22/05/2018
NEWS STORY
Since Liberty Media took control of F1 in January last year it has made sweeping changes which have transformed the sport. However, the driving force behind them hasn't been clear. Until now.
Over the past year Liberty has given F1 a new logo, a ban on grid girls, an eSport series, a flashy new HQ, a theme tune and, most memorably, boxing announcer Michael Buffer who introduced the drivers at the United States Grand Prix.
Liberty insisted it was all in the best interests of the sport but Ferrari famously disagreed.
The Scuderia's chairman Sergio Marchionne warned that Ferrari will pull out of F1 if Liberty "change the sandbox to the point where it becomes an unrecognisable sandbox." Still Liberty's supporters were adamant that Liberty actually knows that F1 is all about selling racing but now we have proof that it doesn't and it comes straight from the horse's mouth.
Liberty's boss Greg Maffei is no stranger to making controversial comments. Just a few months after Liberty over F1 he said the Azerbaijan Grand Prix "does nothing to build the long-term brand and health of the business".
He subsequently described the amount paid by former F1 broadcaster NBC Sports as a "popcorn fart". The broadcaster dropped F1 months later, reportedly because it didn't want to compete with the new F1 TV streaming service - a Liberty initiative which got off to a somewhat spluttering start over the Barcelona weekend.
In light of these gaffes alone it's ironic that Maffei is the man who derided former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone for allegedly referring to race hosts as "victims". This time it is Maffei who has excelled himself and it will send chills down the spine of any F1 purist.
A report in Forbes by Christian Sylt quotes Maffei talking about the plans for a Grand Prix in Miami which is currently under discussion. "I think the Miami race is going to be great," he said. "Really good. Exciting. In city races are fun. In city races are exciting. Miami is absolutely the right kind of venue and the right kind of city. International, a great story around the sea and sand. So there will be a lot of good stuff. A hell of a party. Formula One is about selling glamour and parties."
Remarkably he was talking at a conference last week just two weeks before F1's most historic race, the Monaco Grand Prix.
The fact that some won't be surprised by his comments makes it all the more shocking and shows how much F1 has changed under its new owners. Over the course of the Barcelona weekend, the sport's commercial boss, Sean Bratches, gave his own thoughts on why F1 belongs in Miami.
"I don't know if there's a city on the planet that aligns with our brand more than Miami," he told Sky Sports. "We're both about celebrity, about glamour, about fashion. We're about art, we're about digital, technology. We both have great sporting histories, so we think it's a good brand alignment.
"We're trying to pivot Formula One from a motorsport company to a media and entertainment brand," he continued. "We're trying to be very much a fan first focussed entity, and what you're seeing today is some of the perspectives that we saw last year, and bringing some of our vision into form, so to speak.
"We're becoming a researched focus entity as well," he added. "We have sensors all around the Grand Prix which track people's wireless, determine footfall, to identify the best places to locate festival activities, merchandise tents, things of that nature. We work in the most technologically sophisticated sport on the planet so we're trying to conform some of our research in the same way."
Former supremo Bernie Ecclestone was open about the fact that F1 is competing with other forms of entertainment, and though he failed to keep up with the times, especially in terms of social media and the like, he knew that the core product he was selling as racing.
By contrast, Liberty has made it clear that F1 is about selling "glamour and parties" and the decisions it has made reflect that.
Time will tell whether the fans, teams, broadcasters and sponsors agree.