In its first year of ownership of Formula One, despite its continued lauding of the passion and tradition of the sport, Liberty Media has appeared hell bent on doing away with the old and bringing in the new… at a price.

Ignoring the farce that was Michael Buffer ahead of the United States Grand Prix, there was the introduction of a new logo - even though it bore more than a passing resemblance to the logo adorning a brand of support tights.

Now, along with the decision to start races ten minutes later and moving all sessions in Europe and Brazil so that they start an hour later than usual, Liberty is to give F1 a new theme tune.

Brian Tyler who composed the scores for Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultro and five instalments of The Fast and the Furious franchise, has now been commissioned to write a new theme tune for F1.

"What an honour to be chosen to compose the Formula 1 theme!" tweeted Tyler, who also composed the NFL theme for ESPN, where, of course, F1 commercial boss Sean Bratches was Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. "This is a life-long dream come true as I am a massive #formula1 fan. Thank you F1!"

As of last November, his films have grossed $12 billion worldwide which puts him in the top ten highest-grossing film composers of all time, having scored three of the top ten films of all time in terms of global box office receipts.

With such a track record it is doubtful that Mr Tyler's services will come cheap, which is unlikely to go down well with the teams who are already facing a drop in prize money as the sport's new management's profligacy continues.

At a time the prize money for 2017 has already dropped by £35m ($47m), the result of the establishment of new London offices and an ever increasing headcount, the infamous logo, the London event and Ross Brawn's in-house F1 team, the teams are already unhappy with Liberty's spending habits.

Indeed, the teams argue that it is Liberty that should be funding these projects and not them.

While Tyler also scored Bill Paxton's Frailty - a personal favourite of our editor - other than the question of money, one has to point out that F1 is not Formula E. It is not starting from scratch so why does Liberty feel it immediately has to create new traditions for the sport when in fact it has 68 years of them.

Ironically, Liberty is spending the teams' money when it was the teams who created those traditions in the first place.

The news comes at the end of an opening test which suggests Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton will once again be the benchmark - and probably champions - and whether a new theme tune, as opposed to a season long fight for the title or even more overtaking throughout the field, will appease the fans remains to be seen.

As for using the services of a man who is best known for his work on Superhero movies – can't you already hear those crashing drums – why couldn't Liberty have called on Dennis Waterman who would have composed the tune… and sung it!

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by IKnowNothing, 10/03/2018 22:23

"I agree with Chris Roper "the Chain" Fleetwood Mac .... can somebody tell the new owners? If it makes them feel better we can charge a consultation fee and split it ;) "

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2. Posted by Liam III, 08/03/2018 19:33

"I am not advocating this as a solution, but, people tune in to NASCAR because there is a wreck every 10 minutes. If you want the masses to watch, add some danger like the old days, otherwise be happy with what you have for revenue and rely on the sponsors to foot the bill as they have done for decades. "

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3. Posted by Chris Roper, 04/03/2018 19:50

"They should just Licance "The Chain" From Fleetwood Mac.
Having been raised on BBC and ITV coverage, even whilst living in Africa, I think F1 whenever I hear that track.
I would imagine I am not alone in thinking that to many of us it is the F1 theme.

"

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4. Posted by Pipsary, 04/03/2018 17:28

"I almost feel like singing "Come back Bernie, come back"..."

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5. Posted by Toffeecup0, 04/03/2018 10:23

"With all these changes they could lose a lot of fans why can t they keep things as they are."

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6. Posted by stackvideo, 03/03/2018 23:13

"I think Toto Wolff might have the beginnings of the chorus " But we need evolution, not naive revolution.""

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7. Posted by Hobgoblin, 03/03/2018 18:17

"So after the new logo looking like someone else’s logo, is this ‘theme tune’ going to sound like the Benny Hill theme tune?"

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8. Posted by Apexing, 03/03/2018 15:41

"Is it just me, or is this the dumbest decision possible? How many F1 fans can seriously say that they watch because of the damn theme song?? Creating a new logo, and a new theme song is going to do nothing to improve the racing, and yet those are what they're targeting first. Fire Liberty's marketing team, and put some actual race fans in their place. These people have no clue why we watch..."

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9. Posted by Ro, 03/03/2018 12:28

"How long before Liberty media changes the races into "sprints" so that advert breaks can be introduced ? Its F1 , not NASCAR or INDY.....Liberty has lost the plot!"

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10. Posted by GrahamG, 03/03/2018 11:29

"The racing quality, audience, interest and recruitment of new fans are all plummeting and the answer to all of this ... a new theme tune. Really does say everything about F1 at the present time."

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11. Posted by Cal, 03/03/2018 9:23

"Very well written article!

In my own web circles, I have to be cautious in how I react to some of the decisions/changes Liberty Media are making to F1 (high percentage of North American membership) ... but in all honesty, I have many concerns in the ever changing face of Formula One, now in their hands. From the beginning, I worried that Liberty Media would "Americanise" our sport ... and that still looks to be one of their primary objectives in raising US audience figures ... and $$$'s.

Most of the changes in the past few months have not been popular ones. It could be argued that some changes are cemented from previous administration or decisions taken by local race venues. However, overall, I don't like the "vision" which Liberty Media has for the pinnacle of motor sport and I fear that the road ahead could be a rocky one!!

Regards,
Cal "

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F1 to get a new theme tune

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