Ross Brawn believes F1 has lacked a proper vision of the future
Newly-announced F1 executive Ross Brawn says that the key to F1’s future health is the long-term planning that it has hitherto lacked.
The former Ferrari and Mercedes man will hold the job of managing director motorsports, and he will be joined by former ESPN executive Sean Bratches, who will be managing director commercial operations. Brawn has been working quietly as an advisor for Liberty. He believes that fans want to see close racing with simplified rules.
“I’m majoring on the sporting side,” he told BBC radio. “What I want to develop along with all the other stakeholders in F1, the teams, the FIA and so on, is to get a vision of where we want to be in the next few years. Because I feel and I know from experience that F1 tends to be reactive. It had a problem it reacts and tries to find a solution, but very rarely has the vision of looking forward three to five years and deciding where it wants to be.
“So I think we know what fans want, they want entertainment, they want close racing, they want to be able to understand what’s going on. And I think everyone agrees on that. It’s finding the path with all the other teams and all the other people involved to achieve that.”
Brawn acknowledged that the rules, and the races, are too complicated.
“I think simplicity is a key objective for the future. I’ve watched F1 for the last few years as a spectator, and there are times where even I haven’t been sure what’s been going on in the race. And it’s a great sport, it’s a fabulous combination of the drivers and their personalities, their competition, and the cars and the whole thing. And we just need to look at it and see how we can improve the show.
“I think [the fans] want racing, and we haven’t seen too much of that. We’re seeing a great competition between two drivers in the same team for the last few years, and that’s no fault of Mercedes. They’ve done a fabulous job. I think the fans want racing, they want to understand what’s going on in the race.
“There’s different types of fans of course, and that’s where the complication comes. There are fans who come to the races, there’s the fans who watch TV, there’s the fans who watch through other media. It’s finding a balance between all of those requirements. We want the race, for instance, to be as big a show as we can make it, so when you come to a race for a weekend you’re entertained from beginning to end.”
Brawn insisted that the British GP and other traditional races will remain at the heart of the calendar.
“I think Silverstone is very important. I think the core of F1 is the tradition. A lot of the new circuits are very exciting and they bring their own element to F1, but they’re in it because they want to be part of that show that includes Monaco, includes Silverstone, includes Monza, includes Hockenheim or Nurburgring. You’ve still got to retain those traditions to have the values of F1. All of the promoters are under pressure, and over the next period we’ve got to review all of it and see what can be done.”
Regarding Bernie Ecclestone’s departure, he said: “He’s going to be there to give us advice and be a reference if we need some extra support. I think it’s the end of that era, and a different structure, a different approach for the future.
“Liberty Media, the new owners of F1, perhaps they see a different approach as being the next stage. Bernie is unique, the way Bernie built up F1 could never be emulated. He ruled over a unique era of F1. But he’s 86 now, and there comes a time when you move into the next phase.”
