F1 Commercial rights holder Liberty Media have done an about turn on their predecessor’s ruling on social media activity, and have given F1 team’s authorisation to film and upload short video’s from this week’s testing session at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona.
Previously there had been a ban on any such coverage being promoted online, but the teams are believed to have been contacted by the commercial rights holder and informed they had been granted permission to produce short-form video, which could then be uploaded to the teams’ own social media channels, for fans to enjoy.
This new ruling currently only applies to the first week of testing, but will offer a unique insight into the experiences of a F1 team during the busy test session.
Week one of pre-season testing runs until Thursday 30 February, but further communication is rumoured to be in the pipeline, to confirm a clear set of guidelines on what teams will be allowed to upload as part of their social media content in the future.
Liberty Media have always been in favour of using the digital arena to promote F1 and boost the flagging fan base, and this looks to be the first step to achieving that goal.
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver Lewis Hamilton has often called for more fan engagement, and was one of the first drivers to post details of what he would be sharing, since the go ahead.
https://twitter.com/LewisHamilton/status/836201500380639232
The F1 teams have also been getting in on the action, by posting short video clips from their mornings running on Twitter. A selection of these are below.
https://twitter.com/ToroRossoSpy/status/836183710106021888
https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/status/836222950059704320
