The new chief executive of Formula One, Chase Carey, wants to turn each of the sport’s 21 races into a “Super Bowl” and has reiterated the importance of a British Grand Prix to the calendar.
Carey, who is now in charge of F1 after Bernie Ecclestone’s exit on Monday night, has stressed the importance of the classic European venues while emphasising that the new owner, Liberty Media, intends to expand the sport’s appeal.
He wants to make the sport “bigger, broader and better”. Carey said: “We have 21 races – we should have 21 Super Bowls. They should be week-long extravaganzas with entertainment and music, events that capture a whole city.”
After Silverstone voiced fears over the cost of hosting grands prix and considered dropping the meeting, he said: “We will have a British Grand Prix. The foundation of the sport is western Europe.”
Carey identified Monaco, Monza, the Hockenheimring and the Nürburgring as part of fundamental attractions and said: “You have still got to maintain those traditions to have the values in F1.”
Charging hosting fees to circuits are a key revenue stream for F1 and, notably, Carey stopped short of suggesting races could be made more affordable for tracks. Instead, he suggested Liberty would be aiming to make meetings more financially successful – which is not the news circuits or fans may have been hoping for.
He warned, though, that there is much work to be done. "We have great stars, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, " he said. "But we have zero people in marketing and we don't have a connection on digital media. We have to do a better job of enabling fans to connect to our stars." He added: "In the last four or five years the sport really has not grown to its potential."
Carey also emphasised his desire to host another race in the US, citing New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Las Vegas as destination cities “where people would come for a week-long event, with the race at the centre”.
(Guardian service)
