The U.S. is Taking Over F1 🇺🇸 🏎
Plus Daniel Ricciardo has found his next gig, the Drake Curse strikes again and Luka Doncic is suing his mum!
Welcome to Athletic Interest.
It’s the U.S. Grand Prix this week and it looks like Daniel Ricciardo is very excited:
Ricciardo is not alone. With the popularity of Formula 1 growing rapidly in the United States, some of the country’s biggest brands have decided to get involved.
By 2023 the U.S. will have three races on the F1 calendar. Couple this with the huge levels of investment from American companies and it becomes clear that the U.S. is now Formula 1’s most important market.
And yet there is one thing missing…An American F1 driver.
There are a number of reasons for this. U.S. drivers have other options in the form of Indycar and Nascar, also the U.S. has long lacked the karting infrastructure to develop drivers capable of competing all the way up to F1.
Developing a system to help American drivers make it to F1 could take decades, but there is an alternative…
Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi are both Canadian and still managed to make it into F1, a sport often dominated by Europeans.
They achieved this by fighting it out wheel to wheel against the biggest talents that Europe had to offer…only kidding!
They used the money of their billionaire parents to buy access to the equipment, training, and race teams needed to make it into F1.
Following this strategy could work for a U.S. hopeful. Especially when you consider the amount of money U.S. companies are already funneling into the sport. Imagine how much they would be willing to pay to create a U.S. world champion.
The only problem with this approach is that it allows rich kids to bypass the rest of the talent pool simply because they have the money needed to compete.
Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has already raised concerns, arguing that the cost of becoming an F1 driver is so steep that it is blocking emerging talent.
“We live in a time when Formula 1 has become a billionaire kids’ club. If I had to start over from a working-class family, it would be impossible for me to be here today. Because the other kids would have a hell of a lot more money.”
This got us thinking…How much does it actually cost to become a Formula 1 driver, and is the sport really becoming a billionaire boys’ club?
Watch our latest video to find out:
🍎 Sports Business Bites
🇪🇸 For many years, Barcelona were famous for their ideological refusal to place a sponsor on their shirts. There were even a few years where they placed the charity Unicef on the front of their shirts (at no cost, in fact, Barcelona paid the charity.)
Fast forward to 2022, and not only do Barcelona have a shirt sponsor (Spotify,) but they have also become the test platform for a new type of shirt sponsorship, the limited-time-only sponsorship…how the mighty have fallen!
Spotify is using its partnership with Barcelona to promote specific music artists from its platform in one-off matches. It started last week with Drake’s Owl logo appearing on the shirt for the El Clásico.
There are reports that Spotify will repeat the stunt, which generated huge media attention, by promoting Coldplay and Shakira in the near future.
Talking of Drake and Barcelona, it appears that the Drake curse has struck again.
The Drake curse is a widely held belief that association with Drake causes a team or athlete to lose.
Recently, Man City exited the Champions League shortly after Drake posed with a number of their big stars. AS Roma have even initiated a joke ban on their players posing for photos with Drake in order to prevent losses.
The moment that Drake revealed that, not only was he Barcelona’s shirt sponsor for El Clásico, but he had also placed a huge bet on them to win, everyone knew what was about to happen!
🇸🇮 🏀 Luka Doncic is in a legal battle…with his mother.
During his first NBA season in 2018, Doncic decided to trademark ‘Luka Doncic 7.’ As his mother was responsible for a lot of his business dealing at the time, he consented to her owning and managing the trademark.
Now that he is more established in his career, Doncic has decided he wants to regain control of the trademark and has filed a ‘petition to cancel’ with the U.S. trademark office.
If successful, Doncic’s mother will have to relinquish control of the trademark.
"I have a lot to look forward to as I continue to grow as a player and a person and it's important to me to control my own brand and focus on giving back to my communities," explained Doncic.
Mirjam Poterbin - or ‘mum’ as Doncic refers to her - has hit back to say that she has written consent from Doncic and therefore has no reason to give up control.
The impact of this case will probably go further than a few awkward family dinners. Many young athletes give control of their personal brands to agents or family members. If Doncic’s mother successfully defends her claim, athletes may think again before giving over their brands to someone else.
🤦♂️ We end this week’s newsletter with a rather odd story.
Dana White, the famed president of UFC, has just revealed that he will be opening a Slap League.
For anyone who doesn’t know, a slap league is quite literally a competition where people take turns slapping each other until one person is knocked down.
Still confused? Here is a video of Logan Paul and Arnold Schwarzenegger commentating on a recent Slap League meet…yeah we are actually being serious!