Felipe Massa to Visit PH for FIA Sport Conference 2018

The Philippines, through the Automobile Association Philippines (AAP) with the support of the Department of Tourism (DOT), will host the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) Sport Conference 2018 and gracing the event will be former Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa.

Massa--who retired from the sport after the 2017 season, took part in 269 Grands Prix, won 11 races, had 41 podium finishes, took pole position 16 times, and set 15 fastest laps--will visit the country to take part in an electric kart demo on June 6.

For the demo, the FIA will bring in six e-karts with Massa setting a benchmark or an official time which local karters and select guest drivers have to beat.

The FIA Sport Conference will be the second time that the Brazilian driver has come to the Philippines, with the first one being as part of a promotional event with Shell in September 2013

Aside from the e-karting demo, other motorsport activities like drifting, gymkhana, and the online Gran Turismo Asian Championship Finals will be held at the SM Mall of Asia grounds in Pasay City.

The FIA Sport Conference 2018 will be the sixth in an annual series and will be the first in Asia to be held by the FIA, the governing body of all four-wheel motorsports worldwide which includes Formula 1, the World Rally Championship, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The AAP, with the help of the DOT, won the international bidding in 2017 to host the annual event from June 4 to 6, 2018.

Around 500 delegates from 245 FIA member clubs from 143 countries are expected to attend the conference. In his message to FIA member organizations, FIA President Jean Todt said that the conference will cover key topics like creating a motorsport culture in new markets, how to attract an increasingly busy young audience in a fast-changing world, and how to involve the next-generation in the future of motorsports as both fans and participants.  Other topics to be discussed are the challenges of driverless cars and alternatives to traditional cars, e-gaming as a new way to embrace the sport, and the growing social values to be implemented in motorsport.

Beside the DOT, the major sponsors of the event are Petron Corp., San Miguel Corp., SMC Asia Car Distributors, Corp. (BMW Philippines), Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc., and Philippine Airlines.