F1 in Singapore

F1 may be in our 'little red dot' neighbour Singapore soon, Monaco-style.

Our Sports Minister pities Singapore for trying to bid as one of the new hosts (possibly from 2010 onwards), along with other cities such as New Delhi and Moscow.

Lest she forgets there is such thing called "competition". Already bigger and better casinos are being built in Singapore to challenge ours. I don't think Singapore will pity us if Bernie decided that our grid girls (pictured on the left with this year's costume) are not hot enough.

Years of protective policies must have eroded our ability to compete (read the latest sad tale on our local universities). We may have one of the best track now, but what is stopping Singapore from having a better one? Especially if it is a Monaco-styled race track with the race running at night.

Few competitive advantages possessed by Singapore: -

• The little red dot could be small, but it's many times more popular than Sepang, Kuala Lumpur or Malaysia. As Malaysians we always have to tell foreigners our country is next to Singapore before they know exactly where we are.
  
• Sepang is far away from KL. There is no public transport to the circuit. There are no/insufficient hotels around the circuit (correct me if I'm wrong). Who wants to stay in Sepang anyway, there's nothing much around. Singapore is a small island city well connected by SMRT and other form of public transport.
  
• Singapore may be more attractive than KL as a metropolitan city and a tourist attraction. SMRT is many times more efficient than our rojak system - KTM Komuter + Putra LRT + Star LRT + Monorail. Besides, Singapore has well established and better managed tourist attractions such as Sentosa Island and the upcoming casinos.
  
• A Monaco-style circuit will be very popular among F1 fans. Monaco is F1's jewel in the crown. To have a similar track in Asia seems quite tempting. Monaco is also well known for its casinos. This will make Singapore a sister track.
  
• Singapore should be more capable in managing international events. Or I should say Malaysia has proven over time that we are good in building first world infrastructure but are extremely poor in managing them.
  
• Singapore will definitely have hotter grid girls. You can't deny that the grid girls are part of the F1's attraction. Our grid girls may be wearing very different costumes from most circuits, but in a way that brings differentiation disadvantage.
  

The only competitive advantage Malaysia have is perhaps cost.

As a Malaysian I'm proud that we are one of the F1 hosts. But I fear that we are unable to fight the impending competition, unless we try to differentiate ourselves further. Sounds familiar?