Formula 1 is much more than a motor sport. Each Grand Prix moves billions in advertising interests and investmentsthat’s why the main cities in the world they fight for having his own circuit in the championship.
In Denmark, a group of investors wants build a circuit capable of entering the orbit of Formula 1. The plan puts on the table some 510 million euros in exchange, and is proposed on the foundations of a small circuit that already exists located in Padborg, a town in the south of Denmark with only 4,393 inhabitants.
Two millionaires and the first Danish GP
Perhaps the names of Henrik Lyngbye Pedersen and his son Mathias Lyngbye Villadsen will not be familiar to you. But if we tell you that his last name comes from one of the founding members of the main Danish pharmaceutical companymaybe they give you some clue.
Both are heirs to the fortune of the brothers Harald and Thorvald Pedersenfounders of Novo Nordisk, creator of Ozempicand they have proposed an investment of 3.8 billion Danish crowns, about 510 million euros, to build a circuit with very serious aspirations.
As and how to publish Motorpassionits objective is to build a track 6,006 meters long, with 18 curves and capacity for 100,000 spectators. Along with the expansion of the current layout, it is also planned to build a hotel complex, a conference center and a karting and motocross circuit. All this with the intention that the venue does not depend solely on the celebration of one Grand Prix a year, but rather leaves the door open to other events related to the world of motorsport.
The current Padborg Park circuit is located between Padborg and Tinglev, on the land of a former airfield that opened as a circuit in 2003. Now, Henrik Lyngbye Pedersen and his son Mathias want to expand that space and officially turn it into the Denmark Circuit.
Current status of the Padborg circuit
The proposal to remodel this old airfield into a first-class circuit approved for Formula 1 It seeks to attract audiences from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, taking advantage of its proximity to the border and the connection routes with cities such as Flensburg.
Rebecca Palmberg Steele, project director, assured that “the circuit will be located in a place that is the gateway to Europe, and this project has the potential to boost both the sport, the business world and the local community,” declared the one responsible for the Danish media Børsen.
510 million to bring Formula 1 to your home
The heirs of Novo Nordisk have estimated an initial investment of 3.8 billion Danish crowns to create what would be the first circuit capable of hosting a Danish Grand Prix in the future. It is a huge investment for a facility that, until now, functioned as a minor circuit and as a training space.
The circuit design has already been assigned to the Wurz Design studiofounded by former Formula 1 driver Alexander Wurz, who already has extensive experience in the private layout design for training and competition, such as Qiddiya Speed Park Circuit in Riyadh or the RACC Driver Training Center in Madrid.
The more than six kilometers of track would place it among the longest routes in Europewhile the capacity of 100,000 people makes it one of the largest venues in the north of the continent.
However, for a circuit to host a Grand Prix, an FIA Grade 1 license is required, the highest level of homologation. The promoters of the project assure that this is the goal of the project, although they also make it clear that entering the Formula 1 calendar will not be easy since new tests are only incorporated when one of the venues stop celebrating themso the heirs of Novo Nordisk face an investment whose return is not assured.
Image | Unsplash (Marti Sierra , hannah thiel)
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