New Formula One chairman Chase Carey says Liberty Media has the best interests of the sport in mind, and have not taken over to simply “take the money”.Earlier this month Liberty Media agreed to purchase a controlling stake in Formula One in a deal which will be completed next year. The American media company will become the majority stakeholder in place of private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, who purchased the controlling stake in 2006.
In their time as majority shareholder CVC was criticised for the fact it seemed to take money from F1 without putting back in, something Carey, who has been installed chairman by Liberty, says the new owners will not do. The American has instead promised to take F1 “to the next level”.
“Of course, profits are important — but realistically the primary goal of the business that I have been in has always been to build long-term value,” Carey told the F1 website. “So the goal is not what can be achieved in the next 12 months, but where you are going to be in three to five years.
“Liberty, to its credit, has a history as a long-term shareholder. They are supportive and they know their business, as they have been in the media and entertainment space. It sure is not ‘take the money’ with a focus on how to get the profits up in the next 12 months — it’s about how to build long-term value.
“So the focus will be investing and building over time. That is the mindset that we bring and hopefully it will enable us to bring Formula One to the next level.”
Carey, who has also outlined a desire to take F1 to the world’s “great cities”, says his first few weeks and months of being chairman are about understanding the wider context of everything going on in the sport.
“Realistically what I am doing in the next few months is probably more listening to what people have to say, and adjusting that. Yes, it is a sport with a wide range of constituents, so it is important to understand what each of those constituents’ objectives are, what their issues are.
“You cannot make everybody happy all the time, but you’ve got to understand what everybody wants and then find a path. Sure, that is not a task for a committee, as committees tend to become bureaucratic. But there also can’t be a dictatorship, even if probably here they are used to it.”