F1 cannot be a dictatorship, says new chairman

By REUTERS | 19 September 2016


LONDON: Formula One cannot be run like a dictatorship, even if many people in the sport are used to that, according to the new chairman appointed to work with commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Chase Carey (pic), who took on the role as part of Liberty Media's takeover of the sport this month, said also that Formula One's US expansion should ultimately look at big cities like Los Angeles, New York or Miami.
The primary concern, however, was building long-term value and investing in the future.

"Realistically what I am doing in the next few months is probably more listening to what people have to say," he told the official formula1.com website before Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix.

"You cannot make everybody happy all the time, but you've got to understand what everybody wants and then find a path," added the American.

"That is not a task for a committee, as commitees tend to become bureaucratic - but there also can't be a dictatorship, even if probably here they are used to it." Carey, former executive vice-chairman of Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, said he would be working for Formula One and not Liberty.

He saw opportunities for stepping up investment "in all sorts of areas" including marketing and new digital platforms as well as making tracks more exciting.

Carey said he was too old to be an apprentice to Ecclestone, who has run Formula One for decades, but "hopefully by working together we can figure out how to get the best out of the sport." He reiterated that nothing was written in stone.

"Bernie is the CEO, so Bernie is going to lead it and I will work with Bernie to establish some kind of strategic plan to where you want to go," he said.

Ecclestone separately told Sky Sports television that he did not see a problem with the new chairman.

"We will work together. He has got expertise that I haven't, we need to be in America, he knows America, he knows television and he can help us a lot. So I'm sure that is what is going to happen," said the 85-year-old.
He indicated, however, that he would not stick around regardless.

"Thank God at the moment I don't quite need the money, I don't need a job and if by chance things aren't going the way I think would be the right way then I will disappear for sure," said the Briton.

In a related development, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) is to investigate an incident that saw cars cleared to race while a marshal was still on track following a Singapore Grand Prix safety car period on Sunday.

Autosport.com quoted a spokesman saying procedures were not "properly executed" by the clerk of the course and team of officials.

The marshal was helping remove track debris after the safety car was deployed at the end of the first lap following Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg's crash into the pitwall at the start. The cars were released again at the start of lap three but, despite race control confirming three times with the clerk of the course that the track was clear of people and material, a marshal was still out there.

Pictures showed him sprinting to the side of the circuit as the field, led by the Mercedes' race winner Nico Rosberg, bore down on him.

"It was very dangerous," Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff told reporters. "I'm really happy it ended up with nobody being hurt." The Austrian said race control had been asked to re-start races sooner, rather than cars having to spend too long behind the safety car, and that request had been heard. Rosberg said the incident had been "pretty hairy".

Last year, a lone intruder ambled across the floodlit track midway through the race and then strolled by the metal fences as cars came past.

A 27-year-old British national was later sentenced to six weeks in jail for breaching the security fences.

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