Ross Brawn is hoping to bring about a new era in Formula 1. As the new Sporting Boss of the pinnacle of motorsports, Brawn is hoping to bring about lower costs and more competition in the sport. At the same time, Brawn is adamant that he doesn't want to participate in a "dumbing down" of the sport and instead wants to maintain its dignity and exclusivity.
Ross Brawn would like Formula 1 to be more competitive without losing that something special about F1.
Liberty Media became the new owners of Formula 1 in January and promptly inserted Ross Brawn as the new Sporting Boss the series.
First on Brawn's to do list, as Liberty presented it, was to close the gap on the costs associated with running a team.
This request was closely followed by an equal distribution of income to teams in order to hopefully level the playing field somewhat and bring about more competition from more teams. The current financial situation and distribution of wealth are held in place by the Concorde Agreement until 2020. After that, however, everything is open to negotiation, and a restructuring of wealth can be applied.
Formula 1, however, is a very particular sport steeped in history, tradition, and exclusivity. There are clear cut echelons of power and prestige, and they are the foundations that the sport is built on.
At any given race a sea of red flags with black prancing horses can be seen and the Tifosi roar with approval when the red cars are in front. It is similar for Mercedes, their empire built on a rich history of engineering perfection and victory with fans enveloped in waves of stark silver.
The teams that are at the top of the pecking order receive more money since they bring in more money.
They are the dominant and historical teams with fans that have cheered for them for generations. These are the fans that spend the money, they come to races, they buy merchandise, and they spend their money on Formula 1. Brawn insists he wants to maintain that to some extent and keep the teams like Ferrari and Mercedes at the top of the sport as something for the smaller teams to aspire to and strive for, while still narrowing the gap in levels of competition.
Will Ross Brawn's plan lead to the dilution of Formula 1?
From the very beginning, Liberty Media expressed their desire to narrow the gap of the financial disparity in Formula 1. One of the major pushbacks on their plan, however, is the dilution of the exclusivity and integrity of the sport. Ross Brawn is careful to address this as the new financial proposal begins to be pulled together. He doesn't want to make Formula 1 a cookie cutter sport with the cars having the same chassis and such stringent rules and regulations that the sport smothers.
On the contrary, Brawn insists he wants to keep Formula 1 the peak of evolution in motorsports, the place that engineers go to push racing to new frontiers.
Brawn is hoping by encouraging the big teams to take a reduction in prize money to help distribute the wealth that the smaller teams may have more financial support and become more competitive.
The spending habits and overall costs are also being assessed, and Brawn is optimistic that by doing so methods of cutting costs can be found that will help all teams across the board. Brawn would like to encourage competition and give more teams the opportunity to win and reward teams for being innovative and revolutionary engineering wise.
As Formula 1 enters a new era Ross Brawn hopes to bring more competition to the sport by lessening the financial disparity between the teams. In so doing, Brawn has claimed he is also dedicated to maintaining what makes Formula 1 special, to preserving a level of excellence that the top teams are instrumental in maintaining. Whether Brawn will be able to pull off this feat remains to be seen, however, what is clear is that times are changing and Formula 1 will be changing with them at least on some level.
