8
Television personality Jeremy Clarkson has a message for new owners of Formula 1, Liberty Media. Liberty completed their takeover of F1 at the start of the year and look to change up it's structure to entice fans, with Chase Carey, Ross Brawn and Sean Bratches now the most powerful figures in the sports' ruling.
Clarkson, who currently presents The Grand Tour is a life-long F1 fan and says that he was holding out hope for former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone but perhaps it was time that he departed the sport.
"I had some time for Bernie in the end actually," said Clarkson. "But it's probably a good thing that he's gone and that's it's now going to be run as a show and not as just some tool for making already very rich men a little bit richer."
Clarkson said that an American takeover may prove necessary for F1 as they have techniques to get fans interested, pointing at American stock racing series NASCAR as an example.
"Because Chase is American, there’s no question that the Americans have a sense of theatre about them," he explained. "Think whatever you do of NASCAR, they can fill 250,000-seater stadiums, which no other sport on Earth can do.
"Formula One, the rich old men who run it, just need to be told that it’s for the fans. The only thing that will get the fans watching and therefore the sponsorship money rolling in again is excitement, and I think the Americans understand that so I'm hoping and praying that they bring it back."
Fergal Walsh
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
He has a point