F1 must regain its sense of place

This weekend's Singapore Grand Prix is surely, along with Monaco, the most recognisable Formula 1 event to the wider world.

Not because of its tradition, which in F1 terms stretches back only to 2008, but because it's a street circuit with a spectacular night-time cityscape backdrop. Such strong images stay with people.

But outside of Singapore and Monaco, how many races really have a feel of location, rather than just being another homogenised grand prix?

Track recognition itself isn't enough. To use marketing parlance, few circuits have a unique selling point that leaves an indelible impression on even the casual viewer. How many tracks have an Eau Rouge?

F1 is an unusual sporting entity. It is one of the few that visits so many corners of the globe over the course of the year.

Yes, football has leagues around the world, plus the World Cup and regional competitions such as the European Championships and the Africa Cup of Nations. But the World Cup comes round only once every four years. F1 is continuous, and those in commercial roles constantly boast of how positive this is.

F1 is a global sport and travels throughout cultures wide and varied © LAT

F1 is unlike so many sports in that it has a seriously high-profile combined with a single championship spread around the planet.

In commercial terms, F1 will probably presume it's doing a good job of capitalising on that. After all, sponsors get the chance of getting into China, the United States, Western Europe, Brazil - all big markets - in one hit.

But clearly, that's not as big a draw as some would have you believe. F1 is hardly beating away sponsors with a stick and the days when big teams would connect potential partners that it couldn't accommodate with other squads have long gone.

F1 simply does not make enough of its year-round internationalism. For all the talk of how important this is to F1's commercial strength, it seems to be hidden under a bushel.

For most people, where the race is happening doesn't really matter. Yes, an educated fan knows there's a big difference between individual track characteristics and will be a lot more excited about a race at, say, Spa than a circuit like Shanghai.

But this is about imbuing what F1 does with a sense of place. Diversity in circuit and event character has been choked by the rules and regulations concerning track design, timetable, podium procedures, race build-ups.

This isn't about introducing absurd gimmicks, for small touches can be enough. A good example is Pirelli replacing the traditional podium baseball caps with Stetsons at the United States GP in 2012.

Podium ceremonies were once much more disorderly © LAT

The FIA is absolutely right to impose a degree of order, because there was a time when grand prix racing was a chaotic place, which brought with it many dangers. But this doesn't have to eliminate individuality.

In the past the variety would be more obvious. Tracks would be more diverse, podium ceremonies less homogenised. And even a small detail like the on-screen graphics would give a small of place as 'schnellste runde', 'meilleur tour' or 'vuelta rapida' hailed the latest fastest lap.

You might think that's a tiny detail, but you can't argue that it provided a real sense of geography.

Such standardisation is far from unique to F1. Take the recent World Cup in Brazil. During the games, the only way to know whether you were in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janiero or Belo Horizonte was to look at the host city hoarding adjacent to the halfway line.

But there is evidence that potential hosts for such events are beginning to question their value for regional economic benefit.

After all, the 2020 European Championship football tournament will be spread around 10 stadia in different host cities.

The official reason for this is financial difficulty in Europe, but question marks over the value of putting on such a tournament also played a part. Why invest heavily in something that doesn't truly showcase your own region?

At a time when F1 is in a frenzy of self-analysis (with the tiresome blunder of insufficient research being put into understanding what it's actually trying to achieve, let alone how to achieve it) this is another area where the sport can do better.

F1 could be accused of not showcasing the places it visits during the year © LAT

It's a subtle undertaking, to communicate location. A marketing specialist would be better-placed to suggest how best to achieve this end. But one thing that would be welcome is that attempts to eliminate this much-needed individuality are dropped.

It's all well and good having clever touches like the shape of the Shanghai International Circuit being the same as the Chinese symbol 'shang', but while a clever touch, it's nothing more than that.

This isn't about having a 30-second montage from the nearest city in the race build-up, but about imbuing the whole event with genuine character.

It doesn't have to be about national stereotypes, just embracing the fact that different parts of the world are different.

Events such as the Tour de France do a superb job at showcasing the country that hosts them. Even though it's an event that has the advantage of racing through the landscape, this is something that F1 can offer to 20 places around the globe every year.

This might not seem especially relevant. Certainly, it seems little more than a trifle when it comes to the racing itself and the economic challenges facing the sport, but it is a part of F1 that has been neglected even as grand prix racing's borders have been pushed ever-wider.

It would also go some way to eliminating the feeling that F1 visits a dozen tracks in non-descript car parks during a year, on top of seven genuinely recognisable ones.

This can have a tangential effect of establishing each race weekend as an event in its own right. This year's Austrian GP, which Red Bull put a huge amount of effort into, has put many venues to shame in that regard.

Perhaps with a bit more thought, F1 races can offer much better value for money for the fans attending? Location is just a very small part of this.

After all, it's done the difficult bit by creating a truly international calendar. As is often the case, F1 is simply not making the most of its strengths.