Liberty Media eyeing for a second Chinese Grand Prix

China might get another race on the calendar as revealed by Formula One Head of Global Sponsorship Murray Barnett revealed.

The Chinese Grand Prix is regularly held at the Shanghai International Circuit since 2004 and will be the 1000th F1 race in 2019.

With F1 looking forward to open a dedicated office in Beijing, Barnett is hopeful of another race in the Asian country.

“We would love to have a second race here,” said Barnett.

“Probably not in the short-term, given how congested the schedule is already, but we’d certainly love to figure out a way to have another Grand Prix here.”

China was the second biggest market in 2018, with 68 Million unique viewers tuning at least once all season.

“We’re looking at a number of different things to try to generate more interest on a local basis.

“We can’t just be here for the three days of the Shanghai Grand Prix," he added.

No Chinese driver has started a F1 Grand Prix, with only Ma Qinghua reaching to F1 but getting restricted to test drives. Meanwhile, Guanyu Zhou was announced as a the test and development driver for 2019, adding to his UNI-Virtuosi programme in F2 championship.

Guanyu Zhou was announced as Renault Test and Development driver for 2019 earlier this week

Barnett realised that lots of people in the paddock are watching the Chinese driver with great interest and he is a rising talent.

“We’d love to see him (in F1),” he said.

“Ultimately, that’s down to the teams, but I think even they recognize what a fantastic opportunity China is, and you never know, we might see him in F1 very soon.”

F1's marketing strategy is to attract more of the Asian and European audience with lesser fans. A Vietnamese GP is on the calendar for 2020, with the Indian and Korean Grand Prix failing to make an impression in early-2010s.

“Both of those races only had short-term deals, and we certainly believe in investing for the long term,” he said.

Murray Barnett was in Beijing for Formula One's Strategic Marketing Conference at the British Ambassador's residence where UK Trade Commissioner for China Richard Burn said that despite the chaos over Brexit, sporting ties between China and the UK remain strong.

Shanghai Daily contributed to the report.