These days, if a country's wallet is big enough, it can buy a place on the Formula 1 calendar. Russia came on board last year and Azerbaijan is pencilled in for a debut in 2016.
Developing a location into an F1 venue that fans, teams and drivers love is much tougher - just ask the promoters who attempted races in Valencia or South Korea.
So perhaps they could have learned a thing or two from Monaco, one of F1's oldest and most popular venues.
Why F1's under-fire rookie is already causing surprises Sergey Sirotkin's deal to drive for Williams, at the expense of Robert Kubica, was met with a great deal of animosity, and means he'll be one of the most scrutinised drivers in F1 this season. The early signs are that he's doing everything right F1
How F1 should start and end its season The Winter Olympics kicked off last week with typical fanfare and public awe. Formula 1 could do with a piece of that action to build excitement ahead of a new season F1
Can Bottas convince Mercedes to keep him? Valtteri Bottas has another year at Mercedes, but the likes of Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo will have an eye on his seat for 2019. Will Bottas respond to that threat with the heroics that marked his early months at Mercedes, or with another slump? F1
What Raikkonen must do to shrug off laggard tag Ferrari has hinted 2018 is Kimi Raikkonen's final, final chance. The statistics suggest the pace is still somewhere within him - but can he turn around the trend of his recent seasons? F1
Will signing Vettel save Aston Martin? Racing Point's decision to hire Sebastian Vettel for the start of its new era as Aston Martin is intriguing. Lawrence Stroll's team opted to cut the emotional ties to Sergio Perez to sign a multiple champion, as the next step of a wider long-term strategy F1
How a DTM failure became an unlikely Nurburgring conqueror Opel's fortunes in the DTM had taken a turn for the worst by 2003 - hardly the pedigree that suggested it could take on the toughest 24-hour race of them all. But that's exactly what it did DTM
How the first F1 Mercedes laid the path of greatness When one of the giants of pre-war grand prix racing returned to the track in the 1950s, it did so with game-changing thoroughness. STUART CODLING examines the Mercedes W196 F1
The youngster set to end a 20-year wait for Suzuki Three podiums from the last four races have propelled Joan Mir into the fight for the most unlikely of MotoGP titles. However, there are other factors that further back up his chances of serving up Suzuki's first premier-class crown since 2000 MotoGP
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