Formula 1 want second Chinese Grand Prix?

The Chinese Grand Prix has been held in Shanghai since 2004, while in the new Liberty Media era F1 are set to open an office in Beijing while hosting a second race in the country seems to be on the agenda.

Barnett told Xinhua, "We would love to have a second race here. 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."

A feature of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend are the swathes of open grandstands that surround the track with only 140,000 to 150,000 fans attending all three days, which is half of the people that go to the race in Mexico City or Silverstone.

Hence no surprise that building the Chinese fanbase is high priority for Barnett and his team, "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. We need to have a year-round presence here and be much more locally relevant in order to really establish a big fanbase here."

No Chinese driver has ever started a grand prix, but Renault Sport Academy's latest signing Zhou Guanyu will race in Formula 2 this year with the objective to get to Formula 1 at some point in the future.

Barnett acknowledged, "We'd love to see him [in F1]. Ultimately, that's down to the teams, but I think even they recognise what a fantastic opportunity China is, and you never know, we might see him in F1 very soon."

Vietnam will be on the calendar in 2020, and although Formula 1's forays into Asia have always found early enthusiasm but, as in the cases of India, South Korea and Malaysia, that energy waned, now the countries are no longer on the calendar.

Barnett continued, "We've learned what we did wrong in those races, and we're making sure we don't make the same mistakes again. Both of those races only had short-term deals, and we certainly believe in investing for the long-term."

According to Xinhua, the F1 sponsorship boss was in Beijing for Formula 1's strategic marketing conference at the British Ambassador's residence.

Also in attendance was U.K. Trade Commissioner for China Richard Burn who told Xinhua, "There is huge interest in British sport [in China], and Formula 1 is a leading example of that. I went to the first Chinese Grand Prix in 2004, and I remember the excitement and the huge turnout they had for that race."

"Having the 1,000th Grand Prix in Shanghai 15 years later shows the scale of the opportunity that F1 sees in China," added Burn.