Branson's F1 bluster guarantees good coverage for latest Formula E project

Richard Branson doesn't know much about motorsport, but he knows how to grab headlines for his projects and he's intervened spectacularly this weekend, saying that Formula E will overtake F1 in five years time.

His success rate for predictions where F1 is concerned is pretty poor having tried and failed to run an F1 team and having hailed his F1 designer Nick Wirth as a "genius here on earth".

His various publicity stunts around his long distance balloon challenges, or powerboat Atlantic crossings are old school Barnum and Bailey and there's a line of thinking that F1 could do with more of that kind of thing being used in a positive way, to keep its message in the public eye. Bernie Ecclestone subscribes to the same school, putting something controversial out there to draw attention to his latest idea or development. Sometimes he does it to draw attention away from something else that's going on.

There is a long history of antipathy, incidentally between him and Branson.

Lately there has been a lot of negative intervention from the likes of Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz and others. Branson's seen the opportunity to jump on the bandwagon to publicise his new partnership with the DS brand, part of Citroen Group, which is positive news for the fledgling Formula E series, which has its title deciding finale today in London.

"I think there's still going to be room for Formula One for another few more years," Branson said. "But there will come a time when Formula E will overtake Formula One.

"I think four or five years from now you'll find Formula E overtaking Formula One as far as number of people,"

"As time goes on, the clean energy-type of businesses are going to power ahead of other businesses."

Formula E is different from other series, which have started up and failed in recent years like A1 Grand Prix, because it is not a poor relation of F1; rather it is a vanguard series, which works on technology of the future. There is already quite a bit of overlap with McLaren providing the electric motors and Williams the batteries. F1 learnings have gone into the current Formula E package in other words. Now the manufacturers are starting to enter Formula E, the development of that technology will accelerate. The idea is for that to benefit the electric cars consumers will buy for the road and to encourage more people to go that route.

So at some point in the future F1 and Formula E will converge, in all probability. But this will be long after the departure from the scene of Ecclestone, FIA President Jean Todt and even Branson himself. In five years both series will look like more developed versions of what they are today.

Formula E's continued survival is due to the investment this year from John Malone's Liberty Media Group, that has also been kicking the tyres on buying F1 from CVC. The problem there is that it values F1 significantly lower than CVC does. The arrival of a new bidder in Stephen Ross, Dieter Hahn and Qatar Sports Investments, has raised the prospect of an owner with clear strategy for the future and a willingness to invest in that vision. That would be a game changer for F1, which badly needs that strategy.