The Formula One world championship, once predominantly European, is becoming increasingly global.

　　The glamour sport breaks new ground this year, traveling to Bahrain for the first race in the Middle East and bringing the world's most populous nation on board with a long-awaited Chinese Grand Prix.

　　Bahrain is the third round of the championship on April 4 while China's Shanghai debut is on September 26.

　　The Gulf state has been racing against time to complete a state-of-the-art circuit in the desert before the first chequered flag of the season with next weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

　　International Automobile Federation (FIA) race director Charlie Whiting was in Bahrain last week to take a closer look at the Sakhir track. His verdict is eagerly awaited but there is no question that everyone in Formula One desperately want the newcomers to succeed.

　　F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has said repeatedly that the sport's future lies increasingly in the developing world, with a fistful of countries jockeying for position to replace races in danger of being axed as a result of European Union anti-tobacco legislation.

　　Malaysia, in 1999, was the last completely new entrant with a circuit that set the benchmark for excellence and left many of Europe's old favorites looking distinctly shabby.

　　China, a major market for sponsors and carmakers, offers the prospect of a vast audience. Ticket sales could well be the biggest yet for a Formula One race while local television viewing figures promise to go through the roof.

　　"We will get as big an audience in China this year as in Europe," said Ecclestone last month. "Then there will be Turkey in 2005, South Korea in 2009 and probably India.

　　"In the next 10 years Europe is going to become a third-world economy," added Ecclestone. "There's no way Europe will be able to compete with China, Korea, India.

　　"That's why we've been trying to do something in China for the past 10 years."

　　This year's calendar already has a record 18 rounds scheduled this year.

　　Both Bahrain and China will be lavish and highly colorful affairs. Already a string of Formula One drivers and team bosses have made their way to both venues to enthuse about the prospect of racing there.

　　"I am amazed at this place," said Eddie Jordan, when he visited Bahrain in January. "It's almost beyond description actually.

　　"It is going to provide drivers with overtaking opportunities and will, I'm sure, provide the global television audience and spectators with a sensational race."

　　Williams driver Ralf Schumacher, who could be the man spraying the winner's non-alcoholic champagne come April, said the circuit with its shaded Arabian-style grandstands was the most modern he had ever seen.

　　"The most important thing is overtaking and I've seen three opportunities for that," he said after being driven around the track. "It will be fast, challenging and very demanding."

　　Both the new circuits are the work of German designer Hermann Tilke, the man also responsible for Sepang in Malaysia, who has tried to give them a local flavor.

　　"We want to show that we're actually in the desert," he said of Bahrain in F1 Racing magazine. "So the paddock and start/finish line will resemble an oasis. The cars then disappear into the desert before returning to the oasis.

　　"Chinese culture is also rich in symbolism so we've worked with that. For example, the track itself is shaped like the sign of 'Shang' which means great or rising."

　　(The Associated Press)