Places for races: inside the circuits and services at the beating heart of motorsport

Introduction
CIRCUITS
SERVICES
About
next year will be “phenomenal for our
business” because the US is the “number
one market” for F1 Experiences.
“Roughly about 40 per cent of our sales
are from North American buyers, and
about 35 per cent of our sales are from
European buyers,” he continues. “So, 75
per cent of our business is North America
and Europe.”
Last year, Formula One’s hospitality
branch was forced to adapt quickly
when the pandemic struck. With
fans unable to attend most races, the
Paddock Club had to make the switch
to digital. As a result, Formula One
partnered with video communications
company Zoom to launch the Virtual
Paddock Club, which has been such
a success that it is now a permanent
feature of the series’ hospitality offering
alongside its in-person experiences.
“We had to pivot very quickly to
support our client base, which is mainly
the guests of the teams and the team
sponsors, the guests of our own VIPs and
sponsors,” says Beavan.
WE ARE VERY PLEASANTLY SURPRISED
AT THE PENT-UP DEMAND THERE IS OUT
THERE TO COME BACK TO LIVE EVENTS.”
ABOVE AND BELOW: F1 Experiences
enables guests to get closer to the action
“We decided that the most interesting
thing that people wanted to see - that
was akin to hospitality - was they wanted
to be live at the track and see behind the
scenes. They were all closed events, so
nobody was really having a look at how
this race is operating live behind the
scenes.
“It started out as a small partnership
[with Zoom], it’s now turned into a
significant and longer-term partnership.
So we’ve been able to develop the
technology to make sure that not only
are we live from the circuit, but we’re
interacting.”
Looking ahead, things appear bright for
the Paddock Club and F1 Experiences.
There was initial concern about whether
the pandemic would impact consumer
habits, but Beavan reports that there
have been no such issues as events start
to open up again.
“One of the things that excites us most
is the demand side,” she says.
“We are very pleasantly surprised, quite
shocked, at the pent-up demand there
is out there to come back to live events.
A year ago many of us were sitting
around going, ‘will this global pandemic
permanently change the way people
behave? Will they no longer want to go or
feel comfortable going to large sporting
or music events?’
“We were pondering these questions
very, very seriously last year. What we
see now is, whilst it’s difficult to get the
events back on, the demand is certainly
there.”
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