More teams, more sponsors and more circuits "are all on the long-term wish-list" for Formula 1's new owners, who said that fans "will see changes already this season as part of an aggressive strategy for growth," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. Managing Dir, Commercial Operations Sean Bratches said that "every area of the business is being looked at." He said, "There will be a point in the season ... where we start to effectuate change. It’s not going to be ... where we just drop our vision one day and that’s the vision. It’s going to be a build and we are going to be very aggressive. We are going to try new things, all in the spirit of better serving Formula 1 fans." The first "small sign of change" came on Monday when teams were told they and their drivers "could post snippets of video on social media channels from inside the paddock confines" (REUTERS, 2/28).
FAN EXPERIENCE: MOTORSPORT's Anthony Rowlinson reported Bratches promised to "detonate the fan experience" as part of a long-term plan. He added that the opportunities to promote and grow F1 were "simply huge" and that a focus on digital products was the "key to greater fan engagement." Bratches: "The basis of this, if you peel everything back, is that every single thing that we're doing has to pivot around the fan. ... That engagement can come from having a sponsor engage them, the rights holder engage them, the teams engage them or the drivers engage them. And that's central to how we're looking at the business." Bratches "declined to give specifics as to how the Formula 1 Group would fulfil its aims," but he did suggest that "closer collaboration with drivers and making it easier for them to promote F1 through their own social media channels was an obvious opportunity for growth." He said, "I see the drivers as one of our strongest assets in terms of communicating, celebrating successes and amplifying controversies" (MOTORSPORT, 2/28).
