The incredible £300m F1 track that has been left abandoned for 12 years

A Formula 1 track which cost £300 million to build has sat unused for over a decade after hosting just four races. Tomorrow, F1 returns for the 2025 season, where Lewis Hamilton will be seen in Ferrari red for the first time and Max Verstappen will aim to win his fifth world championship in a row. The season will see 24 races held across the world in countries such as Australia, Azerbaijan and Japan.

The universal appeal of the sport has seen it branch out into new territories in recent years as it seeks to maximise its commercial appeal with venues such as Las Vegas and Saudi Arabia added to the calendar in recent years. But the F1 juggernaut rolling into a nation does not guarantee the success of the sport in that country, as abandoned racetracks in places such as South Korea can testify to.

The Korea International Circuit was opened in 2013 at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds, in the attempt to grow the sport in Korea and Asia more generally.

Despite only gaining its FIA approval 10 days before the race after heavy rain had hampered construction, the inaugural race got underway, where it was won convincingly by Fernando Alonso.

Whereas F1 tracks in some countries can drive a local economy with the visitors and industry it attracts, the 120,000 capacity Korean circuit, 200 miles from the capital city Seoul failed to do so.

The reasons behind its failure to take off are hard to pin down, but some believe that the term F1 itself got lost in translation, often being confused with the popular martial art K-1.

After four races, organisers admitted defeat, meaning there never was a fifth grand prix nor a motor racing revolution in Korea.

Speaking to the New York Times in 2015, Park Bong-soon, a South Jeolla Province official said: “We started with a big dream of making lots of money. Instead, we ended up with a spectacular flop.”

It is not the first country to fail in its attempts to grow the sport, with Turkey also having cut its losses and India ceasing to stage or race or own a team as it once did.

South Korea has since talked about reigniting the country's relationship with the sport, with officials discussing the possibility of a street race in the future.

But 12 years on from its first foray, as cars, drivers and everything in between get ready to travel across multiple continents, Korea is one place, they will not find themselves.