These are challenging times for Formula One. The sport is in the process of a long-overdue reinvention under new owners in the post-Bernie Ecclestone one-man-band era. The broad purpose is to build the sport’s popularity and sustainability while continuing to meet the bottom line that made it so attractive to Liberty Media in the first place. For the British woman at the centre of this complex process, it is simply a case of putting passion back at the heart of F1.



Ellie Norman was appointed by Liberty as director of marketing and communications last year, part of a raft of new roles created to drive F1’s transformation. Liberty has repeatedly stressed that it wants to put the fans first.

The 37-year-old Norman has a love of racing that she wants the sport to convey to a broader audience. “I’ve always had a fascination with cars,” she says. “I bought a track car when I was 22 – a Porsche 968 Clubsport. I’ve kept it and it’s brilliant: I changed the suspension, upgraded the brakes. It was much to my parents’ horror that I didn’t put a deposit on a flat or something sensible.”

Norman grew up watching F1 and at the age of 10 dreamed of becoming a grand prix driver. It was not to be but she did get behind the wheel, securing her National B race licence in 2007 and entering the Formula Woman series. She has the aficionado’s enthusiasm citing Oulton Park as her favourite track. “It’s very technical, loads of blind exits – you have to commit,” she says.

Just as Liberty showed nous by hiring Ross Brawn as the head of its motorsport division to plan the form racing will take in future, Norman brings her love of the sport to her role as well as experience in marketing, having been responsible for signing Usain Bolt to promote Virgin Media in her previous job.

F1’s task, she believes, is to connect with fans more effectively and that is already being done by making them feel closer to the drivers. “It’s helmets off and an interview as soon as they step out of the car,” she says. “We want to capture how athletic and demanding it is. To capture them when they are sweaty and out of breath, the raw emotion rather than a sanitised version. This sort of thing is being put into place to change the perception and to get across how exciting and visceral the sport is.”

It is early days yet to gauge the success of Liberty’s initiatives but last weekend’s German Grand Prix is a case in point of its approach. Ticket sales had been down to 57,000 the last time the race was held here in 2016. The promoter says this year race day is almost sold out with more than 70,000 expected. “That is a great indication there is interest building in the sport and people are coming back to races,” says Norman.

Much of the fundamental shifts in how F1 does business cannot be seen but are crucial. Ecclestone’s divide-and-rule approach to race promoters, for example, has been dispensed with. “Previously there would never be a meeting between F1 and all the promoters together,” says Norman. “Now we are holding meetings twice a year with all the promoters as well as individual meetings, to talk about the plans for 2019 and 2020. Working with promoters to see what they are doing to market the race and how we can help to generate interest. If we all succeed it benefits everyone.

“Liberty have bought into this for the long term and their changes are starting to take place. We are seeing encouraging signs, increased TV viewing, ticket sales that are up. It may appear not a lot has changed but it is happening.”

Changing F1 is not expected to be an easy task yet Norman is in no doubt how badly the sport needed to implement it and with the enthusiasm of a fan believes that what matters now is how racing is transformed on track. She says: “Having Ross planning to enable teams to go racing to win but to do that within an environment that is entertaining, sustainable and delivers what we know our fans want. That was 100% needed.”

Clearly, Norman genuinely cares that the sport’s new owners are successful. It is just the right attitude required if F1 is to inspire another generation – and perhaps even horrify some more parents along the way.