Formula 1 is enjoying rapid growth in popularity because it has moved away from an economic model which targeted older, wealthier fans, according to the president of its owner, Liberty Media.
Greg Maffei was responding to criticism from former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone who has claimed the sport has become too ‘Americanised’ since Liberty bought it from CVC Capital Partners in 2016.
“Bernie has to say something,” Maffei told Bloomberg. “That’s how he operates.”
Ecclestone began his takeover of F1 in the seventies and turned it into a global sports brand which Liberty bought for $8 billion. Maffei said the sport had stagnated in its latter years under Ecclestone.
“Bernie deserves massive credit for building the sport,” he said. “He built an enormous juggernaut.
“But the reality is, it didn’t move forward, in our judgement, over the last few years and the audience has stalled. Bernie’s line was ‘I like old rich white guys to pay for the sport’.
“Our view has been that there’s an opportunity to be much broader, to bring in gender diversity, to bring in age diversity. And I think that’s worked out well. And I’m willing to take Bernie’s criticism.”
The sport is showing signs of having finally captured interest in the American market it has long coveted. Maffei said around 300,000 fans attended last weekend’s event in Miami and potential exists for far more to be accommodated in future.
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“Frankly our partners constrained the audience, constrained the attendance because they want to make sure they got it right in the first year,” he said. “I suspect it’ll be bigger in future years. There clearly was more demand.
“Now we’ve launched Las Vegas to a lot of acclaim, which will start in November ’23.”
Liberty Media been more willing than Ecclestone to spend…