The Strategy Behind… keeping F1 exciting.

Once again we meet up with Kai Ebel, a vivacious and truly interesting Formula 1 personality, a respected motorsport journalist, to talk about what’s keeping the sport fresh and what are the future prospects of Formula 1’s identity.

Click here to subscribe to our print edition!

Changes in the recent years

From my personal perspective, Formula 1, with some exceptions, got way more German in recent years. So, obviously, I’m much busier nowadays. Various regulation changes have also influenced my work, so did Michael Schumacher’s retirement. It was all going uphill with Sebastian Vettel’s championship wins, especially for the German audiences. It’s not too bad now as well, as I am keen on keeping the sport popular in my country.

Talking about the social media side of the puzzle, we surely need to connect more! If you want to get insight from Formula 1 stars today, for example, you simply get all the info and images from them or their managers directly. But we all, especially the people of the media, should be more interconnected in the sense that sharing news, articles, tweets, reviews, photoshoots or profound columns needs to be something we do more often and more conveniently.

The industry

It’s quite difficult for me to see the whole sport from the outside as I’m very much plunged into the depths of it all the time. What I see is both the fans and professionals of Formula 1 dealing with the new stuff. It’s both a problem and salvation of some sort. Sure, I like the old engines more as well, however, we exist in the new world of Formula 1, which brings its own changes and challenges, so we should be imaginative and creative enough to find ways to enjoy ourselves while doing it.

If we want to keep Formula 1 exciting, we need to keep the heart-and-soul fans excited, and most of them are in Europe.

The races

The new generation of Formula 1 drivers is a group of very promising individuals. Most of the young guys are gifted and extremely professional racers. I think their performance has nothing to do with their age, it’s all about the experience and the quality of that experience. I believe that the education level in the motorsport series under Formula 1 is very high, so the racers who get to the pinnacle are now ready more than ever. Personally, I think all this will result in some fantastic competition.

I can gladly say I’m looking forward to the near future of the sport. Seb has to give all he has for the championship though – I really want to see some proper fights! Also, I’m interested to see new venues, but if we want to keep Formula 1 exciting, we need to keep the heart-and-soul fans excited, and most of them are in Europe. I’m not sure whether we really need a third race in the Middle East, but I’m glad Mexico is on the map again, and I’m waiting for the sport to go back to some places it used to have some great races at. If we learn how to deal with the new ways of Formula 1, then going back to at least some of the old traditions wouldn’t be that bad at all, especially if there is a huge demand for it!




There are no comments

Add yours