10 questions with Singapore GP’s Colin Syn and Michael Roche, as night race looks back on last decade

SINGAPORE — From dispelling perceptions that Formula 1 was only for “westerners”, to building a street circuit in downtown Singapore from scratch, Singapore GP bosses Colin Syn and Michael Roche have seen it all in the past decade working on the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.

Mr Syn, 71, is deputy chairman of race promoter Singapore GP, and Mr Roche, 60, is its executive director as well as managing director of Lushington Entertainment.

Both men were part of the consortium led by Singaporebusinessman Ong Beng Seng that brought F1 to Singapore 10 years ago — beginning with a trip with government officials to the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, followed by negotiations with then F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone untiltheir efforts came to fruition two years later.

The dynamic duo share their experiences working on the “crown jewel of F1” in an email interview with TODAY.

Q: Singapore has hosted the Grand Prix for the last 10 years. When you look back at the race over the last decade, what are some of your proudest moments?

Mr Roche: There are so many proud moments. The whole Formula 1 experience allowed us to present what is the modern Singapore: Much more ambitious, dynamic, colourful, with a can-do mentality, and to show how an East-meets-West city can really present itself.

It allows people to feel proud that they are associated with it —I believe it is the largest and most successful event in all of Asia on the annual calendar.

Mr Syn: Every year is a proud moment for me. And every year, we have managed to do different things: New suites, new ideas for the paddock...we try to be different and not stick to the old routine.

Q: What challenges have you and your team faced over the last 10 years?

Mr Roche: The challenge was taking over a downtown, modern city and saying, "Can we borrow it for a couple of weeks and build a circuit for 100,000 people and a motor racing track, and put up 50-60 restaurants and clubs and bars? And then, by the way, we need 80,000 people in grandstands… and then we need a pit building, a race track, a perimeter, a media centre…". It was completely daunting.

The challenges were enormous: Stakeholder management, working with more than20 government agencies, having to interface with people at very senior levels in the police, the army, counter-terrorism, transport etc. The first two years, it was (as if) we all spoke different languages. But now, generally, we’re all on the same train going in the same direction, and we have a bit of confidence that we largely know what we’re doing.

Mr Syn: The biggest challenge for us is the weather. It can be very hot, it can rain every day. Two or three days of rain and we are behind, we have to catch up.

Q: In 2006, the team arranged for a contingent of Singapore government officials to visit the Monaco Grand Prix. How hard was it to convince the Government to get involved in a race of such scale?

Mr Roche: It was an interesting one. Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had given an indication that he thought we were ready. Once we had his blessing, it was easier.

Hats off to Singapore and the Singapore Government.It was a very bold move, taking out the centre of your city and saying, “Let’s get on with it”.

Then you always have people who say, “Oh, (F1’s) for the Westerners”, or, “It’s for rich people” — all nonsense. People come from all different parts of the world, from different income levels.

Mr Syn: Not everybody is a motorhead! So we had to bring all the government agencies in to have a look at what F1 is all about. At the time, the closest street race was Monaco, a pure street race just like what we were proposing. They had to see how difficult it was to close roads, build barriers, inconvenience daily traffic — that’s a big challenge. To educate them to accept that, if you want F1 (in Singapore), there are sacrifices to be made and people have to be inconvenienced. There’s no other choice.

Q: Mr Syn, you also played a key role in negotiations between the consortium and Formula One Management. What was that like?

Mr Syn: Once the Government was convinced that it was the right direction to go, things moved very quickly with (former F1 boss) Bernie Ecclestone. He’s tough, he’s an old hand, he knows which country to go to and when. He favoured Singapore very much.

Q: Did you think then that you would succeed in bringing F1 to Singapore?

Mr Syn: I had been dreaming of Formula 1 for more than 20 years before we did it. I met Ecclestone in the late 1980s and proposed a fixed circuit. So it’s a blessing in disguise we waited 20 years to have it again!

I think we would have a white elephant today if we had (built) a fixed circuit. Having the first race was the proudest moment of my life, because I had been chasing after it for 20 years.

Q: What kind of impact do you think the Grand Prix has had on Singapore, when it comes to motor racing and Formula 1?

