YouTube Founder Goes Racing

It is so rare that ones hobbies intersect with their work world. However today is that day for me with the confirmation of the long speculated news that YouTube co-founder and CEO Chad Hurley will officially be a primary sponsor of the US F1 team's 2010 season.

I'm a big fan of Formula 1 and autoracing in general. We even have a website dedicated to it.

The funny part of course is the comments from the US F1 team owners...

"Chad's addition to the team is a victory for USF1," US F1 team principal Ken Anderson said. "Bringing in a businessman with his level of credentials, and experience in developing and fostering a vision for start-up companies, is an honor, and we look forward to taking on the Formula 1 challenge together in 2010 and beyond."

Sporting director Peter Windsor added, "This is a great day for USF1. Chad's commitment to this team is vital and his visionary expertise and leadership will help steer us into the future as we look to attract best-in-class sponsors, drivers, employees and fans in our quest to compete at the highest level of motorsports."

I'm quite sure that Chad Hurley is brilliant. The bottom line is he's a millionaire and I'm not. But beyond building a company that got bought by Google - what are "his credentials" in the racing world exactly? My favorite part is that Chad thinks that the internet and social media can help the team in some way.  This article says it all.  At least the team principles have level set him about how long it is going to take to ramp up.

However, the most important point of all is that, if Chad thinks the business model of an F1 team is ANYTHING like YouTube, he's got another thing coming. You can't run a team in the red for years and years, keep getting new investors on board, ultimately getting some other, bigger team to buy you out for millions in profit. Ain't gonna happen.  You need to get this "business" of a racing team running the black!

The geek in me thinks its really cool that the internet nouveau riche are getting into racing - but just like the never ending parade of professional athletes who think racing team ownership/management is a breeze - I think Mr. Hurley is in for a rude awakening.  I wish him the best....but I'm bracing for the worst.

At the very least he can hopefully help the team with their website.  :)