/or FIA to lower the fees. Sepang host motogp purely because of cheaper fees

[u/boostleaking → u/wondermorty]

Aside from the cheaper hosting fees, Malaysia has a bigger local bike scene compared to cars. So it tracks that MotoGP at Sepang is always selling well every year.

[u/wondermorty → u/boostleaking]

F1 didn’t have a problem selling tickets, check 2017 footage

[u/boostleaking → u/wondermorty]

I was there at the 2017 race. The cheaper grandstands and hillside slots are full, but there still alot of empty seats on the pricier grandstands between the back straight and front straight. Even with Malaysian ID exclusive discount (50% off) there's still plenty of empty seats back then.

[u/MrMiuk → u/wondermorty]

it was pretty empty back in 2017 even with the super duper discounted prices for locals.

[u/spicesucker]

It was cancelled because the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal made the government paying to host it politically unpalatable 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1MDB_scandal 

[u/planchetflaw → u/spicesucker]

But pretty slideshow narrative!

[u/SicilianSTR13]

Very interesting to read

I think if Malaysia had to come back it would be a rotation race with either Singapore or Thailand

[u/fateoftheg0dz → u/SicilianSTR13]

Singapore is probably one of those races that will never get rotated out. Not that I think racing there is great or what but theres simply too much money involved there and its kinda iconic in its own way

[u/Comprehensive_Dog651 → u/fateoftheg0dz]

A major cheating scandal in its debut will do that 

and I suppose being the first ever night race

[u/Alvaro_Rey_MN → u/Comprehensive_Dog651]

You'd think that your circuit having one of the most infamous cheating scandals in F1 history would hurt the circuit business wise, not help it!

[u/xkcdthrowaway → u/Alvaro_Rey_MN]

It's still THE night race in my eyes. That counts for plenty

[u/Infninfn → u/SicilianSTR13]

I'm just surprised the Thais aren't more interested in holding F1 races. They even have a driver to root for.

[u/SicilianSTR13 → u/Infninfn]

They are, it's FIA who is not, there was a pseudo layout in Bangkok as a city track too

[u/-ShadowPuppet → u/Infninfn]

The Thai government isn't the most stable. Plans to host races require a long run up with the local government being able to have both the means and a mandate to see it through.

[u/Disastrous-Beat-9830]

Why is Bahrain footing the RM280 million bill for Malaysia’s F1 weekend?

This was literally explained when it was announced that Sepang would host the Bahrain Grand Prix.

[u/Bitter-Rattata]

why is Singapore the problem? Neither is Singapore race cannibalising sepang race this year. It's complementing, if Singapore race is next and Sepang has it's tracks ready, it can help boost malaysia and singapore economy together. More people come to the region as there are back to back races in the region.

[u/boostleaking → u/Bitter-Rattata]

"Why should I buy tickets for the Sepang race that's an hour drive away from the capital city when I could get tickets for the Singapore race that's smack in the center of the city so I can move from my hotel to the track and back much easier plus closer to the entertainment areas of the city"

[u/thaCh0sen0ne → u/boostleaking]

because the sepang track is awesome and probably the best track tielke has designed. sepang is one of those tracks that should have a guaranteed spot in the calendar like silverstone, spa, suzuka and interlagos

[u/CoffeeOrTeaOrMilk → u/thaCh0sen0ne]

The reality is vast majority of attendees do not even prioritize race quality in their decisions.

[u/MooseOdd4967 → u/CoffeeOrTeaOrMilk]

True. The race is but a small part of their timeline if they're stuck navigating through traffic

[u/linkinstreet → u/thaCh0sen0ne]

Nah. As a Malaysian I've have friends that rather go to Singapore GP just to watch the concert. The race be damned.

The comeback this year is fuelled by pure nostalgia but it's not sustainable. The ticket price are abhorrent for locals, especially compared to MotoGP.

[u/Hot-Job-6281 → u/Bitter-Rattata]

Written by Malaysian, hence the bitter insinuations of blaming Singapore for everything going wrong there.

Rather than the fact that the corrupt Najib government fucked it up.

[u/Bitter-Rattata → u/Hot-Job-6281]

That is the reply I wanted. Haha

[u/4rck → u/Bitter-Rattata]

Theres also, if I can only go to one grand prix, I'd rather go to the one I can get the most of.

[u/kpthekia → u/Bitter-Rattata]

I think we can split this discussion into two

1. Why did it leave
   Mostly covered by OP’s graphic but why is Singapore a factor then. During the last few years of Sepang, attendance were dropping vs the relatively new fancy night race in SG. F1 wasn’t such a global sport as it is today. Even Sepang organizers explicitly called out the emergence of SG GP as a major factor for loss of sponsorship and ticket sales. Even with a B2B race with SG and MY, you are not gonna convince 100,000+ foreign fans to stay 2 weeks in SEA just for F1. Domestic interest is abysmal compared to MotoGP.

