“Our strongest year ever”- Ross Brawn hails 2020

“Our strongest year ever”- Ross Brawn, the managing director of Formula 1 hails 2020, as the sport witnessed unique spectacles.

Even if 2020 offered Formula 1 unusual barriers, it also gave it unusual moments, on which they were able to find marketing jackpots and fetched fans new attention by recalling old circuits.

Ross Brawn, the managing director of Formula 1, called 2020 a strong year for F1, amidst all the new things and the multiple numbers of race and podium winners.

“That’s something we’re taking into consideration: should we think about a rotation of [venues] to get a little bit more variety?” said Brawn to the Race.com.

“Another popular aspect was the different winners,” he says. “It wasn’t quite so metronomic, which really gives us encouragement for the future with our ambitions to make for more competitive racing [which is less] dominated by a specific team.

“We still want it to be a meritocracy – don’t get me wrong – but we want to see different teams succeed. The fact we had more of a range of winners and races really came across very strongly,” he added.

“It was one of our best years in many areas of the measurements we take. In terms of digital [media] it is one of our strongest shares; in fact, our strongest year ever.”

F1 can be flexible in planning the schedule.

Ditching the conventional three-day long Grand Prix, considering 17 races GPs had to be squeezed in 23 weeks, Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola was introduced as a two-day event.

When asked whether F1 can approach the same exercise in 2020, Brawn replied: “We have to balance the right circuits, the right events. A promoter likes to have a three-day event; it helps their commercial model.”

“Last year the commercial model was turned on its head, so having a two-day event wasn’t such a problem. We’ve kept it in our pocket for when we need it, but for a season as a whole it would be a massive change to make and not one we’re considering.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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