Liberty Media planning ‘NFL Draft’ like event for F1 off season

Liberty Media is trying to come up with new and innovative ways of engaging Formula 1 one fans all through the year and not just during the race months.

F1 has been struggling to keep the fans involved all through the year and are now taking inspiration from the ‘NFL Draft’ which is a marquee event during the off-season of American football.

The NFL Draft keeps fans hooked to the sport in the off-season, and Liberty Media want to come up with something similar in order to create more fan engagement around the sport.

“One of the ambitions we have is to figure out how we make this sport something that engages the fans 12 months a year. But it doesn’t mean we will race [that long]: our season is not going to go 12 months.

“One example would be the NFL, which is not playing right now but they just had the NFL Draft. That is a big event. They have created events that are interesting for fans even when they are not in the season.

“So I think for us, we would like to determine – how do we create more interesting things for fans, whether it is unique competition or unique events, or things that are around the sport that continue to build interest and enable fans to engage more?” Carey, F1’s chairman said.

The existing ‘race’ calendar wouldn’t be extended in any way but Carey realises that something needs to be done for the fans in the off-season.

“The 21 races that we have will always be the highest profile, but we think we can do other things that enable fans to connect with the sport,” he said.

“We have a pretty full season – our season goes from March to the end of November so it is a long season, and we have to recognise that there is a lot of wear and tear on that season.

“But I would say we think it would be a good thing to find ways to engage fans in the sport. It may not be a competition on track, it may be other aspects of the sport, but there are some unique ideas for various forms of competition that we are engaged with and talking to various parties about.” he concluded.