Question: How long have you been seriously looking at Formula 1?
Richard Branson: I’ve enjoyed it for years and in past got tempted but tried not to be tempted as it’s been such an expensive sport. But the recession has been bringing the cost of entry down to a more reasonable level and the new rules that are coming out to encourage new teams to come in for more sensible amounts of money will make it a more exciting sport. And I don’t think we will lose any of the engineering prowess of the past. When the Honda team got into trouble and it looked like there was a possibility of it disappearing altogether we spoke with Honda and we spoke with the management and I think we’ve ended up with the best of all worlds with a fantastic engineer [at the helm] and a great brand with Virgin. It’s something which could develop into something exciting in the years to come.
Question: Is it possible that your financial involvement will increase quite dramatically next year?
Richard Branson: If it was going to increase it would happen over the next three or four weeks – it wouldn’t wait until next year – if we had to do something with this team over a long term basis.
Question: Was the prospect of a white Virgin car running around at the front too good to resist?
Richard Branson: We have been talking for two or three months, we hadn’t seen the speed of this car, we were committed to being involved in trying to save the team before we knew how well the car was going to go. It would be an added bonus if it was in the top five today and even more of an added bonus if it was in the top three.
Question: You want to use your Virgin fuel in Formula 1 – is that one of the key areas of your involvement?
Richard Branson: We announced a year and a half ago that we would put all the profits from our dirty businesses into developing a clean fuel. We have that fuel now and one great way of actually proving to the world that there is a clean fuel that works and which can be used in ordinary cars and aeroplanes is for it to be used in F1. I’ve just met the head of Mercedes to start the talks about seeing if it can be tested in F1 cars and used as soon as possible. Every industry has to move towards clean fuels. F1 has got to be the leader in clean fuels, as [Ross] Brawn said earlier, and F1 have said they are committed to it. We have actually now got the fuel which is now just as powerful as the normal fuel and just as noisy if they want to be noisy.
Question: You mentioned earlier about the budget capping agreement. Have you been assured by Bernie Ecclestone that it will come into force, as there has been a lot of cynicism in the paddock about it? You seen to be convinced…
Richard Branson: He has thrown out an idea and like with every idea there will be negotiation. IndyCars run on $20 million a year or less and this is an international sport so it obviously needs more money than that. But he hasn’t capped the current teams; he has capped the new incoming teams. I’m sure a balance will be negotiated and reached that makes sense for everybody. We would not pay the kinds of monies paid to sponsor Formula 1 in the past and I’m sure there are a lot of other companies who wouldn’t. I know there are some companies sponsoring cars today that I know are losing a lot of money in their other businesses, so I think Formula 1 has to change. But it still has to be innovative. They no longer bring hundreds of engines – that has been reduced to eight – and that hasn’t hurt Formula 1 at all and there are a lot of moves like that can be used to reduce the cost.
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