00:00The UK is gearing up for a weekend of high-speed twists, turns and petrol fumes.
00:06Silverstone Racetrack will hold the British Grand Prix, one of the oldest Formula One events.
00:11The series, which turned 75 this year, is a huge money spinner.
00:15Our correspondent Michael Morillia has the story. Michael.
00:19Jamie, thank you.
00:20Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.
00:23Formula One is coming to the UK this weekend.
00:27The world's top drivers will go head-to-head at Silverstone on Sunday.
00:31But first, there was a trip to Downing Street.
00:34Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosting a special event marking 75 years of F1.
00:39It's not clear if he took one of those cars for a spin, but hey, they were in his parking space, right?
00:46Now, F1 is a big deal for the government because it drives growth.
00:50F1 officials say the sport generates more than $16 billion for the UK economy each year.
00:57Let's compare that with Premier League football.
01:00A study from 2022 shows that Premier League clubs generated economic activity worth just under $11 billion.
01:07That's about two-thirds the value of F1.
01:12Now, that doesn't mean F1 is more popular, but it is expensive to run a team.
01:16$18 million just to build a car, for example.
01:20That means economic activity linked to F1 is high-value activity.
01:26Seven of the ten teams have factories in Britain, and that has a ripple effect.
01:30At the same time, F1 is attracting more fans, partly thanks to the Netflix documentary Drive to Survive.
01:38Research firm Nielsen Sports conducted a survey of F1 viewers last year.
01:4325% said they became fans while watching the series.
01:49All in all, F1 now has 750 million fans around the world.
01:53It really is a force to be reckoned with, both on and off the track.
01:59Jamie?
01:59Michael, thank you for that.
02:01Let's talk to David Bailey, the Professor of Business Economics at Birmingham Business School.
02:05David, welcome back.
02:06So, here we are, burning too much petrol, driving too fast, and carrying only one in these times of environmental awareness.
02:13F1, I guess, is naughty but nice, isn't it?
02:16Absolutely naughty but nice.
02:17Many of us love it.
02:18I'm a complete F1 nut.
02:20Been to Silverstone many times.
02:21I mean, you're quite right in the sense that these cars are powered by fossil fuels.
02:25They fly all over the world, the teams, and then fans go to see the races.
02:29So, in terms of burning oil, this is not great for the environment.
02:34Equally, a lot of great technological developments have come out of the industry.
02:38Things like hybrid engines, better engines, connectivity.
02:43So, from a kind of industry point of view, it's a fantastic laboratory, often said to be the fastest R&D lab in the world.
02:51F1 used to be the preserve, perhaps, some might say, of middle-aged men, petrolheads, perhaps like you and even me.
02:59So, why do you think it's growing its base and, in particular, attracting more women?
03:05Well, I think, as we heard in that excellent introduction there, the Liberty Media, the new owners over the last few years,
03:11have really made a big effort to connect with a much wider audience.
03:15So, that Drive to Survive series on Netflix has really opened up the sport to a younger, and particularly female, audience.
03:23And, of course, at the moment, the F1 movie is out.
03:26I'm looking forward to going to see that next week with, you know, Brad Pitt.
03:29And that also is a way of really trying to improve the appeal of the sport.
03:34So, what has been a traditional kind of middle-class male sport has really changed in recent years, and has really opened up.
03:44It is a sport, obviously. How significant is the business side of it, in particular, to UK business?
03:53So, as we heard then, over 40,000 people employed in motorsport linked to Formula One, both in the teams but also the supply chain,
04:02are worth something like $12 billion a year to the UK economy.
04:05And that's, you know, the motorsport industry. That's something the UK is incredibly good at.
04:09Most of the top teams are based in this kind of cluster, motorsport valley, as it's been called.
04:14In terms of Silverstone, the race, this was the very first Grand Prix was there.
04:19So, historically, hugely important, very prestigious, on a par with Monaco, I'd argue.
04:25But whereas Monaco is a very boring race, this is actually a very exciting one. It's fast.
04:30So, drivers will be taking corners at full speed.
04:33Many kind of iconic images in the sport have come from this race.
04:37And also, it's the biggest spectator event in terms of the physical number of people going to a sporting event in the UK each year.
04:45Half a million people expected at Silverstone this weekend. So, it's huge.
04:50And people talk about F1 as critical for development of lots of associated technology.
04:55Really? I mean, is that not just a fig leaf?
04:58I think it used to be, but I think increasingly it has become very important.
05:04So, one thing to note is the modern F1 car is a hybrid.
05:08So, when the cars brake, energy is put back into the battery and the drivers use that with a little boost button to give them an extra squirt of power to overtake.
05:18That's been important.
05:19Braking itself, hugely important.
05:21There are big advances in that.
05:23I think one of the interesting things is you've had teams like Williams and McLaren who've developed some fascinating technology.
05:29They've spun that out into other industries.
05:31So, even the efficiency of how you organize a pit stop, they've kind of taken those ideas and then put them into everything from health to air traffic control.
05:41So, it's been a hugely influential industry, I think.
