Formula 1 appoints new Chief Commercial Officer

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Formula 1 has appointed Emily Prazer to the post of chief commercial officer for the sport's commercial rights holders. She will be reporting directly to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.

It's a role that Prazer held with the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is unique in being the only event on the calendar where F1 also acts as the local race promoter in charge of setting up and running the race.

Prazer relocated from London in her native UK in order to run the Vegas Vegas event. Before that, she had previously worked within Formula One Management (FOM) as Head of Commercial Development and Race Promotion.

The first race in Vegas in 41 years required F1 to overcome a number of unique issues involved in closing busy local city roads and liaising with the owners of the hotel casinos along the famous Strip.

Prazer was credited for securing several crucial commercial partnerships during the build-up to the inaugural event, which was deemed a success despite early issues with a water access valve cover damaging Carlos Sainz' Ferrari.

Read also: Las Vegas business owners seeking compensation from F1

The Las Vegas GP’s title partnership with Heineken Silver alone was said to be worth $15 million per year, according to Sports Business Journal.

According to global motorsports business website Blackbook Motorsport, the Vegas event brought in around $715 million to F1s third quarter earnings, a seven per cent year-on-year increase to the sport's income.

MGM Resorts International chief financial officer Jonathan Halkyard said it “was the highest-grossing weekend for us, in hotel revenue, in the company’s history," according to a report in The Nevada Independent.

Prazer will now bring that same commercial sensibility to Formula 1 as a whole. She will continue to oversee the Vegas GP operation at the same time and will be commuting back and forth between south west USA and London in her new role.

The sport's governing body the FIA is also undergoing a period of staff renewal of its own.

Last week, Tim Malyon was appointed sporting director within the single-seater department after the departure of Steve Nielsen from the role after just 12 months in post.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.