Formula 1 Grand Prix’s Champion is Both Istanbul and Hamilton

The Istanbul phase of Formula 1, the world’s biggest motorsports event has been completed. Mercedes’ British driver Lewis Hamilton has won the season’s 14th race in Formula 1 DHL Turkish Grand Prix.  The victory marks Hamilton’s fourth consecutive world championship and his 7th in total. With this win, Hamilton has also equaled Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world titles. The awards were presented by Prof. Dr. Mustafa Sentop, the Speaker of Turkish Parliament.

Last year with more than 15 million visitors, Istanbul became the 8th most attractive destination in the world and after 9 years, the city hosted Formula 1 once again. Over 2 billion people from 200 different countries watched Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix that was co-sponsored by Turkey Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA) and T.R. Ministry of Culture and Tourism. (the two founding partner sponsors)

Noting that he loves and travels to Turkey’s Southern and Aegean coasts frequently in a statement, Lewis Hamilton said that he is impressed by the history of Turkey and the fact that each city in the country has different textures. Hamilton also said that there is no better place than Turkey for championship. On his Twitter account, Hamilton shared his joy with a series of photos taken after he won the title and wrote “A day I’ll never forget”.

2 billion people watched the race on TV

The video featuring Red Bull Racing and Alpha Tauri F1 teams were filmed at various places in Istanbul including July 15 Martyr’s Bridge, Topkapi Palace and Sultanahmet Square. The video was first streamed on Formula 1’s social media accounts on Thursday, November the 12th.

Formula 1 Grand Prix promotional videos were streamed first on F1’s official social media and then on numerous TV and YouTube channels. While the video promoting the collaboration between Formula 1  and GoTurkey got more than 2 million views on Turkey’s official tourism website GoTurkey.com’s YouTube account, the F1 promotional video got more than 5 million views on Formula 1’s official social media accounts.

In addition to Formula 1, Turkey has previously hosted many global sports events, including the 2005 Champions League Final, the 2009 UEFA Cup Final, the 2010 FIBA World Basketball Championship, the 2017 Euro League Final Four, the 2019 UEFA Super Cup and most recently the 2020 WRC Rally Championship in September.