Chase Carey: “Don’t be trapped by a narrow, short-term view”

The takeover of F1 by Liberty Media does not yet seem to have borne fruit on a purely financial level. Chase Carey, head of the American entity, explains that the project aims for the long term rather than immediate results.

Published on 16/11/2018 à 16:17

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Chase Carey: “Don’t be trapped by a narrow, short-term view”

Like any massive investment procedure, the repurchase of the F1 by Liberty Medium must be accompanied by financial results in line with the expectations of the initial investors. And it is clear that Liberty Media has not yet completely convinced.

Asked about this point, Chase Carey, managing director of Liberty Media, relies on the long term to justify strategic decisions. “We expect the 2019, 2020, 2021 seasons to represent steps forward after two years during which we laid the foundations to build, even rebuild, F1, says Carey.

We are on a multi-year project with initial investments that are starting to bear fruit. We still have a lot of ideas in the works. We do not want to find ourselves trapped by a narrow and short-term vision.

When you acquire a company, you always discover a few surprises, whether it be in terms of a race (alluding to the Brazilian Grand Prix exempt from paying the agreed fees. Editor’s note) or the departure of sponsors (UBS and Allianz. Editor’s note). Our priority is to know where we will be in three or four years, not four months.”

What about a new manufacturer?

2021 should also see an important milestone for the discipline with new technical regulations, which should nevertheless retain the main bases of the current V6 turbo / hybrid Power Units. If this block did not seem to attract possible new projects from different interested manufacturers, the idea of seeing a new brand get involved in the category remains one of the major objectives for Liberty Media.

“A year ago, we were heading towards a pretty radical overhaul,” Carey continues. During discussions with the teams, we came to the conclusion that it was better to prioritize stability, while associating it with technical and sporting changes aimed at improving the show, without forgetting economic issues.

We wanted to make sure we kept a hybrid engine that remained relevant for production vehicles. With this in mind, we had discussions with potential new entrants and came away encouraged ».