How F1's new boss is shaping the championship's future

Stefano Domenicali may have been in his new job as Formula 1's CEO for more than one month now, but he has still to officially to get his feet under his desk.

After taking over the most senior job in motor racing's top category from Chase Carey on 1 January, he has yet to spend any time at F1's London offices because they remain shut due to the coronavirus pandemic. It has meant all his business has had to be conducted via video conference calls from the office at his home in Italy.

"It's frustrating because all the meetings and all the things are through video," he smiles during a video conference call with media. "To sit from eight in the morning to 10 in the evening in this chair, connected, and just having the chance to see all our employees, all our colleagues, through the video is not really what you would like to have at the start of a new challenge. But that's the way it is."

While it has been an unusual start for Domenicali, who has arrived at F1 after a career that has included being Ferrari team principal and head of Lamborghini, he has wasted little time in getting down to business.

In the short term his priority is of course on getting F1 back on its feet amid the fast-changing situation around coronavirus. He is in regular contact with race promoters around the world trying to keep on top of the new challenges that are being posed by the variant strains.

"Everyone was thinking that this year would have been easier, if you imagine the situation, and it is not," he says.

Talks are set to accelerate this weekend to try to finalise at least the opening stage of the calendar, with the return of the Portuguese Grand Prix looking shaky because of a fresh COVID outbreak there. Domenicali is 'totally confident' that F1 will deliver 23 races this year, but what he can't be sure of is the order and exactly which 23 they will be.

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If Portugal does indeed fail to get the green light, then one possibility is for the season to begin in Bahrain with a double header - and potentially the second event taking place on the outer loop configuration.

But while the headaches over the calendar will likely be an ever-present for 2021 at least, Domenicali isn't ignoring F1's bigger picture stuff - and where he sees grand prix racing going over the next few years.

"We need to give content. We need to have accessibility, we need to give something that has to have a 'wow' effect, in order for all the people to share the experience coming to the track" Stefano Domenicali

He has arrived at his job at a good time, with predecessor Carey having done the hard work in sorting out a Concorde Agreement and a cost cap, as well as a more equitable prize money structure that should help even up the playing field. That's not to say that Domenicali can sit back and think the job is done: he thinks there are further opportunities that F1 needs to grab in the next few years if it is to maximise its impact.

While he says there are people knocking on F1's door to become new teams, host new races or become its latest manufacturer, he is clear that things need to change to turn those ambitions into reality.

The basis of the calendar needs sorting to better work out how to balance the best number of races. There is talk of potential new events in North and South Africa, and the return of some old European favourites, but Domenicali suggests that it is not automatic that this means a packed 25-race schedule is the way to go.

Rather, F1 may find it actually better to cut back on the number of grands prix if the revenue stream of race promoter fees can be kept up. That would avoid the run of triple headers that is blighting the second half of this season.

"We need to be more balanced," he says. "And I really hope next year, when the situation should be more stable in that respect, we're going to avoid as much as possible the triple-headers, because I understand what are the limits."

Domenicali also thinks F1 fans need to be offered more at races if they are going to be enticed back to events in the future. Just as music concerts have become much more of a show in recent years - and a source of considerable revenue for artists - grands prix also need to deliver far more.

"We don't have to make the mistake of not attracting the real [fans], the passionate ones that are living F1 every day," says Domenicali. "So the mix of a having new fan versus the traditional one is an objective that we need to have. Then, on the other side, we need to make sure that the more we are going ahead, and the more we will think post-COVID, the events have to be special place[s] where everyone wants to go. And this is a sort of the same approach of music.

"When you have music available basically everywhere, we need to make sure that, when we create the events with organisers all around the world, we create something that is unique.

"We need to give content. We need to have accessibility, we need to give something that has to have a 'wow' effect, in order for all the people to share the experience coming to the track."

Domenicali also wants to keep up Liberty Media's bid to do more in the United States. And beyond plans for a second race alongside Austin - with Miami still the most advanced project - he thinks F1 needs to do a better job in promoting itself there too.

"What we don't have to do in terms of mistakes, is that the US needs to be fed with F1 news every day," he explains. "It's wrong to go there one week, and let's say you have an incredible push one week before the Austin race and then being silent.

"Reverse grid is over. I think that it's important to think maybe new ideas of being more attractive or interesting. We don't have to lose the traditional approach of racing" Stefano Domenicali

"What we have already is a plan of communication quite strong in the US. We need to hammer information with the right channels in a continuous way. It will take a lot of start-up time in terms of investment, but the pay-off will be huge. So this is part of our strategic global communication campaign that we need to push this year."

Domenicali's vast experience in F1 has given him a strong grounding in F1, and his time at Lamborghini will have opened his eyes further about what attracts car makers to motor sport activities.

It's why he is vowing to go 'very aggressive' in ensuring that the new engine formula coming for 2025 does better suit what manufacturers want: which is something cheap and environmentally friendly.

But there is one area that was toyed about in the previous regime that Domenicali is clear will not be happening under his watch: reverse grids.

As part of Carey's desire to try to shake things up, there was repeated talk of a shake up to the race weekend structure to try out new ideas - one of which was the reverse grid qualifying race.

While the plans for some trial events did gain some support among teams, Mercedes repeatedly voted against the idea which it strongly felt was against the traditional meritocracy that has made F1 so popular.

With F1 now under new governance, which means rule changes required to bring in reverse grid races do not necessarily require unanimous support, there is an avenue open for the sport's chiefs to push it through.

But asked about whether or not that would happen, Domenicali was clear: "No. Reverse grid is over. So that's something I can tell you.

"I think that it's important to think maybe new ideas of being more attractive or interesting. We don't have to lose the traditional approach of racing.

"I think that what we learned when we were changing the qualifying every two days has been something that has burned our fingers. So we need to avoid that, and therefore now I think that the format is quite stable.

"What we're looking at is what could be the approach of the so-called sprint race on a Saturday. We are thinking if this could be tested already this year. There are discussions going on with the teams in the right forum, and I think that maybe this could be the only one thing that could be interesting."

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Domenicali's message is clear that he wants F1 to emerge over the next few years as a quality product that stands up on its own.

He is full of admiration for what Carey did, and thinks that the best judge of the job he does himself will not come from sound bites or bold claims - but in having an F1 that has become more popular.

"I don't want to sell carpets. I want to make sure that this platform is fantastic, is great, is emotional, is full of passionate people and with the right technology" Stefano Domenicali

"I want to be humble, as always," he says. "I don't want to sell carpets. I want to make sure that this platform is fantastic, is great, is emotional, is full of passionate people and with the right technology.

"I want to see once again the right dynamics in terms of what we are delivering in terms of sport, in terms of technology, in terms of relation with the organiser, with the media, with the broadcaster, with the newcomers, and with the traditional fans. I think that all these areas are for me priorities to focus on.

"And I think that we're going to have a big opportunity to make sure that, at the restart, there will be such an incredible offer of new entertainment on the old platform that if you are able to work very, very well in all these dimensions, the potential to be even stronger in the future is there."