The rising popularity of Formula 1 has seemed unstoppable over the past year and has affected every aspect of the sport.
The series has signed multi-year TV deals and announced a record-breaking 2023 F1 calendar. Lucrative expansion partnerships were announced with the likes of Amazon Web Services. As the next generation of power units arrive, Audi has finally landed a new manufacturer. All over the world, the Great Run races are sold out.
F1 owner Independent Media continues to see its revenues from race promotion, media rights and sponsorships increase. Following increases in Q1 and Q2, Formula 1 reported a 7% year-over-year increase in revenue for the third quarter of 2022.
The champion was not always healthy. Compare the current situation to ten years ago, when F1 was still led by Bernie Ecclestone and the global audience had declined significantly year on year. In the year In 2013, the numbers published by Formula 1 commercial rights holders CVC in their official Global Report were poor. In the year In 2012, the number dropped from 515 million viewers worldwide to 450 million.
Eccleston said the dominance of Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel had alienated spectators, resulting in fewer people tuning in for the final seasons. That was indeed the case: Vettel won all nine races that year as he went on to become the champion. But Max Verstappen’s similar dominance this year hasn’t stopped F1’s progress.
It is nearly six years since Ecclestone was ousted and Liberty Media took over the sport. Since then, new audiences have been drawn in by Netflix’s Drive to Survive, and younger audiences flock to racing, helped by the growing rivalry between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a factor in all of this, but F1 was one of the first sports to get back up and running after the first half of the 2020 season was cancelled.
Despite the pandemic’s depression, the liberal media can be satisfied that it has since recovered. The series grossed $715m (£638m) in July, August and September. After the first seven races, the overall average audience per Grand Prix was 22.9m, an increase of 11%.
The new Miami Grand Prix – a marquee race on the calendar that has struggled for years with independence – recorded a total audience of 23m over the weekend, up 27% on the 2021 United States GP. The Dutch Grand Prix set a record for all seven markets at 10.11m, up 44% from last year. Even after Verstappen’s championship, the Brazilian Grand Prix recorded 10.6m audiences for eight major markets, up 42% from 2021.
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Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali told investors in November: “The increase in attendance is very good in terms of what Formula 1 brings in, mainly new audiences.” “And it is true that the business model with certain promoters is related to the fact that they have to pay, there is a high level paddock club on our side.
“Moving forward, the biggest opportunity is to increase revenue and generate revenue as Formula 1 becomes more and more attractive. That’s what we will do in the future.
“We have a different way of doing it and I am confident that we will achieve this development in the best possible way in the next two years.”
Formula 1 added a third American race this year when the Las Vegas Grand Prix joined the competition. It serves to illustrate its significant growth in the US, a market the sport has historically struggled to break into.
Are there any downsides to the development of F1? As the calendar expands to 23 rounds next season – six of which are the Liberty’s most prestigious sprint format – the demands on teams will increase, which will arguably have an even greater impact on those at the back of the field.
“For a driver [the extra races] It’s okay,” explained Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. “For the team, for the mechanics, for the catering people, I think it’s too much now.
“It’s different. [for] You get a lot of competition because some of the bigger teams can switch so that some guys go half the season, and another set of mechanics go the other half. It is very difficult on small groups, they are made of something special.
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The pressure on venues from growing audiences has become clear in 2022. F1 has promised to improve its preparations for the Spanish Grand Prix after the Séctor de Catalunya struggled to cope with a sell-out crowd last May. Some 300,000 fans flocked to the venue over the weekend, but the experience was anything but fun for some. The district and its surrounding facilities seem to have burst onto the scene with traffic chaos and long queues waiting for a respite from the scorching heat.
This was not the only event where the number of visitors caused logistical problems. Traffic jams have led to huge queues at rural grands prix such as Spa-Francorchamps and Paul Ricard (although the latter will not return this year, while the former is not under contract for 2024). In Imola, some participants were stuck in car parks due to flooding. Hotel fees at other events have gone up significantly, which of course isn’t F1’s fault, but adds to the costs fans have to absorb.
Visitor numbers have become a problem in the paddock, particularly in Austin and Mexico City, prompting complaints from some drivers. Additional security personnel were brought to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez to protect some drivers.
Fan engagement and enjoyment are an integral part of any sport. Liberty’s recent rise to becoming a global sensation has proven they have a winning formula, but they need to know they’re not victims of their own success.
The next steps will be some of the most important for F1 and their owners, to continue to increase their success, but not to harm the fans. Although Domenicali has stated that he believes 24 races should be the maximum, he is working on a strategy to hold the series to 25, and there seems to be no shortage of willing hosts. In the year In 2023, the independence challenge will be stronger than ever on F1’s growing success, and it will take a shrewd head to prevent this from happening in the interests of the sport.
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