Formula 1's new CEO Chase Carey has denied new owners Liberty Media are trying to 'Americanise' the sport by focusing on growth in the USA, but believes it has untapped potential which can make it far more popular in the US than it currently is.
Carey recently said he would like to see each race on the calendar match the Super Bowl in terms of reach, but some media outlets took that as Carey wanting to make F1 more American. That isn't the case at all and quite the contrary, with Carey confirming his aim is to strengthen F1's European base as a priority as well as expanding its popularity across the Atlantic.
"We are not trying to make the sport more American, but we think there is an opportunity to grow in America," he told Motorsport Monday's Joe Saward.
"I have called the races 21 Super Bowls, but by that I mean we want to make the events bigger, broader and more attractive. I don't mean we want to make it American.
"The foundation of the sport is in Europe and one of our core objectives is to make the sport stronger and bigger there, and build on that foundation. F1 has a great history and a great following in Europe, but we think we can grow it.
"Equally, we think there are opportunities to grow it in many other places. The US is certainly is one of those. That does not mean we are Americanising the sport, it means that we think that the sport has American appeal and American opportunities that haven't been tapped."
Carey reckons adding a major US city to the F1 calendar would go some way to increasing its reach in the US, suggesting the sport doesn't need fundamentally changing, it just needs better promotion.
"The US market today is really not that material to Formula 1, because it hasn’t been developed," he added. "We have a great race in Austin, but realistically we don't do a whole lot.
"To some degree some of the lack of growth is because we don't have the digital vehicles or the marketing organisation to go out and connect with the US fans, but clearly adding a destination race in a destination city is one of our goals.
"I have cited New York, LA, Miami and Vegas. If we had that it would add another dimension to what we are doing in the US and would be another block in building the sport."
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