NOVEMBER 17, 2005

An F1 boom coming?

The F1 Sponsorship Forum is happening in Monte Carlo and there have been some interesting observations on the sport.

Juan Villalonga, the former boss of Telefonica, said that Formula 1 is "an amazing club" but he believes that the business is seriously underperforming and says that the sport can increase its value five-fold in the next three years by adopting more effective partnerships from those involved. Villalonga said that the growth explosion will come with new consumers in Asia and Latin America.

"What is needed are more partnerships, more innovation, more passion to bring to the management the courage and audacity of the teams and drivers."

Formula One Management's Michael Payne said that China will be an important force.

"I guarantee you that in five to 10 years there will be multiple Chinese companies that will be household names," he said. "And they will have got there by using sport."

Payne said that Formula One will be completely overhauling its TV statistics this year to put the results into context and provide more insight into the audiences that the sport attracts. The results will also be made much available than has been the case in the past.

Payne said that while listing the numbers of viewers was one way of measuring success, it was more interesting to discover that eight of the top 10 TV viewing figures in Spain this year were Formula 1 programmes.