Brawn: ‘Liberty are putting the fans first’

Editor

F1's managing director of motorsports, Ross Brawn, believes Liberty are bringing a change in philosophy to the sport which sees the fans put first.

Liberty have wanted to re-connect the fans with the sport ever since taking over from Bernie Ecclestone in January 2017, but have received criticism of late for the removal of grid girls and changing a logo which many felt did not need to be changed.

But, nevertheless, Brawn believes Liberty are approaching their ownership with the right mindset and warned that it would take time for the full effect to be felt.

"I think what has changed is the philosophy," Brawn told British Airways' Business Life magazine. "The philosophy now is that the fan comes first.

"We want to produce the greatest spectacle in sport in the world," he added.

"It will take time to establish all the information we need. To do all the analysis and then start to complement changes that we believe will make the sport greater.

"That's a two-, three-, even five-year cycle."

Brawn is also in favour of Liberty taking a proactive approach to running the sport, as opposed to simply reacting once an issue arises.

"There was a tendency for there to be a very reactive style," he added. "There'd be a drama or a problem and everyone would get together to try and solve it.

"But that's not how you'd run a [Formula 1] team.

"You'd run a team by trying to forward plan, trying to evolve, trying to develop, making evidence-based decisions.

"F1 had never really evolved or developed around those principles," Brawn added. "I sat there at home watching F1 thinking that there was a better way of the sport evolving."