Seven of the Middle East’s Gulf states between them are investing close to $12bn in motor sport and motor sport-related business. No, that is not a misprint. It is billions, not millions, and the scale of spending is without precedent in motor sport’s hundred-plus years of history.

The huge sums involved, identified in statistics compiled for the Financial Times by the KHP consultancy group, reflect the Gulf states’ determination to use Formula One and other forms of motor sport for strategic purposes.

The region, attracted by global television audiences for F1, matched in size only by the football World Cup and the Olympics, wants to send a clear message to the rest of the world that the Gulf is strongly outward-looking, open not only for business but also for tourism and social and cultural contacts.

The other main driver for the Gulf states’ motor sport investment is a desire to draw in engineering and technology skills, along with advanced engineering companies and their associated research and development activities. Talal Al-Zain, chief executive of Mumtalakat, Bahrain’s investment holding company, says this should enable the island state to expand its own sophisticated workforce and to create the basis of a high-value manufacturing economy – helped by the fact that Bahrain has one of the Middle East’s largest aluminium smelters.

Al-Zain’s view is that there is no better teacher than F1 and its associated motor sport industry, which explains why Mumtalakat already has a 30 per cent holding in the McLaren group.

His view is shared widely among other Gulf states and also explains Abu Dhabi’s 5 per cent stake in Ferrari, Saudi Arabia’s $200m holding in the TAG/McLaren electronics group and Kuwait’s outright ownership of Aston Martin. With oil topping $100 a barrel, the Gulf is awash with the funds needed to meet its goals. They are ambitious by any standards.

The KHP statistics cover Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan. They show Dubai and Bahrain as the biggest single investment centres – with $3.77bn and $3.8bn, respectively, spent or planned. For each, business and technology parks are the biggest elements of this strategy.

In Behrain, the project is paying off. The government says last month’s Grand Prix earned $500m in visitor receipts. And on the eve of the event, RUF, the German sports car maker, unveiled its first cars in a business park adjoining the Grand Prix circuit.

In Dubai, Union Properties, one of the emirate’s biggest property developers, is creating MotorCity around its existing 5km Dubai Autodrome motor racing circuit. This 38m sq ft project, due for completion in 2009-10, is set to include an F1 theme park, race and driving schools, as well as business, residential and commercial units. Simon Azzam, chief executive of Union Properties, says it is “destined to become the hub of the region’s automotive and motor sport industry”.

In Abu Dhabi, work is advancing on an F1 circuit scheduled to stage the region’s second grand prix from next year. Together with a Ferrari theme park, the circuit is costing Abu Dhabi’s investment authorities close to $1bn.

But things are set to move faster yet. Qatar is positioning itself to host a third grand prix in the region through a $60m programme to upgrade its Losail race circuit to F1 standards.

Details of its plans emerged in April when Bahrain hosted the first motor sport business forum for the Gulf region, at which speakers such as McLaren team chief Ron Dennis, Honda chief executive Nick Fry and Prodrive’s David Richards acknowledged the region’s rapidly growing allure.

“From next year, this region will have six world-class race circuits,” Richards told an audience ranging from state holding company chiefs to Euro-pean motor sport marketing groups. “It shows that the Gulf has become a significant focal point for the motor sport industry.”

For UK government ministers and executives of the British Racing Drivers Club struggling to find the funds to allow Silverstone to keep hosting a grand prix – indeed for all the motor racing circuits of “old” Europe – this shift of F1’s tectonic plates can only be profoundly disturbing.