F1: Brown wants F1 to become '21 Super Bowls'

McLaren's executive director Zak Brown wants Formula 1 to put on "21 Super Bowls" across the world to help drive more fan engagement with the sport.

Brown was linked to a role promoting F1 with incoming owners Liberty Media before he joined McLaren, following a successful career to date in sports marketing. The Californian still has a clear vision of where he would like to see the sport focusing under new ownership and says the Super Bowl provides a good example of the way F1 should be conducting itself at each venue it visits.

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"I think we need to take a look at the weekend format and how we engage with the consumers in the grandstands," Brown said. "How close can we get them to our team and to our drivers? That's here on site. You go to these cities and it's a big event leading up to it.

"I think the Super Bowl does an excellent job. If you look at when they put on a Super Bowl, their level of fan engagement, they come into town a week before, they take over the cities, they take over the hotels, they take over the airports. So we've got 21 Super Bowls that we put on across the world, so I'd like to see that in market.

"Then I think digital, which we all talk about, is a fast-paced and evolving [sector]. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow, and I think that given that Liberty has a media-centric background and specifically Chase [Carey] comes from the media world, I've got high expectations that they'll do great things in the media space which is ultimately how we reach the largest audience that we can."

With only one race in the United States at present, Brown also believes there needs to be a big push on F1's part to expand its reach in the coming years.

"I think America – I think we would all agree – is a critically important market for the sport. The whole sport needs to put in a lot of effort to get North America right. I think the Austin race has been a major success and then of course not too far north and south with Montreal and Mexico. So I think we have some good presence in that general territory.

"As Liberty has said, that is one of their number one priorities and as I've told Bernie and Chase you can count on McLaren to be a very user-friendly to help you push your cause."