Korea gears up to host Formula 1 Grand Prix

After successfully hosting the 1988 Summer Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup and Asian Games in 2002 and being shortlisted amongst the final three contenders for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics, Korea continues to rise as a venue for major international sporting events by hosting its first F1 Grand Prix in 2010.

The circuit on which the race will take place is currently under construction and forms part of a major leisure resort being built at Yeongam-am in the province of Jellanam on the south west tip of Korea, approximately 31/2 hours by road from Seoul. In addition to the motor racing circuit, the leisure complex will include hotels, a water park, marina, casino, golf course, theme park, shopping malls, watersports, and numerous restaurants, bars and nightclubs.

As would be expected of such a high tech country the new race circuit will boast state of the art facilities, will have a 1.25km straight allowing speeds of 320kmh and at 5.6 km will be the longest F1 circuit in Asia and the second longest on the F1 calendar after Monza in Italy. The date of the first Korean F1 Grand Prix has yet to be fixed but is expected to be towards the end of the calendar, in September or October 2010.

Several tour operators have already expressed an interest in creating tours incorporating the event, not only to Korea, but depending on timing, to also include either the Chinese or Japanese races.