Flavio Briatore will participate in a working group to make F1 more popular

The former sporting director of Benetton and Renault, Flavio Briatore, will be involved in a new working group created at the initiative of Bernie Ecclestone, the president of the Formula One Group, with the aim of making the discipline more popular.

With declining television audiences and several races where spectators did not attend, F1’s chief financial officer sounded the alarm during a meeting with team officials in Budapest on Sunday morning. He informed them that a meeting was planned in the coming weeks, in which Briatore, among others, will participate.

Present on a few occasions on the grid, still very connected to Fernando Alonso, notably, the Italian has not held an official position since 2009, when he was removed from the top discipline for having orchestrated, with Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet Jr., the cheating at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix that facilitated the victory of the Spanish double-world champion.

Toto Wolff, the director of Mercedes, will be part of this new working group. For *Autosport*, he expressed his desire for these issues to be addressed by a small number of people. He also highlighted the potential involvement of the media in the thought process: « A few people will sit together [to work on what to do], because it’s difficult when you invite everyone and each person comes with their own priorities and solutions. We will probably involve you [the media] to avoid the situation from last time when you found our ideas really crappy! So, that’s the procedure. »

At the end of 2013, the World Motor Sport Council notably approved the doubling of points at the last Grand Prix starting from the 2014 season. This measure was heavily criticized by all observers of the discipline.

Wolff continued: « Bernie expressed his desire to discuss with the teams how to improve the spectacle of Formula 1. It wasn’t a negative meeting, we saw some great races and circuits that were full, in Austria, Montreal, and Silverstone. But then, we saw smaller crowds here and in Hockenheim – why is that? So, we will meet and come up with ideas. »

Eric Boullier, for his part, admitted that the attitude of certain teams or some figures in the paddock may have discredited the discipline and its technological shift: « Many people in the paddock have been negative about the changes and everything F1 is trying to do. Obviously, if we give you material to write negatively about, then you will write negative things, so we all have to share the blame. »

« But, by spreading negativity everywhere, we prevent people from being passionate and watching us, and in fact, we stop people who might potentially be interested because we are negative. Negativism is part of the problem that explains why the audience is declining. »