In the 2015/16 Premier League season, Leicester City defied the odds and took home the title in true David vs Goliath fashion. Rewind to the 2009 Formula One season, the Brawn GP team did it first. Formula One’s bosses Chase Carey and Sean Bratches have prioritised ‘fair racing’. Bratches said that their policy of ‘Revel in the racing’ is all about creating a better level of competitiveness. The managing director of commercial operations cited the example of Leicester City and their fairytale journey to a Premier League title. He was sad that there was no such situation in F1. Bratches felt that the back of the grid was way too far behind the front of the grid.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
He believes that the current form of racing was not based on a meritocracy. Red Bull’s success cannot be equated to Leicester’s because the Austrian outfit had invested a significant amount of capital. Meanwhile Brawn GP can thank the amount of work that went into the heavily-developed Honda programme a year ealier.
Imago
Sean Bratches
He continued. “Through costs caps, reapportionment of revenue, or governance, we’re actually going to create a better spectacle, a better racing environment, a competitive one, for fans. We went to four continents, we talked to 10 avid fans, in each continent, for seven hours over two days. Our mission statement as a company came out of this – to ‘unleash the greatest racing spectacle on the planet’.”
It has been a year since Liberty Media took over the commercial rights of F1 from CVC. “I think I’ve credited an excellent edit of senior executives with a wealth of experience to take this commercial side of the business and allow F1 to punch where its weight class is. I think it’s been under-punching to date.”
Will it work?
Can Liberty Media and Bratches’ bold plan help F1 retain the same inter-team and intra-team competitiveness? I guess we will have to wait and find out.
