Bring on digital dimension: Tata F1 boss
london — The day when Formula One fans can race virtually with real drivers in live grands prix may not be so far off as the sport looks to develop the digital dimension.
Mehul Kapadia, one of those who helps make things happen as head of Formula One business at official “connectivity partner” Tata Communications, is eager to step on the accelerator.
“While Formula One gets criticized for being late on the digital journey, a lot has been happening,” he said in an interview.
“The conversations which are now happening are far more “Let’s get it done.” It was not always that way. Liberty Media, the US firm that completed a takeover of the sport in January, immediately identified digital as an area ripe for development as it seeks to tap lucrative new revenue streams and give fans more of an experience.
Its chief executive Greg Maffei said last September that less than one percent of revenues were from digital and that there was a huge amount of video feed and data about the races that were being captured but not processed incrementally for the dedicated fan.
Formula One’s chief technical officer John Morrison said at the same time, at the awarding of Tata’s F1 connectivity prize in Austin, Texas, that the sport was about two years away from fans being able to race virtually in a real race.
The main problem, he explained then, was getting the accuracy of GPS positioning down to about 10mm from the current 200mm.
Kapadia could see that obstacle being overcome.
“If you look at the pace of development happening in that field, two years doesn’t seem to be incorrect,” he said.
“Is the appetite there to commercialise it? That is a different question.” Kapadia said fans could be divided into four distinct groupings that needed to be catered for.
There are those attending the race, those watching on television at home, people ‘consuming’ the sport on the move, and the largest group of all — a restless ‘always on generation’ seeking bite-sized entertainment. —
If you look at the pace of development happening in that field, two years doesn’t seem to be incorrect
Mehul Kapadia