Zak Brown claims that every of the present ten F1 groups is price “north of £1bn”.
The declare comes weeks after F1 formally rejected Andretti’s bid to hitch the grid, McLaren being considered one of solely two groups that publicly supported the American outfit’s bid.
There isn’t any doubt that F1 totally reaped the advantages of the pandemic, as folks in lockdown all over the world discovered Drive to Survive to be the right means to whereas away the hours.
Additionally contributing to the game’s rise in prominence was the truth that it was finally capable of scrape collectively a reasonably significant calendar, even when the vast majority of the tracks that had been referred to as upon to rescue the collection are probably by no means for use once more.
Boosted by a complete new military of followers, a big majority of whom are feminine, the game has seemingly gone from power to power, and because the busiest season in F1’s 75 12 months historical past continues, Brown is assured that issues can solely get higher.
“Half the grid is worthwhile,” he advised a Bloomberg occasion in Jeddah. “They weren’t 5 years in the past.
“What Liberty is eager to do is shield the worth of the ten groups that exist,” he added. “Within the pre-Liberty period you had groups falling away. Now within the Liberty period, there are groups lining up that wish to get into the game. So I believe Liberty is simply seeing how, when and if they need groups to enter.”
In fact, Brown seems to overlook that at one level it regarded like even McLaren would possibly “fall away”, however fortunately the Bahrainis had been they to supply a a lot wanted monetary security internet.
Whereas Brown believes that ten groups is sufficient, the standard over amount argument does not stretch so far as his perception that the game might deal with extra races, and whereas the present Concorde Settlement limits the variety of occasions annually, in a bid to carry extra fee-busting host tracks on board, a number of the present occasions might be rotated.
“If we would have liked to dial up a number of extra races, I might say Asia is a vital territory,” he stated. “If we had extra markets to enter, I might say a race in Asia, India, South Africa. That may actually give us a worldwide footprint.”
Reasonably than a sport that had for many years exuded ardour, bravery, technological genius and pleasure, it truly sound extra like he is selling a hamburger chain.
