The distraught little boy whose face was all over the television when his idol Kimi Raikkonen crashed out on the first lap of last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, may not have had the happy ending of meeting his star back in the Ferrari pits in Bernie Ecclestone was still in charge of the Formula One Championship.
This is according to the new CEO of Formula One, Chase Carey, who is trying to make the sport a lot more fan friendly than it has been under Bernie's control as the main focus is not money as it has been for decades, the approach leaning more towards making fans happy instead.
People have said for many many years that the series needed to be more fan friendly because without the fans, the sport itself would die, as has been evident by a lot of empty grandstands over the last decade.
After seeing that young fan, Thomas Danel, going from tears to smiles after Ferrari personal hunted the family down, inviting them back to the garage and had them meet Kimi, Chase Carey believes that this ‘special moment' shows that teams are now feeling free to involve the fans more.
“We got all this press about the little boy who got pulled down, and they did it on their own, having a sense a freedom that they wouldn't have had a year ago,” he told Motorsport.com. “I didn't tell them to find the little boy, there are people who did it on their own, thought it would be a special moment, and it was.”
