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F1 aims for immersive fan experience, but will not neglect its history: Carey

SINGAPORE — Fancy being in the driver’s seat of a Formula 1 race car as it blazes around a track? That could soon be a reality, if the sport’s supremo, Mr Chase Carey, has his way.

SINGAPORE — Fancy being in the driver’s seat of a Formula 1 race car as it blazes around a track? That could soon be a reality, if the sport’s supremo, Mr Chase Carey, has his way.

Mr Carey, whose Liberty Media acquired F1 for US$8 billion (S$10.8 billion) last year, wants to bring fans as close to the sport as possible and the use of digital technology is one of those ways to do that as they look to grow the fan base.

Speaking at a media roundtable at the F1 paddock yesterday, Mr Carey reiterated that Liberty is committed to finding new ways to bring the sport’s uniqueness across to fans.

“At the heart of it, for us it’s all about engagement of the fans, whether it is at a live event, or more realistically, for the vast majority, it’s engaging them on platforms around the world,” said the 63-year-old American.

“We are not going to be able to put 400 million fans on the track, but what technology does increasingly is let you bring them closer and closer to it.

“We want to get you as close as if you are sitting there in the driver’s seat, or you are sitting there in the team principal’s chair, seeing everything they see ... like when Lewis Hamilton is trying to see what’s coming as he’s making some of these turns.”

Such experiences can be made possible through partnerships with companies such as Tata Communications, the official connectivity provider to F1, whose managing director and CEO, Mr Vinod Kumar, is excited at the possibilities that technology can bring.

“Our association has been great both from a brand perspective but equally from a technology perspective,” he said at the roundtable.

“We believe that as Chase and his team reimagine F1 and take it to new audiences in different formats, technology will be at the heart of it ... (we are) doing a lot of things with IoT (Internet of things), VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality), all of which we think are very useful elements that can help take this relationship even further.

“I think with the direction and vision that’s been established, we will see the race experiences transformed significantly in the coming years.”

However, Mr Carey was unable to give a timeline as to when fans can expect to see such technologies being implemented, saying only that they are currently “building the platforms”.

“We are building on a relatively clean slate and we want to make sure we do it right,” he said.

“Three or four months ago, there were only three of us, Sean (Bratches, commercial operations managing director), myself and Ross (Brawn, motorsport managing director), and now we are filling up a team that can work with Tata and develop ideas.

“We want to make sure it’s accessible, easy to use and tailored to the right (audiences) — the casual fan can get it in a way that works for them and the hardcore fan can (too).”

Mr Carey is also aware that even as F1 seeks to attract a younger generation of fans, it has to continue to deliver the quality it has been known for throughout its 67-year old history.

“At the end of the day we’ve got to make sure our races are entertaining, have great competition and action ... (and that) at every level, the sport continues to have freshness to it,” he said.

“You don’t want to let history be a trap that sort of prevents you from continuing to energise and innovate; you have to figure out how to respect that but not be bound by it.

“(But) you’ve got to be careful with change because you want to bring in new fans, but we’ve (also) got hundreds of millions of core fans ... The core challenge is to realistically to make sure the sport, first and foremost, delivers on all the things it should to do to excite and engage fans.”

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