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McLaren hoping F1 returns to China after COVID-19 pandemic
McLaren Racing's head of commercial technology told Xinhua at the Collision technology conference on Wednesday that he hopes Formula 1 returns to China soon and that the country is "often the leaders" in innovation.
Asked whether F1 team McLaren has future business expansion plans in China, Edward Green said, "We always look to see what China's market is doing first. They're often the leaders and they're pushing innovation before other parts of the world are. It's a market that we always follow very closely."
Green spoke on the sidelines of Collision, one of the world's largest technology conferences taking place in Toronto from June 20 to 23, featuring some 35,000 attendees including 900 speakers, 1,500 startups, 1,200 journalists, 850 investors and 100 unicorn companies.
The Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai has been absent from the calendar since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and isn't part of the 2022 schedule either.
Green commented on his hopes to reunite with Chinese fans and bring F1 races back to China.
"We'd love to be back racing in China at some point in the future. It's really exciting. Always a great race and some amazing fans out there for us as well," he emphasized, adding that China is "an incredibly important market for us all around."
With the acceleration of sustainability and electric vehicles (EVs), Green commented on McLaren's view and progress with their push for "greener" racing.
"Sustainability is really interesting. Now we've got two EV series, one with Extreme E, the four-by-four battery off-roading, and the other one with Formula E just joining the team recently," he said.
"I think they [EVs] help challenge us and they give us areas to look into and review as a team and see how that inspires other racing series."
Green highlighted the importance of technological innovation in motor sports.
"Technology sits right at the very heart of what we do in Formula 1 racing and across all our racing series at McLaren, but no more so do you see that on track with Formula 1, whether the difference in performance can be as much as hundreds of milliseconds," he said. "You need all the data, all the telemetry, every bit of information you get your hands on in order to create better strategies, help design the car, and ultimately, make sure you make the right decisions for our drivers to finish as high as possible at any given race weekend."
Asked whether F1 team McLaren has future business expansion plans in China, Edward Green said, "We always look to see what China's market is doing first. They're often the leaders and they're pushing innovation before other parts of the world are. It's a market that we always follow very closely."
Green spoke on the sidelines of Collision, one of the world's largest technology conferences taking place in Toronto from June 20 to 23, featuring some 35,000 attendees including 900 speakers, 1,500 startups, 1,200 journalists, 850 investors and 100 unicorn companies.
The Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai has been absent from the calendar since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and isn't part of the 2022 schedule either.
Green commented on his hopes to reunite with Chinese fans and bring F1 races back to China.
"We'd love to be back racing in China at some point in the future. It's really exciting. Always a great race and some amazing fans out there for us as well," he emphasized, adding that China is "an incredibly important market for us all around."
With the acceleration of sustainability and electric vehicles (EVs), Green commented on McLaren's view and progress with their push for "greener" racing.
"Sustainability is really interesting. Now we've got two EV series, one with Extreme E, the four-by-four battery off-roading, and the other one with Formula E just joining the team recently," he said.
"I think they [EVs] help challenge us and they give us areas to look into and review as a team and see how that inspires other racing series."
Green highlighted the importance of technological innovation in motor sports.
"Technology sits right at the very heart of what we do in Formula 1 racing and across all our racing series at McLaren, but no more so do you see that on track with Formula 1, whether the difference in performance can be as much as hundreds of milliseconds," he said. "You need all the data, all the telemetry, every bit of information you get your hands on in order to create better strategies, help design the car, and ultimately, make sure you make the right decisions for our drivers to finish as high as possible at any given race weekend."
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