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Ferrari defends media lockdown
Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene has defended his team’s media access lockdown in Formula 1, insisting the Italian outfit is trying to do its best for fans.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Mar 24, 2017, 12:42 PM
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The Maranello outfit has not made leading team figures available for the media so far this season – and decided against having Kimi Raikkonen speak to the press on the Thursday of the Australian Grand Prix.
Its stance appears to go against the desires of F1's new owner Liberty Media, which believes that better access and more openness is essential if the sport is going to thrive.
Speaking about the matter in Melbourne on Friday, Arrivabene suggested that a short video it posted on Twitter with Raikkonen on Thursday was better than having the popular Finn speaking to journalists.
Asked about Ferrari's approach to the media, Arrivabene said: "Define media, what do you mean by media? Today, defining media it is quite large in terms of communications.
"Media is also social media and it is not only what we are thinking about. Yesterday we had Sebastian who was talking and we were using social media and posting something that was related to Kimi.
"Liberty has also said that in this business, the digital platform is used only at one per cent of its potential. The good thing is the find the right balance.
"Instead of having two drivers on Thursday who are talking and doing the copy and paste of one versus the other with the same question, we were making sure that Sebastian was talking in one way and Kimi in the other way. So we cover all the communication platforms, making happy also Generation Z."
Engaging media
Other team bosses believed, however, that it was vital for teams to make their drivers available to the media, because it was important for helping promote F1.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner said: "It is a media business at the end of the day. F1 is a media business.
"We have to engage with the media and it is important that we give access to the drivers, access to the fans – or how else are we going to promote the sport?"
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff added: "We have to cover three different generations. We have to cover the long-time followers, so called middle-agers, the millennials and Generation Z. And you kind of need to play the full span.
"For example, when we launched the car we put some time into the car launch which is a risk on the engineering side as you are compromising your time - and we did a Facebook live launch, 360 [degree camera], and we had almost a million views in 24 hours.
"It was successful and we have to embrace all that, but not forget any audiences within those groups and target each of them – and Liberty's approach has been right so far in opening up."
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