Elon Musk
A number of celebrities including tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were in attendance at the Miami GP on Saturday – Musk proposed a pure EV versus hybrid F1 race
Billionaire Elon Musk enjoyed some F1 action on Saturday at the Miami Grand Prix. He was spotted speaking to Red Bull boss Christian Horner besides meeting and clicking photographs with the team’s drivers Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.
He was not the only billionaire in attendance as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was also spotted in the paddock along with his girlfriend. Sources suggest that both billionaires are eyeing involvement opportunities in the sport and could very well be a part of F1’s expansion plan in the near future.
Musk later revealed on Twitter that he proposed unique ideas to F1 stakeholders while discussing with them about the sport. “Fun discussion of aero & battery technology in F1. I proposed a pure EV vs gas/hybrid F1 race”, he wrote , quoting a tweet from ESPN. Musk specifically spoke about the importance of the inclusion of electric vehicles in F1 as EVs are being seen as the future of motorsport.
It is important to note that the FIA has Formula E under its umbrella. Formula E’s founding mission is to show just what sustainable mobility is capable of, driving electric vehicles to the fore in the race for a better, cleaner future.
F1 has made their ambitions clear about expanding the sport and adding more teams to the grid. As a result, one can certainly not rule out the possibility of the involvement of the richest persons in the world like Bezos and Musk. Earlier this year, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem suggested that there could be more F1 teams in the near future.
Ben Sulayem asked the governing body to check for potential teams who could join F1 in the near future. F1 has been a 10-team championship since 2016 and Ben Sulayem indicated that he intends to expand the grid in the upcoming years. The green signal from the President himself means that the concerned authorities have implemented the process of checking out applications from interested parties.
After F1 made it clear that they were looking for new teams, Cadillac were the first team to express their interest to join F1 in partnership with Michael Andretti. Andretti wasted no time to announce his team’s partnership with General Motors through Cadillac, as the American Andretti Autosport team looks for an entry into Formula 1.
However, the inclusion of a team is a time-consuming and complicated process. A new entrant would have to be approved by the FIA and also reach an agreement with F1 itself regarding commercial rights which is pretty tricky. It remains to be seen what plans billionaires like Musk and Bezos have about their future in F1.
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