F1 In America From Peter Habicht

By Peter Habicht
The Auto Channel
San Francisco, California

Welcome to F1 in America, my column here on tThe Auto Channel covering Americans and US-based fans of the sport.

Currently I lead the San Francisco Formula 1 Group, the largest group of American and US-based Formula 1 fans in the United States. Since 2004, I’ve been a part of bringing fans together in the San Francisco Bay Area for each Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend to view races as a group, and having organized some 100+ events for over 6000 fans, I’m pretty certain that I’ve gotten more people off their couch to watch a televised Grand Prix with a group than any single person in the United States.

From 2005 – 2007 I led over 1,200 community volunteers at the San Jose Grand Prix, a Champ Car World Series event put together on the narrow streets of a downtown major US city. On behalf of over 100,000 guests per race weekend, I developed, trained, and led volunteers while working directly alongside patrons, race officials, series sponsors, course construction professionals, businesses, and local civil authorities.

More recently, my experiences in motorsport have put me behind US based efforts to bring a Formula 1 team to the 2010 grid. My introduction in 2008 to US F1 Team principals was met with interest as my engagement with fans, teams, venues, communities, team principals, investors, and media professionals brought increased focus to my experiences in racing event promotion and production. While the team’s collapse prevented my direct participation with the team’s efforts in these areas, many inside US F1 Team recognized the value of engaging with an American Formula 1 audience.

I have been in contact with new US based groups to bring a team to the 2011 grid, and American interest in this area has not slowed despite US F1 Team’s failure to compete this season. Other major US markets have been showing renewed interest in F1 by forming grassroots viewing groups, and social media has played a big role in how these fans have not only been able to find and meet each other, but also how drivers, teams, and brands have been able to engage across an entire season with these fans.

With the arrival of the 2012 United States Grand Prix in Austin, TX, a new opportunity exists for fans, teams, technologies, communities and stakeholders to create and share in what will truly be an ‘event of the future’ on a global platform. A great deal of what I am writing and reading about will be with the aim of creating a vision of what that event is, while bringing motorsport into the next era with it.