Even ahead of F1′s Singapore floatation, the sport has some new owners.

Reuters, the specialist financial market news agency, said US-based asset managers Waddell and Reed, Blackrock and Norway’s Norges Bank have bought a $1.6 billion stake from existing owners CVC.

The report cited a source “with direct knowledge of the matter”. The companies did not immediately comment.

It drops CVC’s stake from 63.4 per cent to about 40pc, the source said.

We reported on Monday that the Singapore stock exchange approved F1′s plan to raise as much as $3 billion in an initial public offering.

Other reports said pre-marketing for the listing, likely to go ahead at the end of June, will begin immediately.

“It is not our practice to publicly comment on our dealings with listing aspirants,” said a Singapore bourse spokesman.

Some insiders have expressed concern.

“Look at the muted first-day response to Facebook’s IPO,” an unnamed banker told the Singapore broadsheet Straits Times. “The F1 listing is not nearly as attractive and long-awaited as that.”

Malaysia is not yet committing its future to the formula one calendar beyond its 2015 deal.
Sepang was Hermann Tilke’s first full creation that made its grand prix debut in 1999.

But Razlan Razali, the Kuala Lumpur circuit’s chief executive, said on Wednesday he is unable to say if there will be a race in 2016.

“We can recommend all we want, but as (the) prime minister announced last year, the decision will be made by the cabinet,” he told the New Straits Times.

Sepang commissioned consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) last year to study the economic impact of the Malaysian grand prix.

“PWC advised us to have another study on this year’s event,” revealed Razali.

He also pointed some criticism at the lack of enthusiasm from some parts of the government, particularly when it comes to promoting the annual race.

“Not all ministries seem interested,” Razlan admitted.

Even if Singapore decides against extending its current F1 race contract, the Asian city-state will host at least four more grands prix.

Last month it emerged that the government was yet to decide whether to extend its current race contract beyond 2012.

Senior minister of state S. Iswaran said the government wants to “make sure the economic benefits are justifiable going forward”.

But even though Singapore’s contract expires in 2012, Formula One Administration has a five-year option to extend the deal, according to Singapore news network Channel NewsAsia and the Straits Times broadsheet.

The reports said that even if the government decides against a new contract, it will have to serve notice and host the sport until at least 2014.

Trade and Industry minister Lim Hng Kiang said in parliament on Monday that the government’s decision about F1 “will be based on an assessment of the costs and benefits to the economy over the long term”.

He said the outcome of the review might not be known for a year.

Officials of the embattled Korean grand prix are in the paddock this weekend for crisis talks with F1′s governing body.

As previously reported, Charlie Whiting did not inspect the new Yeongam circuit as scheduled earlier this week.

It was believed that September 28 had been installed as the new final inspection date, giving the organisers more time to lay the crucial final layer of asphalt.

However, according to the Associated Press news agency and the Telegraph newspaper, the official reason for the September 21 delay was an unforeseen Korean national holiday.

FIA press officer Alexandra Schieren confirmed on Saturday that talks with the Korean officials are taking place in Singapore.

She said the final inspection will now take place either next week or the week after.

Should it take place the week after next, that would leave mere days before the formula one world is due to travel to Korea.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone told Singapore newspaper the Straits Times on Saturday that Asia had become crucial to F1.

“For years and years, I have been saying the world has been moving this way — moving east, not west,” he said.

Bernie Ecclestone says he would be happy if Singapore emulated the success of its night race with an unchanged format “for 20 years”.

The F1 chief executive expressed his delight with the sold out event in the Asian city-state late on Friday at the opening of a Hublot watch boutique near the Marina Bay venue.

According to the local Straits Times newspaper, Ecclestone wants the Singapore race to stay the same until 2030 “and then see what needs to be changed”.

The 79-year-old Briton said the race is a jewel in F1′s crown and “keeps getting polished”.

He did not mention two criticisms of the event.

After practice, having seen his friend Adrian Sutil’s Force India launched spectacularly, Lewis Hamilton slammed the re-profiled turn 10 chicane as “ridiculous” and “the worst corner I’ve ever driven in formula one”.

And reigning world champion Jenson Button pointed to track drainage as a problem, explaining that long after the rain had stopped, there was “a lot of water coming up through the circuit”.

As has become the trend in Singapore this week, it has been raining once again on Saturday afternoon, prior to the evening practice session on qualifying day.

The F1 circus is generally very happy with the event, however, despite Nico Rosberg arriving back at his Pan Pacific hotel at 2pm on Friday night to find the kitchen had stopped serving dinner.

The German told AFP news agency: “The atmosphere is incredible and the concept of a night race works really well once you get into the routine of staying on European time.”