Starry, Starry Night:
by Nick Bagot.
F1 Racing, April 1997 issue.

The Great Hall at Alexandra Palace has come alive. The Spice Girls, the world's most successful pop group since The
Beatles, are performing their number one hit, 'Wannabe' in front of 4500 people. Some of the audience are screaming pop fans, dancing and singing along to the song, others have a distinctly serious look about them.

Tonight is an event unlike anything F1 has ever experienced before. It is the rebirth of McLaren, a celebration of their new sponsors and radical new colour scheme. There's music, entertainment, and MTV. Because McLaren want the show to reach the homes of people who've never seen it before. Because this is 1997, and this is how F1 works now. There had been talk of holding this 'brand launch' on an aircraft carrier in the Adriatic, but it simply wasn't feasible. So in the week after Christmas, the search began for a location, and Alexandra Palace, the 'People's Palace', seemed the perfect venue. The Palm Court - a tropical paradise, a sort of mini Kew Gardens could be the VIP lounge, the large West Hall, with its ornate ceilings, could be the press office, with facilities to install the 120 ISDN and phone lines and a makeshift TV studio.

There would be plenty of space for impromptu interviews too, and the all-important photoshoots with the new car. But it would be in the Great Hall that the action really happened, where Jamiroquai would reel off their best tracks, spectacular images of Grand Prix racing would be flashed from 12-metre wide screens and a troop of rollerbladers - assembled especially for the night - would dance their choreographed routine. The stage and set builders had moved in one week ago. The 100-metre stage, complete with chequered sliding doors and gangway - so the bladers could swoop around the hall in front of three 500-seater grandstands - had taken six days to contruct. It was a task which demanded manpower - the entire crew totalled 287. The show hosted by Steve Rider (lost by ITV, but snared by McLaren for the night) and Davina McColl (and MTV VJ). And after their introduction, the first artist on stage was Jamiroquai, the acid-jazz band who wrote the theme to ITV's new grand prix programme. "I'd just like to say thanks to Ron Dennis for inviting me", said Jay, Jamiroquai's front man. "The McLaren F1 road car is the best in the world...and I just secured myself a go in one!" Then he launched into his set, and ensured himself a VIP pass to every Grand Prix on the calendar too.

Next the rollerbladers took to the stage, their pit crew outfits glowing in fluorescent under the strobe lights. Some were ex-Starlight Express dancers, all were auditioned for the parts a fortnight ago - they had been rehearsing for the show all week. If a speech and an unveiling from McLaren boss Ron Dennis were all the audience expected, they must have been taken by surprise, as the night rapidly turned into a West End show. The rollerbladers peeled offstage, the music - specially written for the night - built into a frenzy and when, finally, the car's silver livery was unveiled, the crowd clapped and cheered. "I think you'll agree the car looks menacing, threatening and georgeous", says Rider. And who was to argue with him? In the artificial environment of Alexandra Palace, under the flashing stage lights, it was indeed a sight to behold. Then came the spice, reputedly at the cost of a Tag Heuer watch, a Mercedes SLK (each), and $200,000.

Standing in the main auditorium, the booming pop music blended naturally into the F1 atmosphere. After all, it's a glamorous sport, isn't it? Visit a grand prix and you expect to see stars and cars, don't you? So when David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen joined the Spice Girls on stage and the band shouted "get 'em off", everyone just laughed and took the evening in the spirit which it was intended. They even forgave the girls for their reference to "grand pricks".

MTV, partners in the event since its inception, had 30 staff and 12 cameras on hand, two of them on remote arms that swept around the Great Hall. A video new release was issued via a satellite feed at 9.45 that evening, and by 4.00 the following morning, Reuters, WTN, and FOCA all had broadcastable videos of the night. On April 3, MTV will screen an hour-long special. "We were trying to involve a much larger audience", says Dennis. "That didn't apply just to the thousands of people who attended, but to a viewing audience all across Europe". It was also the start of something new for McLaren, although Dennis says they're not trying to re-invent their image, but modernise it. "We needed to demonstrate that this is a different team. And that isn't just about the colouration of the car, it is also about a different spirit within the team. I think it's more of a philosophical change, but at the same time a strategic change. It's about how the team functions, its style and what it conveys to the consumer. We won't move away from the values that we think are important - integrity, style, and a determination to win - but we'll supplement these with imagination, fun and a twist of humour".

And where McLaren lead, others will surely follow. Dennis says there'll probably be more events like this one, although not on such a lavish scale. "Alexandra Palace was complex, time-consuming and expensive, but it required that sort of commitment to start the ball rolling". Rumours suggest it cost anything up to $2 million, and West, McLaren's new title sponsor, are thought to have footed much of the bill. That might seem extravagant, but think about what West got for their money. Twenty TV crews were there on the night, for a variety of music, sport and news channels. Dennis estimates their level of penetration across Europe in newspapers, magazines and on TV, was several hundred million people.

Future events are likey to be smaller, but ever more youth-oriented; aimed at the 18-30-year-olds, the modern consumers. One wonders what Manfred von Brauchitsch made of it all. The 92-year-old German raced the Silver Arrows in the 1930s. "He's an adventurous person", says Dennis. "Perhaps it would be akin to the omre outrageous black tie functions that surrounded GPs in former times". Somehow, I doubt it.

--End of Article--

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