04/06/2018
NEWS STORY
Speaking at the FIA's Sport Conference in the Philippines, F1 boss Chase Carey shared further insight in to Liberty Media's grand vision for the future of the sport.
While Ross Brawn and his team work on the technical side, producing new rules that will hopefully make the sport more competitive and less prone to being dominated by just one or two teams, Carey avoided the marketing speak that infuriatingly permeates commercial boss Sean Bratches insights, as he spoke of the tracks he wants to see hosting the world championship.
"There are a handful of things that are important for us," he said. "First, we want to make sure that it is great for a race. While we build all the things around it, it starts with having a track that provides a great race.
"Today, realistically, there are tracks that probably we need to work on that are not conducive to providing the most exciting best racing," he admitted, just days after two world champions had described the recent Monaco Grand Prix as the most boring of their careers. "There are some that are fabulous. To start we want a track that will deliver a fabulous exciting race.
"Second, we want a site that is going to capture the world's imagination. We are in the great cities around the world. We use the phrase destination cities, and we are in places where you want, when they look at it on TV, are excited about it, think it looks spectacular, and really capture people's imagination. And if they go to it it is even more special.
"We want those magical cities and magical countries that really intrigue and fascinate the world."
With Miami set to join the calendar, possibly as early as next year, Vietnam yet to be officially confirmed and Copenhagen also looking very likely, it is clear that under Liberty, which has put a team with a long history in TV broadcasting in charge, F1 is clearly looking at cities as the ideal hosts for races as the calendar expands.
However, while this weekend's race in Montreal usually provides one of the better events of the season, very few of the tracks that host other fans favourites - we're thinking Spa and the like - are in cities or even close by.
As opposed to long straights and endless right handers, fans - and drivers - want natural flowing corners, undulations and the challenge that normally comes with purpose built tracks like COTA or the ill-fated track in Istanbul.