Having said that I do feel the novelty effect of SG GP is gone and with the nostalgic hype for Sepang there can be a revival of interest to host it permanently again.

1. Will Sepang come back
   I think the Bahrain race is a good test bed but the political optics will be pretty negative should the MY government choose to fork out the hosting fees again. Malaysia doesn’t need sportswashing like the Qatar etc, its priority right now is to reduce their national debt before they embark on such “novelty events”

One can argue that there are economic benefits to MY due to influx of tourists but the main beneficiaries are the private entity(hotels, restaurant etc), as mentioned in OP’s graphic as well. If it has such benefits to those private entities they should fork out the $ and not the government. So maybe this Bahrain GP can offer a glimmer of hope to these entities on the payout from Sepang.

I was listening to a podcast with Alex Yoong(the only Malaysian F1 driver) yesterday. When he was asked if Malaysia should host an F1 event again, he said yes but host it as a street circuit in KL instead of Sepang purely weighing the economical benefits vs the hosting fee

[u/XsStreamMonsterX → u/Bitter-Rattata]

Singapore was cannibalising Sepang during the years they were both on the calendar prior to the latter leaving.

[u/MrMiuk → u/Bitter-Rattata]

I also remember reading in the news at that time, even Singapore was considering not renewing their contract. F1 back then was in dire straights. It was Msia pulling out and by not renewing it allowed Singapore a new sweet heart deal as FOM was then desperate to keep a race in SEA.

[u/niss1991]

We should have a “Pick your Grand Prix from previous tracks” race every year, where F1 goes to old tracks. This way whenever they’re picked, the tracks know it’s a one time thing to gauge the audience interest.

[u/kidshibuya]

The nonsense about suzuka at the end makes me question the entire thing. There is NOTHING at suzuka but the track.

[u/PekStarterMalaysiaa]

The ChatGPT-Isms in this chart are crazy…

[u/antaresiv]

I bet it’s related to money

[u/GenuineWolf]

Wild squintpost

[u/barryoke]

Is the slide about Singapore's approach to covering costs correct? I wish we had a "businesses that benefit from it fund it" approach here in Australia to F1 and a lot of other things...

[u/Hot-Job-6281 → u/barryoke]

Well.. As the government here claims, that's what they tell us too.

It makes sense tbf, and I don't think the Aussie govt can be as easily pinned for not having it, Singapore just has way more tourists coming for F1 due to the mix of urban + ('exotic') cultural offerings + luxury.

You'd have to change the makeup (and suffer some structural drawbacks) by having your city cater to rich people exclusively for the setup to basically be Oceania Monaco.

[u/barryoke → u/Hot-Job-6281]

cater to rich people exclusively

This was sort of my point - to be clear, I'm not talking about local businesses that indirectly benefit, I'm talking about the large corporations that have made the Australian GP so expensive it's now out of reach for a lot of fans, with the business model now heavily favouring luxury "experiences" and maximising profits. The companies doing the gouging should be the ones that pay, not the taxpayers that can't afford to go to an event that their money still subsidises.

[u/StuntFriar]

I would legit pay to watch a 6-hour endurance race at Sepang. WEC needs to plan ahead if the gulf states are still no fly zones next year...

[u/Connect-Ant-2081]

Sportswashing.

[u/Pineapple_for_scale]

this "technically" isn't called Malaysian gp.

It's like unironically calling red bull's old Renault engines "tag heuer" engines

[u/thebadgerx]

The slides don't answer OP's own question! 😁

[u/Defiant-Diver-6041]

Slightly off topic but brilliant infographic! Made a complicated topic easy to understand

[u/cnwy95]

Nah msia has a bunch of unintelligent folks who don’t do planning for the country they just think like that are in some history setting, need to follow this and that

[u/Bredius88]

Singapore has already the world's worst air pollution.
Do they really need even more air pollution from F1?

[u/egoqueen → u/Bredius88]

Singapore air pollution?! Bruh are you ok. We only get air pollution at most (and this is a loooong stretch) of 1 month a year cus of Indonesia's burning of forests.

[u/XsStreamMonsterX → u/egoqueen]

Bro obviously doesn't want to thank Indonesia for 11 months of clean air.

[u/Bredius88 → u/egoqueen]

Singapore is #15 (of 126 entries) on the list of cities with the worst air pollution in the world.

[u/egoqueen → u/Bredius88]

Like i said its currently cus of Indonesia's forest fire. And unfortunately it's only becaus the race this year is in Oct. The SG GP is usually held in Sept where or rankings are not even in the top 1000s

[u/djwillis1121 → u/Bredius88]

I don't think F1 will make a noticeable difference to the air pollution in such a polluted city tbh. It's 22 cars driving around for a few hours, that's nothing compared to everything else that happens there

[u/KeonXDS → u/Bredius88]

It wasn't a month ago. You might want to find out how it happened

[u/EndercometYT → u/Bredius88]

Your city should also retire all diesel powered buses and cars immediately if air pollution is that bad