What about concerns that such collaborations risk diminishing the skill and effort required to reach this level of the sport?
Beckham is known for his previous attempts to break into modelling, photography and cookery. He also tried to follow in his father’s footsteps, but was released by Arsenal’s academy aged 15.
“When this comes out, people are going to think that I’m going to try and become an F1 driver,” he says.
“They think I’m going to change careers again. But people will understand and realise how mentally tough this sport is.
“These guys in these cars are just so talented. I’m just really excited to meet them and be a part of this.”
A decade on from its debut, Dodds defends using such personalities.
“They are masterful at creating compelling video content,” he says.
“Collectively they have around 300m followers on social media, so bringing this product to that audience has to be a good thing for the sport.
“It’s not a gimmick because it’s the real car on a Grade 1 racing track.”
The influencers will be behind the wheels of the fastest accelerating single-seater race car in the world.
“They’ll be on the track individually, which is a much safer environment,” says Dodds who wants to introduce this as a standalone promotional event in the race calendar.
“But it also gives them the opportunity to push the boundaries as far as they’re comfortable. This will be a case of how brave are they? How far are they prepared to push the car?”
The amateur drivers will be put through their paces in a driving simulator before being guided by the professionals in dedicated physical and driver training sessions.
“The main ambition is to show the difference between someone learning to drive these cars and the gap between them and elite drivers,” adds Dodds.
“If anything, it’s going to showcase just how highly-skilled these drivers are.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.bbc.com ’
