McLaren Technology Group Executive Director Zak Brown is confident that F1 has the scope to really take off in the United States in the near future.
With Liberty Media now at the helm, Brown believes with their extensive knowledge of the American market, there should be plenty of scope to develop the sport and boost the fan base out there, as he told motorsport.com recently.
“We need another US race. Austin has done an outstanding job, it is great that Haas is there, and it will certainly be great to get a front-line American driver in time.
“And it’s going to be beneficial that Liberty knows the US market place so well.
“But I think there’s a balance. No one thinks this is going to become an American sport overnight. It is just one territory, but a really important one that I think has much room for growth as any territory in the world.
“It loves motorsports and it loves sports, whereas some of these new territories we’re going into, we’re having to develop sports.
“We just need to get the American public more exposed to our sport, and no doubt they’ll fall in love with it, just like pretty much every market that we go to.”
Having recently appointed Ben Priest as Vice President, Americas – Partnership Development to their McLaren Marketing division, the Woking based squad are clearly ready to make waves in the states.
Priest brings a wealth of marketing agency expertise, having been Vice President of Business Development at a leading New York agency that represented many iconic athletes, as well as heading up the North America Partnership Development division for Brown’s own JMI.
Brown is confident appealing to the American audience is the way forward, and he and McLaren are committed to exploring that route extensively, which he says F1 as a whole would benefit from doing too.
“We are a global championship, and while we continue to go to new and emerging markets, which is great, at the end of the day North America is the wealthiest and largest sports market.
“We’ve got so much room for growth there. So while we should continue to expand and look at new and exciting territories, we’ve got to become bigger in North America.
“There are so many people there, there’s so much television, and there’s so much economics there. It is such a great sports market. I think F1 can be huge there over time.”
