Grand Prix proves an intrusion on grief of a nation

THE flight path is within sight of the Sepang circuit where Formula One will intrude on private grief this weekend to strut its usual high-octane stuff.

THE flight path is within sight of the Sepang circuit where Formula One will intrude on private grief this weekend to strut its usual high-octane stuff.

A concert featuring Christina Aguilera, the American singer, scheduled for this evening at the famous Petronas Twin Towers, has been cancelled and the Laureus Sports Awards, at which Sebastian Vettel was the most high-profile winner as sportsman of the year, were scaled back last night.

So far, there are no signs that the Malaysian Grand Prix has been affected by the national suffering after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. This could be the one time that F1 is called on to stop thinking about itself, with its internecine warfare and backbiting, to consider the relatives of the 239 people aboard the missing Boeing 777 jet.

There will be no escape because the Sepang circuit is only a mile or so from Kuala Lumpur airport, where bereaved families have been camped for the past fortnight. More than 30 relatives of passengers on the missing flight have had to move hotels to make way for F1 teams and fans arriving for Sunday's race. It is a simple accident of fate, with rooms pre-booked months ago suddenly needed for F1 personnel and media.

There seems little appetite for the razzle-dazzle of the sport amid such grief and uncertainty, though. Razlan Razzali, chief executive of the Sepang circuit, says that 30 per cent of race-day tickets have been sold; contrast that with a sell-out at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix in July. Kuala Lumpur has always been a hard sell to a crowd who know little of and often care nothing for F1, but this year there is a new and serious distraction from the pointless circulation of cars around an asphalt track.

The mood is sombre, to say the least, Ram Sithambaram, owner of an F1 outlet at the airport, told the AFP news agency that sales of tickets and merchandise had been poor for the race, first staged in 1999.

“In the past one week we sold only about 50 tickets,” he said. “In comparison, last year around the same period we sold about 1,000 tickets. We are paying a high price for the MH370 tragedy. We hope for a miracle that ticket sales will surge in the next few days.”

Bizarrely, this is the home race for two teams: Caterham were founded by Tony Fernandes, the Malaysian owner of Air Asia and Queens Park Rangers; Petronas, the state oil company here, is the title sponsor of the Mercedes team, who harbour hopes of another victory after Nico Rosberg took the chequered flag in the first race of the season in Australia.

It is one of those moments, though, when F1 is clearly ill equipped to speak for a sport that is intruding on a period of national mourning. There is no adequate or eloquent spokesman, unless we count Bernie Ecclestone, the chief executive whose legal entanglements continue. Constantin Medien, the German media business, is reported to be ready to lodge an application for permission to appeal against its defeat in February in a claim for 85 million pounds ($153m) in damages against Ecclestone and others, arising from the sale of F1 to CVC Capital Partners, a London-based private equity group, in 2006.

However, in his findings, Mr Justice Newey criticised Ecclestone's reputation, describing him as “untruthful and unreliable” and confirming that the F1 chief executive paid a bribe of $US44 million ($42.63m) to Dr Gerhard Gribkowsky, the disgraced banker serving an 8 and a half-year sentence in a German prison on corruption charges.

Mr Justice Newey's comments could be crucial when Ecclestone faces criminal charges of bribery next month in a court in Munich. Ecclestone denies any wrongdoing and says he will clear his name in court.

However, the criminal case hangs over the sport. Some Malaysia Airlines planes on the way to Kuala Lumpur for the grand prix were half-full at best and there is no doubt this is an event that will pale into insignificance compared with the fate of flight MH370.

The Times