U.S. F1 fans should remember this name: Farid Shidfar

Now we know who is behind the proposed Las Vegas Formula One race – a name that has been kept secret until it was revealed in a story on Forbes.com, written by Formula One authority Christian Sylt.

“A technology entrepreneur with links to Hollywood power-broker Steven Spielberg has been revealed to be the organizer of the Formula One Grand Prix planned for the streets of Las Vegas,” Sylt wrote.

That would be Farid Shidfar, “founder of digital meeting service rundavoo.com and pioneer of the Los Angeles media and entertainment practice at consultancy firm Accenture,” wrote Sylt. “This position brought him into contact with a number of show-business power-brokers including Steven Spielberg.”

Sylt continued: “Mr. Shidfar spent 15 years as a senior executive at Accenture and worked with the world’s biggest media and entertainment brands including Disney, MGM, Sony and Universal. He left in 2008 to take on private projects and began to build closer links to Vegas.”

P2M Motorsports

The Forbes.com story said that Shidfar, last January, “founded the Nevada company P2M Motorsports Management LLC, and his Linkedin page confirms that it is the ‘consortium bringing Formula 1 to the Las Vegas Strip.’”

Sylt wrote that apparently Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone has presented Shidfar with a contract for the Las Vegas Grand Prix and that the entrepreneur is currently considering it. “Interestingly,” Sylt wrote, “although Mr. Shidfar’s background is not in the automotive or auto racing industry, his late father was reportedly chief executive of the Honda Company of Iran following a stint as the country’s vice minister of economic affairs and finance. In 2011 he passed away in Los Angeles where his son is still based. It puts him in pole position to spearhead the race in nearby Vegas.”

Ecclestone has gone on record as saying the race would be run on the Las Vegas Strip, and the Linkedin profile that Sylt uncovered confirms that. But we still don’t know several key facts: How Shidfar proposes to close down one of the busiest, most congested road in the U.S. without disrupting the all-important casino, resort and performance venue traffic; who else is bringing money to the project; and who from the world of motorsports is working with Shidfar to handle the motorsports-related technical matters.

But we now know the name of Farid Shidfar, and that is more than we knew previously.