New F1 Chair Chase Carey, appointed to work with CEO Bernie Ecclestone, said that F1 "cannot be run like a dictatorship, even if many people in the sport are used to that," according Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. Carey, who took on the role as part of Liberty Media's takeover of the sport this month, said also that F1's U.S. expansion "should ultimately look at big cities" like L.A., N.Y. or Miami. He said, "Realistically what I am doing in the next few months is probably more listening to what people have to say. You cannot make everybody happy all the time, but you’ve got to understand what everybody wants and then find a path. That is not a task for a committee, as committees tend to become bureaucratic -- but there also can’t be a dictatorship, even if probably here they are used to it." Carey said he was too old to be an apprentice to Ecclestone, who has run F1 for decades, but "hopefully by working together we can figure out how to get the best out of the sport."
He reiterated that "nothing was written in stone." Carey: "Bernie is the CEO, so Bernie is going to lead it and I will work with Bernie to establish some kind of strategic plan to where you want to go" (REUTERS, 9/18). REUTERS' John O'Brien wrote Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner "believes Liberty Media's takeover of Formula One will help the sport crack the U.S. market and bring in a strategy to ensure the long-term success of motor sport's most prestigious series." Horner: "From what we've heard so far it sounds very positive. They are part of a very serious group and I can't believe that a company like Liberty would buy into Formula One at a value rumored to have been purchased at without having a long-term game plan." The Briton "is also keen to see Liberty play a leading role in Formula One's strategy in an arena where the teams are often at loggerheads over the future direction of the series." He added, "If you take a simplistic view of it, the promoter is there to promote the sport and should dictate what product they want Formula One to be" (REUTERS, 9/16).
BACK IN THE PICTURE: For AUTOWEEK, Christian Sylt wrote Leo Hindery "could be back in the picture" to put an East Coast Formula 1 race on the schedule. Carey said, "We are excited about the opportunity to continue to grow and expand in places like the Americas." The long-overdue race in New Jersey "could be in prime position to benefit from this." The race, known as the Grand Prix of America, "was announced with great fanfare in October 2011." Since the initial announcement, the F1 Group, "which holds the rights to the race series, has twice dropped the Grand Prix of America from its provisional calendar." If Liberty’s takeover of F1 gets the green light from regulators, "there is good reason why New Jersey could race back on to the agenda." Hindery "is a close contact of Liberty’s majority shareholder the billionaire John Malone." Sources describe Hindery as one of Malone’s "trusted friends" and point out that the two have a long history working together (AUTOWEEK, 9/17).
NEW OPPORTUNITIES: In N.Y., Brad Spurgeon wrote F1 "could clearly benefit from the Liberty Media deal," in particular by the cash injection of $4B that could pay off the company’s debts linked to its purchase by CVC Capital a decade ago.
F1 "is also underdeveloped in its use of social media." Having become successful through lucrative TV contracts, Ecclestone "saw no way to make money out of the internet and he made few advances in the area." Carey said, "There are multiple dimensions to developing the digital opportunities in Formula One. No question the digital platforms are essentially becoming a part of the larger video marketplace. It’s creating new competition for these rights, new opportunities to exploit these rights in different ways, to take advantage of what each of the platforms has to offer" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/16).