Mr Syn: We have a small record of motor racing in Singapore on a street circuit in the 1960s, so it’s a revival. It was very successful in its heyday, but the scale (then) was much smaller.

As always, you will have people against it but, on the whole, we have the backing of Singaporeans and we are very happy with that support.

Q: What mark have we left on F1, and the way races are held and organised?

Mr Roche: I worked well with Bernie. He gave me a tough time for the way that I promoted what he called his event. It took people two or three years to get what we were doing and where we wanted to go with it.

The blueprint that we worked with, they have adopted and pushed many other people to take that on. That puts pressure on us to then get into the next gear, stay ahead of the curve and stay up front.

My Syn: It’s a big plus for us.We put ourselves on TV to the world. We are a small dot in South-east Asia, a tiny dot, so it’s fabulous for the branding of Singapore. People from far corners of the world now know where Singapore is. And this has really enhanced the reputation of Singapore as a country that makes things happen.

Q: There are, however, critics who feel that people buy tickets to F1 only to watch the entertainment acts, and that it has not made any impact in promoting F1 and motor racing. What are your thoughts?

Mr Roche: Singapore is land-scarce — we do not havea big race track. I believe that if we had a big race track, there would be a lot of people who would want to use it. We’ve worked tremendously hard on community engagement with all the schools and colleges. I’ve worked with the Institute of Technical Education, bringing 1,200 kids to work on the race and be involved in it.

Do wesuddenly have an F1 driver who’s going to pop up? It’s going to happen: I think Asia will get more opportunities to develop racing drivers in the future.

It’s the cross-fertilisation (of racing and entertainment) that’s worked well.

In the modern world, things can’t be too singular any more. You have to give a broader experience. We say we’re (an event) for seven-year-olds to 77-year-olds and that’s what we’ve always done.

Mr Syn: I don’t agree (with the critics). Coming back to Singapore, we don’t have a strong history of motor racing, we’re not a city that manufactures cars. Other countries like England have so much racing activities going on, but we don’t. But, for me, F1 entertains the people of Singapore.

And the Government is special: Not only do theysupport us, they also arrange business conferences and activities dovetailing with the Grand Prix. Pre- and post-race, there are so many business activities, with business leaders of the world all converging in Singapore — that’s one of the main advantages. And there are so many things to do other than Formula 1 — it draws people into town with all the extra activities.

Q: What more can Singapore GP do to engage Singaporeans and the community?

Mr Roche: You have to stay current, you can’t rest on your laurels.You must give value for money. People don’t mind spending if you give them value for money. They hate it if you charge high and don’t deliver.

Mr Syn: We can keep refreshing the event. We do engage the community: We give talks at schools, we have roving trucks fitted out with race simulators at community centres, we organise a free pit lane walk a day before the gates open. The only setback for Singapore is that the weather is very hot! That’s why we are lucky to have a night race, because things cool down in the evening and everybody can enjoy the outdoors.

Q: What do you envision the Singapore Grand Prix will be like in 10 years’ time?

Mr Roche: There are limitations to what we can do with the circuit unless we move some of the landmarks around! Some people have suggested moving. But why would you move from an AAA location to a B location just because you’vemore space?

It’s about being topical, bringing in new names and a new feel, new ticketing products, new initiatives in our hospitality. That’s human nature. People always want to know what’s new, and you’d better make sure you’vesomething new to offer.

Mr Syn: I can’t look so far ahead! But, for the next four years, we will continue to entertain the people. F1 itself is evolving continuously. The technical aspects will be quite fascinating, and we will see the cars improve year on year.

CORRECTION: In the previous version of the story, Mr Roche was named as managing director of Live Nation Lushington. Singapore GP has clarified that the company's name is Lushington Entertainment.

*Tune in to Mediacorp’s coverage of the Singapore Grand Prix from 14-16 Sep, liveon oktoSports andToggle.

14 Sep, Fri

1st Practice Session

From 4.30pm, liveon oktoSports & Toggle

2nd Practice Session

From 8.30pm, liveon oktoSports& Toggle

15 Sep, Sat

3rd Practice Session

From 6pm, liveon oktoSports & Toggle

Qualifying

From 8.55pm, liveon oktoSports& Toggle

16 Sep, Sun

Race Day

From 7.45pm, liveon oktoSports & Toggle