Liberty Media has made much of how it is developing Formula One since acquiring the commercial rights to the sport back in 2017. The popular Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’ has been a hit in North America and is lauded as the key to F1 ‘cracking’ the USA market.

Yet the reality is despite the increased popularity in F1, the base of TV fans was so low citing percentage growth is somewhat of a nonsense. The 2022 F1 season saw the high watermark in terms of US TV viewers where the average audience for each race was 1.21 million. Now numbers coming from the network would suggest the fall of 10% for the 2023 season is now accelerating in 2024.

 

 

 

NASCAR audience 4 million 

NASCAR is the motorsport of choice in the US with regular TV audiences over 4 million each weekend, yet even the infamous ‘stock car’ races have suffered declining audiences this year and the weekend just gone in Talladega was no different.

blackbookmotorsport.com reports a year on year decrease in the NASCAR audience although the first five events of the year have maintained an average viewership in excess of 4 million.

IndyCar had a shocking weekend as the series returned to its most iconic venue outside the Indianapolis International Speedway. The Long Beach Grand Prix is the longest running major street race held in North America and began back in 1975 as a Formula 5000 event.

Then in 1976 Formula One came to Los Angeles town racing the iconic waterside track until in 1983 the promoter Chris Pook decided the meagre profit earned from the event was not worth the $8 million budget it cost to host the F1 race.

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IndyCar audience down 70%

Concerned one poor running of the event would bankrupt him, Pook convinced the city leaders to back a switch to Championship Auto Racing Teams IndyCar event in 1984. Quickly the prominence of the race in a run down dockside area of LA saw property developers convert dilapidated and condemned buildings into five star hotels, residential areas together with high end shopping and restaurants.

In 2016 the Long Beach City Council opened up a working party to investigate a return to hosting F1 races on the famous circuit. Yet a year later it was decided unanimously that the Long Beach Grand Prix would remain indefinitely as part of the Indycar series.

As IndyCar celebrated 40 years of the Long Beach Grand Prix last weekend, USA viewing audiences were less than impressed. The numbers were 70% down year on year as the event went up against both NASCAR and the NBA making it the least watched Long Beach race since it joined the newly reformed IndyCar series Back in 2008.

Experts suggest the 2024 scheduling could be to blame give its the first race for five weeks since the season opener back in St. Petersburg in March. This time lapse has been credited with the sport losing momentum with its fans.

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F1 interest drop off in USA

F1 in the the USA is also suffering a drop off in TV audience interest. The Chinese Grand Prix has not been held for five years and so the audience of 626,000 had no direct comparison. The previous race saw viewers top 268,000 but this was prior to the popularity increase in F1 seen since the titanic battle of 2021 between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

Further the 40% drop in people watching the Chinese GP from the average F1 TV audience of last year may be explained by the fact Formula One was on pay-per-view and not NBC.

Next time out is the first F1 visit to the US this season as the Miami Grand Prix takes centre stage. TV bosses are hoping for a return to the 1 million plus audiences enjoyed throughout 2023 although with NASCAR slated to visit Kansas Speedway there will be stiff competition for the attention of motorsport fans.

TJ13 reported back in November the official figures now released show that despite the Las Vegas factor, TV audiences fell 10% during 2023 to an average of just 1.11 million in the USA.

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USA less than 2% of F1 viewers

Certain races bucked the trend as the numbers rose to record heights for the events held in Saudi Arabia, Monaco, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Singapore and Mexico.

Clearly the predictable nature of seeing Red Bull winning 21 of the 22 races last year had an effect on the US audience but the fall in figures will be of concern to the owners of the commercial rights. For some reason F1 has craved breaking into the USA for decades and there is evidence since Liberty Media acquired the commercial rights to the sport, there has been a significant growth in interest in the sport.

Yet we have to put into context the US contribution to the F1 audience as Stefano Domenicali explained after F1’s first bumper year in the states.

“Cumulative TV audiences for the 2022 season was 1.54 billion and average viewership for races was 70 million,” said the Italian. “US viewership was up 36% compared to 2021, with an average of 1.2 million viewers tuning in on race days. Looking at some other markets, Italy viewership grew 22%, Australia was up 20% and Germany viewership grew 9%.”

Hidden away in these impressive statistics is the reality that Formula One’s global audience is around 70 million for each race weekend. The USA contributes less than 2% of that number on a good day and hopes it could one day match the NASCAR audience of 4 million, appears for now to be a pipe dream.

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New system set to devalue F1

New F1 points system farce. This week representatives from each of the Formula One teams will join a video conference to debate a proposed change to the current method of awarding points. The current system has been in place since 2010 but over the years F1 has rewarded success through a variety of different systems.

When first inaugurated, F1 awarded points only to the top 5 drivers 8-6-4-2-1 with a point for the fastest lap. This was changed in 1960 with the fastest lap point being dropped but sixth place now attracted a point. The winner now received 9 points in a format that would remain for a decade 9-6-4-3-2-1….READ MORE