In the year since Liberty Media took the reins of Formula One much has gone on behind the scenes to turn the global championship into a professional organisation worthy of the sport's reach. In the London headquarters, sizeable content and digital teams are being put together, and the sport has a centralised marketing department for the first time in its history.
The 2018 season will see several more fan events along the lines of last year's popular London Live, with city centre spectacles planned for Shanghai, Miami, Berlin, Marseille, and Milan. There are expected to be changes to the amount of filming allowed in the paddock, with promoters given more scope to publicise their grands prix, and F1 is making a concerted effort to link promoters with local partners with a view to making races more financially sustainable and locally engaged.
But all of these efforts -- plus the ongoing development of new multimedia platforms, apps, and engagement tools -- has come at a cost. Headcount has grown along with expertise, and promotional spending has meant that team payments are down, leading to some discontent over the winter.
Ahead of the 2018 season, ESPN sat down with F1 CEO Chase Carey to discuss the challenges ahead and F1's immediate goals for their sophomore year in the sport.
Does F1 need dictatorship or leadership?
F1 in 2017 was more energetic, more open. But it was also a honeymoon year, a period in which the incomers were given room to find their feet. This season, however, expectations are high -- there are circuit contracts to be renewed, new regulations to discuss and develop, and a new series of agreements between teams and commercial rights holder to begin framing and negotiating.
There is also the spectre of a Ferrari rebellion, schisms over cost cutting and budget caps, and a lot of politicking going on in the background. Carey's approach is to lead, not dictate.
"This sport is a big ecosystem," he said. "You've got the promoters, you've got the sponsors, you've got broadcasters and then other select partners, and we've talked about building a partnership. There are always going to be issues we have to deal with with any one of those constituencies. We really do want to build partnerships, and that requires spending time to engage, express the issues, to try and understand what are their concerns, what are their problems, what do we want to do, how do we find things to do together?
"Decisions aren't democracy of making a vote. Getting input and feedback from others is not the same consensus -- I think it's making informed decisions. Bernie and I used to have this debate: he said the sport needs a dictator, and I said, no, the sport needs a leader. What a dictator does is make decisions and doesn't care if everybody is grumbling behind. I think a leader feels people have had an opportunity to have input and then hopefully you have more of a following.
"If you're trying to create a partnership and trying to have people working together to a common goal, I think it's important that they feel that they have a voice in it and you talk.
"We had a meeting two weeks ago. We had all the promoters in from around the world and they've obviously been expressing concerns about costs and other issues and we're dealing with it, engaging with it. They said it was the first time they'd all been together in a room. The first time they had an opportunity to hear about the things we're trying to do to grow and expand the sport, as opposed to just doing things and everybody grumbling. Their issues haven't been considered, they haven't had a chance to be heard... I don't think it's the healthiest way to try to grow the sport."
Improving the racing
Since taking the helm of F1 Carey has been explicit about his intention to keep business behind closed doors until deals are done. Liberty have made a point of announcing achievements, not leaking teasers of things to come. But one clear aim is to improve the action on track.
"At the end of the day there's a lot of stuff we want to build around [the sport], but it's all built on having great racing at the track. Everybody we've talked to on the motorsport side I think would agree our racing should be more competitive, with more action, and probably less predictable.
"Every time somebody told me this track we're going to is bad for passing, my first reaction -- I'm a neophyte in this -- would be, 'well, then create three spots that are good for passing'. And I know it's not that simple, but we've got to solve it. If we want competition, action and less predictable races, then we've got to dig in. We're obviously midstream in that, and as you get to the specifics there are always going to be differing views on how do you achieve it.
"I think there's an alignment on the broad-based goals but clearly, when you have as many parties as we do, you'll have a range of views. Therefore we have to engage with the teams, with the FIA, with the constituents that are involved in making the sport on the track be everything it can and should be for fans. I mean, that's why you race. You don't race for the teams to go out there in a vacuum, you race to create something, create an event that is engaging and spectacular for fans."
Dealing with Ferrari's quit threat
One of the biggest adjustments of the 2017 F1 season was getting used to an administration that avoided airing its laundry -- dirty or clean -- in public. Far from the slings and arrows we had become used to, F1's new owners simply got on with business and announced achievements as and when they happened.
It has made for a more peaceable environment, even as it has reduced F1's tabloid impact.
One of the most anticipated political stories of the season is the expected manoeuvring over the next round of Concorde negotiations, with manufacturers and teams flexing their muscles so as not to cede ground to the new owners. But Carey would not be drawn on the Ferrari quit threat, instead redirecting conversation to the action on track.
"It's great to have Ferrari. They're the brightest light in the sport and they've got fans around the world. Obviously them [being competitive] last year was great. I don't cheer for them any more than I cheer for anybody else, but they're a great team with a great following. Clearly, when a team that has the following they do is competitive it adds a level of excitement. But I think if McLaren was also [competitive], you'd also have a level of excitement.
"Go back to the sport on the track. I don't think it's as competitive and the action is as good -- it's gotten too perfect. Something that makes competition interesting is mistakes or errors. If nothing ever goes wrong, you can admire the fact that nothing goes wrong but it doesn't create the most exciting and dramatic outcome. At the core for fans we want to create a product that delivers everything they grew up with, if not more.
"I don't think you'll get a transformation that all of a sudden you've got ten equal teams competing. Last year we had three here and seven there. I hope it is competitive as it can be, but at least within that I hope you get some things that create more drama and excitement. We had some of that particularly between two teams last year, but we need to have it on a broader level."
Asked about an F1 future without Ferrari, Carey was loath to speculate. "I'm not going to get into hypotheticals. Ferrari is uniquely important to the sport and we want them to be part of the sport."
And Mercedes?
"Same thing. We want Mercedes. Our existing teams, we value them all. We'd like to achieve the things they've talked. Our goal isn't to change teams, our goal is to make the sport better and the business better for them. But I'm not going get into that. I believe that's our goal, and I think at this point we'll focus on trying to get there in a way that enables us to achieve what is our overriding goal above all else -- to make the sport great for fans."
Attracting new teams
Carey would not be drawn on Concorde Agreement negotiations, preferring as he does not to do business in public, and spoke instead of F1's goals for affirming the future health of the sport.
"I want healthy teams and I want a healthy sport. That's the goal. Our goal is to have a healthy sport for fans and a healthy sport for teams. It should be balanced. There should be rewards for success and failure and the like, but I think today I don't think it's... The business model we've got really isn't as healthy as it should be for teams. The economics are too difficult for too many teams to play and I think we need to make that better. I don't want to get into petty words that are implying 'how do you make that better', but I think we want to make it a better business for teams.
"I want new teams to want to want to come in, whether they do or not. The fact that nobody bought Manor for a dollar is not a good thing. You shouldn't have a team that nobody would buy. And that's important to me for the existing players. You should have a sport that people want to be a part of, and obviously we can't say that.
"It was before we took ownership, not that we would have fixed the Manor thing -- that's a bigger set of problems. But you shouldn't have a sport where nobody wants to buy an existing team for a dollar. That was a year and change ago. I think it's less 'do I want new teams', but I do think we and the existing teams want new teams to want to come in."
Does it matter if interested teams are privateers or manufacturers?
"I think they're both important. Obviously manufacturers have a unique role in the sport. We've got four engine suppliers now, not only three, but clearly manufacturers are important, they're an important element. When people talk about who enters, they're in many ways manufacturers. It doesn't mean others can't, but when people say 'who would be the obvious participants?', if you look at the people who historically have been in the sport who've gone out of it, certainly the majority are manufacturers."