Romania will advertise its tourism brand at the Formula 2 race in Abu Dhabi this week, where 21-year old Romanian driver Mihai Marinescu (in picture) will compete for the Italian team Rapax. The race, the final of the GP2 Series, will start on November 10 on the Yas Marina circuit and end on November 13. Romania's tourism campaign logo and slogan will be displayed on Marinescu's car and equipment, similarly to the Monza race in October, where the Romanian ranked first.

“We have chosen Mihai to promote Romanian tourism through the F2 competition because the sports audience indicators show car races rank second in audience. Moreover, the public who watches this type of show it is also the public we target – they travel a lot and are opinion makers, while the countries where the championship takes place are important markets for Romanian tourism: Austria, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Hungary,” said Romanian Tourism Minister Elena Udrea.

Romanian Mihai Marinescu ranked 10th in the final top of the 2010 racing season. He got podium positions three times this year, when he won the Monza race and got the third place in the Barcelona race. He currently ranks 5th in the overall top. He got TV attention and his close-ups made 10 percent of the live broadcasts, according to the Tourism Ministry.

Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Mihai-Marinescu.ro)