Williams F1 is to be involved in the development of a 3.1-mile race track and leisure complex that is planned to be build in Incheon, Korea, by 2016. The facility will be on Yeongjong Island, close to Incheon International Airport. Lamborghini is also involved in the project. The aim is to create a venue where the new rich in Asia will be able to enjoy motor sport activity, in much the same style as the US motor racing “country clubs” that have popped up in the last 10 years.

The project is being fronted by an investment firm called Weingrow Partners which says the facility will be the “world’s first exclusive lifestyle and racing club”, a rather elevated claim given the developments mentioned above and such facilities as Aida in Japan and Ascari in Spain. The catchment market will be the 73,000 supercar owners in the region, who will all be within a few hours of Incheon by air. Membership is unlikely to be cheap.

The plan is for members to be able to drive supercars and F1 machinery provided by Williams and Lamborghini.

The plan is for an FIA Grade 1 racetrack, designed by Britain’s Apex Partners, plus a 220-room luxury hotel with restaurants, bars, conference centre and driving training facilities. The aim is to raise the funding from investors and the project will be overseen by EDG Korea, the local offshoot of the EDG company, which has created over 100 projects worldwide including involvement in Ocean Park in Hong Kong, Nanshan Cultural Tourism Resort in China, Disneyland Resorts in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris, Orlando and Anaheim, and Battery Park City and World Financial Center in New York. The Hollywood-based organisation has active projects in China, Korea, Malaysia, UAE, Egypt, and the US.

The project has the support of the Korean government and the city of Incheon which hope that the project will boost tourism.

Sounds like the perfect place for a Korean GP…