In addition to organizing MotoGP 2021, the Mandalika Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is also expected to be able to organize international car racing, Formula 1 (F1).
This was stated by the Managing Director of Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) Abdulbar Mansoer after meeting with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) on Thursday (5/23/2019).
“Mr. President said that this F1 should be explored to be held in the context of Indonesia’s country branding and also strengthen sport tourism in Indonesia besides MotoGP,” said Abdulbar.
SEZ Mandalika, Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara Province will indeed become a street race circuit arena for MotoGP 2021. But according to the president’s order, ITDC will follow up on these expectations.
“We will immediately follow up on the president’s direction to see the possibility that F1 can be held at the Mandalika Circuit,” said Abdulbar.
Abdulbar stated that the government’s support for holding MotoGP was quite large. Various basic infrastructure developments to support the performance will also be carried out, starting from the construction of access roads from the airport, widening the bandaa runway, to repairing ports for cruise. While ITDC itself, will start building its circuit with Vinci.
“So in October we will start building the circuit in 12 months, 4.3 kilometers long. We have also confirmed that it can be used for F1 as well,” he explained.
On the same occasion, Chairperson of the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) Erick Thohir guaranteed that the MotoGP track that can be utilized for the automobile race arena will not make a waste of the development budget.
“We know that Indonesia is exploring. Not only halal tourism, but also how to become a country that is able to compete with neighboring countries such as Thailand and Malaysia (in sport tourism),” he explained.
Seeing this development, we expect ITDC to be quite keen in making decisions to finalize the circuit development design, whether for MotoGP or F1. This is important considering the limited time for preparation of MotoGP (or F1).
