Infant formula

Behind the dimming lights in Gautam Buddh

This editorial comment has been modified. Please see the clarification at the end.

When the five lights go out to start India's third Formula 1 race today, a little over half the 100,000-seater stadium around the Gautam Buddh circuit is likely to be filled. But the Indian Formula 1 is not alone in facing dwindling audience interest. Shanghai too has been suffering - though the absolute differentials are, like all things China-India, not strictly comparable. To India's 65,000 crowd this year and last (the first season's attendance of 94,000 is clearly an anomaly driven by free tickets and novelty value), the Shanghai circuit attracts roughly 155,000 (though that's down from 260,000-odd at its peak). Globally, too, television audiences have been falling, with China leading the slump with a 34 per cent drop in television viewership, though US, Russia, and the UK all contributed to the decline. Almost no circuit is making money from Formula 1, and Turkey and Korea may already be off the calendar next year because they say they are unable to afford the fees to host the race. If Formula 1 appears to be losing traction, the blame largely rests with the global slowdown.
 

All the same, the drop in attendance at the Gautam Buddh circuit is eye-opening because India is one of the newest countries to enter the Formula 1 calendar - the Shanghai event has been around since 2004, and attendance started falling only from 2010. It is telling that there are few takers here even though ticket prices have been cut by between 30 and 40 per cent. They now range from Rs 2,000 to Rs 21,000, from Rs 3,500 to Rs 30,000 last season; but are still clearly too steep for anyone other than an obsessed fan (add in transport and parking plus refreshment, and the per-person cost could be double that).

This poor attendance after just two races is one indication, though a small one, that India is still some distance from the other economies that host this Grand Prix motorsport. Formula 1 flaunts an unabashedly opulent culture (in that sense, Gautam Buddh is a singularly inappropriate name) and the ultra-high technology that is embedded in the sport makes it expensive anywhere in the world for participant and fan alike. But consider this: Asian circuits account for nine of the 20 races in the Formula 1 season, part of a deliberate policy from the late nineties to relocate from Europe where anti-pollution and anti-tobacco rules are growing stringent - though the tobacco industry is no longer a sponsor of Formula 1. Among these nine, India is the second-largest economy, but has the lowest per capita income by a long margin - $1,489 compared with $9,055 for China, $ 16,794 for Malaysia, $14,812 for Turkey to name some competitors. And it is telling that in India, the race is hosted in one of India's poorest and most backward states. At the top of the scale is Singapore, at $51,709, one of the three countries to host a street race but also the only one to host a night race. If a comparison among BRIC countries is made, audiences in Brazil (per capita income: $11,747) have grown strongly (Russia, the last of the BRICs will enter F1 only next year).

Still, the Indian event - which will be off the 2014 calendar owing to a scheduling hitch - has much going for it. Unlike in most other countries, it is an entirely private enterprise that has turned out a truly world-class facility. True, the previous Bahujan Samaj Party government in Uttar Pradesh helped with land and clearances, but the kind of congruence that F1 enjoys with civic authorities in other countries - in terms of provision of transport services, security, visa processing and so on - is absent here. Many dismiss Formula 1 as a rich man's entertainment but in India it has a peculiar significance; it has shown what can be achieved against all the odds and for this alone, it deserves to thrive and survive.

CLARIFICATION
This editorial comment had mentioned that the tobacco industry is a sponsor of Formula 1, which is incorrect. This has been corrected. The error is regretted.