{"id":4015,"date":"2010-04-01T07:09:41","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T11:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=4015"},"modified":"2010-04-02T08:29:47","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T12:29:47","slug":"shabby-sepang-eyes-revamp-to-please-ecclestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/shabby-sepang-eyes-revamp-to-please-ecclestone\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Shabby’ Sepang eyes revamp to please Ecclestone"},"content":{"rendered":"
Malaysia’s F1 venue is “tired” and needs a “revamp”, track boss Razlan Razali admitted at the Sepang circuit.<\/span><\/h5>\n

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It was the first of the new wave of Hermann Tilke-designed tracks to join the formula one calendar, but the inaugural event now dates back 12 years.<\/p>\n

Razali told the Singapore newspaper Today that, for example, the rooves of the unique grandstands are in need of major repairs after years of exposure to the weather.<\/p>\n

“We need to revamp the whole circuit,” he admitted.\u00a0 “The membrane on the roof of our main grandstand has already outlived its usefulness and has to be replaced.<\/p>\n

“We are still ‘version 1’, but I am not saying Sepang should be like Abu Dhabi, which is already ‘version 1001’, but at least our track needs to get on par with Shanghai and Bahrain,” said Razlan.<\/p>\n

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone said three years ago that the track had become “shabby”, but there have been only minor renovations.<\/p>\n

Razali said the cost of bringing Sepang up to Ecclestone’s expectations is more than $60 million.<\/p>\n

“Without it (the money), we have been able to improve only the paddock area, which Bernie usually frequents.<\/p>\n

“But, seriously, lots more need to be done, there are cracks here and there that need patching,” he added.<\/p>\n

He said the Malaysian government was fully supportive of the grand prix for the first “four or five years” but then “lost interest”.<\/p>\n

“Maybe with the change in leadership, some ministries did not think Sepang and motor sport were important to Malaysia,” said Razali.<\/p>\n

Government officials visited the track last week.<\/p>\n

“It is a good sign,” said Razali.\u00a0 “I think with Lotus F1 on the grid and our very own Fairuz Fauzy in the team, interest from the government is returning.<\/p>\n

“Should they approve our request for funds, we can get to work immediately and get Sepang up to speed by next year.”<\/p>\n

\u00a9 RIF|GMM<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malaysia’s F1 venue is “tired” and needs a “revamp”, track boss Razlan Razali admitted at the Sepang circuit. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,5262,568,5261,5340,875,528,530,5336],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4015"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4068,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4015\/revisions\/4068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}