About a year ago, Liberty Media Company bought Formula 1 and ousted longtime CEO Bernie Ecclestone. But since Liberty took over F1, it hasn’t made any drastic changes to the sport. According to Sean Bratches, Liberty’s head of commercial operations, that’s intentional.
Speaking to Racer, Bratches said Liberty plans to instead take a slower, more deliberate approach, keeping quiet about changes until it has a fully formed plan it’s ready to implement.
“I think if you look at this year, I think we’ve accomplished a significant amount in terms of building an organization and starting the process,” Bratches said. “This is a journey and not a destination. We have great aspirations for this sport. It’s not something that you can just flick a switch and things happen. Things need to be invested in and nourished and brought to market, and I think you will continue to see a case of announcements, of changes, the broadening of fan touchpoints in terms of how we are going.”
That doesn’t, however, mean we won’t see any changes over the next season. Liberty is simply prioritizing new ideas that are easier to implement quickly, like improving fan access.
“On the commercial side, we will be launching, for the first time, a responsive web platform, social capabilities, a live and non-live OTT service,” said Bratches. “We were [in Abu Dhabi] until one in the morning crowning the first champion in the Formula 1 eSports.”
As for the bigger changes that fans might be hoping to hear about, Liberty will announce them when they’re ready.
“There is more to come and we are working on those plans, but we are not going to sit here and numerate what all our visions are for the sport,” he said. “We are working hard and when we have something to announce, we will let all of you know, but I can assure you that we are going 24/7 and working to the end to make the sport as great as it can be because we believe there is a huge opportunity.”
Source: Racer