Grand prix for Vietnam?

The Southeast Asian nation of Vietnam appears to have discovered a rich seam of motor mania in its makeup of late.

A few months back, the auto world was wowed by the arrival of two rear-wheel drive models from new Vietnamese manufacturer VinFast; a goodlooking Pininfarina-penned SUV and sedan pairing (based on borrowed BMW architecture) that show plenty of promise.

The VinFast cause has also been helped along by an inexplicable but not insubstantial David Beckham endorsement.

Now, with Formula 1’s end-of-season gossip mill about who’s likely to be driving for whom next year, the background chat about likely newcomers to the race schedule has also heated up.

Should we perhaps be unsurprised, then, that Vietnam is on the list for new races commencing in 2020?

Given Vinfast’s 9-100 launch with real hardware backed by real players in the car industry, probably not.

It seems there are deeppocketed players in the country who want their dose of motorsport drama. The annual race fees payable to Liberty Media for hosting a round of the F1 championship are reportedly about US$20m.

It appears that a street race in Hanoi, the capital, is the favoured bid. It’ll be added to petitions to the FIA and F1 owner, Liberty Media, from Miami and the Netherlands for 2020 race calendar appearances. Though Miami would represent a glitzy but familiar take on an F1 race (think Monaco, but with less hills and more US Airforce fly-pasts) a street race through the colourful and chaotic streets of Hanoi sounds compelling.

We’ll be curious, though, as to how this city of a million scooters will cope with the disruption.