The Online Citizen A Community of Singaporeans
This year’s Formula One (F1) season started with the first race held in Melbourne, Australia on the 26th of March. For those who are unaware, F1 is the highest class of single-seat auto racing that is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).
Savings platform CupoNation took the opportunity to analyze and compare the prices of entry tickets across the countries to see where it is less expensive to live the F1 experience, and has good news for F1 fans in Singapore!
Malaysia has the cheapest tickets worldwide
Attending a F1 race in the Southeast Asia region is generally cheaper by 22% than in Europe and 43% than in the Americas. Malaysia is by far the cheapest destination at a global level with a price of S$33.14 for a 3-day general admission. China and Hungary are the next cheapest options, with S$63.95 and S$146.82 respectively.
Taking the average country monthly salary into account, Austria is the best country to be for F1, as a 3-day ticket costs only 3.07% of the local salary. Canada follows with 3.5% while Malaysia stays on the top 3 with 3.55%.
As to Singapore, it is ranking rather in the middle, both in terms of nominal price and percentage of the ticket price on the monthly salary. At S$274.16, the 3-day ticket accounts for 5.6% of the average monthly income.
Malaysia is this year’s destination for savvy Singaporeans
In November 2016, Malaysia announced that it is not going to renew the contract for hosting the F1 races from 2018 onwards. With the final flag waving for our neighbouring country late September (the race in Malaysia is on the 1st of October) and given the low cost of the ticket to attend the F1 race there - it is actually 8 times less expensive than in Singapore - Malaysia is the place to be for this year’s Formula 1 races.
Mexicans have to pay 80.25% of their monthly salary if they want to attend F1
Mexico is the least affordable country to visit the F1 for its residents, as at S $398.20 the ticket accounts for 80.25% of the local average salary. The most expensive ticket is to be found in the United Arab Emirates at S $574.12 accounting for 20.26% of the local income, while Russia, UK and Monaco are also in the top 5 most expensive destinations. In fact, in Monaco you are likely to spend even more, as free practice is on Thursday and Saturday instead of Friday and Saturday, which means you will have to book an extra night in the city’s expensive hotels.
About the study
Prices were taken for tickets for admission all 3 days - either 3-day ticket or addition of daily tickets: the cheapest option was taken into account. Prices taken in USD as of april 12th 2017 on the official F1 website and then converted to SGD. The source for the average income per country was the International Labor Organization report, while for Monaco the estimate was taken from Numbeo.