Formula 1 held a China Strategic Marketing Conference at the British Embassy in Beijing on Tuesday, celebrating the 1,000th F1 Grand Prix to be held in China and "launching a series of new plans for the Chinese market," according to Andrea Huang of YUTANG SPORTS. On April 14, the F1 China Grand Prix will be held in Shanghai. F1 announced that the China GP hosting agreement was renewed through '20. In the meantime, CCTV "will once again broadcast F1 races after five years of not showing the F1 race." F1 announced for the first time a China regional sponsorship system "with the aim to develop more regional partners in China." The organization also plans to "enhance its digital media and social media presence in China and develop merchandise" (YUTANG SPORTS, 1/23). XINHUA's Michael Butterworth reported F1 Head of Global Sponsorship Murray Barnett said that the sport is "keen to establish" a second GP in China and increase the number of F1 fans in the country. Barnett said, "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." Barnett added that expanding F1's Chinese fanbase was "a priority." He said, "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" (XINHUA, 1/23).
