The Motorsport Business Forum was held in Monaco last week. It threw up a few things worth talking about, but the most important thing that was brought up came from Tony Fernandes – the new “Lotus” team principle.
What Was Discussed?
He had some pretty relevant things to say regarding so-called New Media – social networking, YouTube, Digg, Twitter etc.
A select few quotes from his talk at the recent Motorsport Business Forum (for a lot more of what he said regarding F1 as a whole, I recommend the report from James Allen);
“The pace of change in social media, and the internet in general, is so fast that unless you’re prepared to break away from the shackles of the old way of doing things, you’re rapidly left behind”
“The smart organisations are trying to find a way of monetising those rights, rather than trying to create a walled garden to protect them as long as possible”
Reaction
A lot of people seem to have taken offense at the last quote about monetising and have been quick to point out that Lotus founder Colin Chapman would be disgusted, he was a true racer and money was not why he was in F1 and not why he created one of the most famous and most prestigious motorsport brands.
While I do totally understand that way of thinking and subscribe to it to a certain extent, I actually agree with Mr Fernandes. Here is someone who has come in with his new, much scoffed at version of Lotus and he has the guts to bring up New Media, which is a sore spot for a sport as rights-influenced as Formula One.
Formula One is a money-making enterprise as much as it a sport. No matter how much we as fans may bleat on about grass-roots racing, that is not going to change. So why shouldn’t we, again, as fans see some rewards and benefit from the money-making aspect of it in some way, as Fernandes discusses in the first of those two quotes.
Improving Formula One
There is so much that could be done to improve Formula One, and we all have our own ideas, but I think one of the things we could all agree on is accessibility.
So many people view Formula One (utterly wrongly but totally understandably) as an elitist, old men’s club. Too much money, to many men, too much underhand business.
It shouldn’t be like football and rugby – it is a technical, high-octane sport that travels to the ends of the earth and back again. Fans expect ticket prices to be higher, rights to be tighter and the amount of money involved in the sport itself to be spectacular. Fans also believe that Formula One should not be dumbed down or simplified, it just needs to be accessible. It can sometimes be a difficult sport to understand, in terms of both the rules and the decisions made, but if it were made easy and enjoyable to get involved with, it wouldn’t be so alienating.
People need to be able to “get to” the sport. Ticket prices are going to be higher for a sport that travels the length and breadth of the world and that offers three-day passes. And I also expect not to be able to pay for that very often! So, I would like to be able to get a feel for the race weekend from my living room.
Why aren’t there team principals on Twitter over a race weekend, why doesn’t Formula One take a WRC approach to Formula One, encouraging fans to be involved, to post videos on YouTube etc. We need more insider info shared with us, more rule-change explanations etc. And the fact that we haven’t got them is ridiculous considering the amount, the quality and size of the tools at their fingertips.
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, StumbleUpon, RSS feeds, Wikipedia, the list goes on. Bernie and his company are making a mistake. They are making a HUGE mistake by overlooking these things in the interest of commercial rights. If they want to broaden F1′s fanbase and bring in new markets and audiences, New Media is the way to do it. All these ready-made online communities that they’re not even tapping into, for fear of losing money in the short term.
Tony Fernandes was talking sense. It’s now to be seen if anyone that can do anything about it was listening.
-F1Girl
Nikki Thompson
