The Holy Trinity

Meet the men tasked with dragging Formula 1 into the digital age. One is well-known to racing fans, while the others... well, the others are American. Here’s their plan

- Jez Spinks

THE ringmaster is gone. After four decades as the seemingly immovable, omnipresent overlord of the Formula 1 circus, Bernie Ecclestone’s ruthless rulership has finally been ended in the kind of bloodless coup he was renowned for orchestrating.

Overtaking the octogenarian at the front of F1’s executive grid is an Anglo-American management triumvirate – hired by new owners Liberty Media to maximise its latest, $8 billion acquisition by reinvigorating the sport and reversing waning audience numbers.

In plain English that means the trio’s real task is to drag Formula 1 kicking and screaming into the 21st century. One of them, Ross Brawn, is well-known to motorsport fans. The others? Well, the others are American businessmen.

But don’t fret that Formula 1 is headed for a diet of Big Macs and crappy comb-overs. For all their faults, Americans know how to do sport. Basketball games are more like concerts and involve fireworks and staff who race around and shoot you with shirt cannons. And then there’s NASCAR, which, despite racing on boring, circular tracks, regularly attracts crowds of 100,000 plus. F1’s new leaders are already talking sense about new TV deals, online streaming, greater fan interaction and simplified, less convoluted rules to promote harder and closer racing. This could be the change that Formula 1 needs.

SO, WITH Ecclestone demoted to back marker status with a token ‘chairman emeritus’ advisory role, Chase Carey assumes Ecclestone’s CEO title and adds the chairman’s role. Handlebar-moustached New York native Carey was a long-time lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch, having helped set up both Fox News and Fox Sports.

Fellow American Sean Bratches – previously a key architect behind sports network ESPN – holds the commercial reins to improve F1’s off-track performance.