A new red flag flies in China?

By Graham Thompson in Shanghai
September 29 2004

If there was one dominant image from my day in the crowd at the first Chinese Grand Prix (also my first Grand Prix) it was red flags fluttering in the wind – not of China, but of Ferrari.

Maybe it was because the Chinese like a winner. Or at least an expected winner – "Schumi, Schumi", they cried as he came round for the first few laps, and the Shanghai mayor visited the Ferrari garage. Maybe it's because red is a good colour here, not so much because of local politics but as a symbol of luck and prosperity. But whatever the reason, many locals seem to have adopted the Italian manufacturer's logos with enthusiasm. No doubt the company hopes they buy the cars, too – with a new showroom in Shanghai, and F1 success, sales for 2005 are expected to be at least 100.

Bernie Ecclestone and everyone else involved will leave China buoyed up by the success of the first event. "The ability to host F1 demonstrates a country's organizational and technical ability", Norman Howell of F1 marketing company KHP Consulting told me. And indeed nothing went significantly wrong. The logistics worked – a fleet of buses transported the bulk of the crowd from the city centre to the track pretty much without a hitch. If there is one thing the Chinese are good at, it is moving people about. US fans Darrin and Renee Sommerfelt, veterans of a dozen races worldwide, were impressed with the transport arrangements. "Much better than many in Europe or even Suzuka in Japan", said Darrin. A British fan I met in town around 5.30pm was startled to see me back so quick – "It'd take you four hours to get out of Silverstone", he grumbled. Once at the spanking new facility, getting to your seat was quick and straightforward - I was on the grass area at turn 6. A sea of people was camped out here, drinking the 20 RMB (£1.30) tins of branded Fosters and busily taking photos of everything and anything. Most were locals, and most seemed to be under 30.

At 370 RMB (about £25) a ticket, for all three days, it seemed reasonable value to me. The view was pretty good. But with many in the target audience of Western-oriented young people earning 1500-2000 RMB a month, it was perhaps no surprise to see a headline in a local paper reading "Expensive affair, locals moan". One spectator quoted by the paper said, "everybody is stealing from my wallet". How many of the Chinese crowd bought tickets themselves with their own money is open to question – many would have got them from employers or clients. Some of my local friends are cynical about the whole affair. Robert, a former journalist, reckons "Shanghai is going too fast so as to be 'international'".

But even so, there were people at the bus station, and indeed out at the track gates, haggling for tickets with the local scalpers right up until the last minute. Prices in the secondary market were about 3,000-4,000 RMB for a 960 RMB face value grandstand seat this time last week, and reportedly peaked at about 10,000 RMB at the weekend. With great wads of red 100 RMB notes in their hands, the touts were looking pretty chuffed. What Mao, whose face decorates the note, would think is anyone's guess.

Over a pint or two back at the 'Blarney Stone', an Irish pub popular with local expats and visiting fans alike, Shanghai-based Scottish businessman Gus Robertson described his day in the grandstand as "pure dead brilliant". They got a good view of he pits, he reported, and could see the rest of the action on several big screens. He agreed with David Atnip, an American out in the crowd with me for his first Grand Prix, that it was the noise that created much of the excitement. One Chinese fan I spoke to described the experience as "fantastic". He was clearly keeping his supporting options open, with a BMW polo shirt, Jaguar cap and a huge Ferrari flag over his shoulder.

However, I was surprised to hear from Gus that their catering facilities were the same as for us out in the "cheap seats" – simple boxed meals that ran out about 1 o'clock. I overheard other foreign fans complaining about this. One lucky diner described the corporate catering in the Paddock as "very impressive", but Shanghai International Circuit may need to think about feeding the ordinary punters better for 2005. And it was also almost impossible to hear the race commentary – we didn't find out who'd won, or about Schumacher's various incidents, until I got back into town.

But of course the Grand Prix is about a lot more than race day experiences. The city has been buzzing with F1 fever for weeks, in response to huge advertising expenditure and blanket media coverage. In the last few days, the pace hotted up – the Williams team, for example, had 14 promotional events in the run-up to the race. Their marketing man, Jim Wright, told a media briefing, "growth in China was the principal reason Budweiser came into F1". Most other sponsors have similar objectives. BAR-Honda has virtually taken over Xin Tian Di, the glitziest bar and restaurant area in central Shanghai, for a nine day festival of events. On Saturday, a car was attracting great attention from locals and visitors alike, with everyone queueing up to have their photo taken next to it. The hotels are full to overflowing, and bar owners are trying (not very hard) to suppress huge smiles. All this effort is bound to reap rewards – the Chinese, especially the younger generation, are very susceptible to fashions and trends, and anything Western is seen as aspirational. As BAR boss David Richards put it, "China is the Klondike, it's the new frontier."

But the local authorities are still pushing their own form of branding. Travelling through the city at the weekend, I spotted men putting up lots of red banners (the one with the yellow stars, not the black horse) in anticipation for the country's National Day on Friday. And with Ferrari's priced at 2.6 million RMB (£175,000) a pop, it will be a long time before most Chinese can afford anything more than the flag.


Graham Thompson is a British freelance business journalist, who has been based in Shanghai for two years.