Formula One has been determined to ‘crack America’ for decades and with the much hyped Las Vegas Grand Prix this was surely the season the sport’s promoters hoped audiences would grow. Yet disturbing TV viewing numbers now released suggests interest in the US may have peaked and are on the wain.

Since the commercial rights were purchased to F1 by Liberty Media interest stateside has grown significantly much of which has been due to them opening up access to the paddock for Netflix Drive to Survive series.

 

 

 

F1 ‘exclusivity’ failure

Bernie Ecclestone who previously headed up the sport’s commercial interests had a different philosophy of how to maximise revenue from F1 and this was to create exclusivity.

The number of F1 official global partners were restricted as were the number of events. Further, the use of official Formula One owned footage on social media was frowned upon as the ageing supremo failed to understand fully the power of the digital age.

Bernie also looked to deliver Formula One into Asian countries in particular with no grass roots motorsports heritage with notable failures being the Indian and Korean Grand Prix.

Somewhat predictably these events had a short life span and the purpose built multi hundred million dollar circuits now lie empty and falling into decay.

Mystery of the medical helicopter

 

 

 

Las Vegas ruins hope of New York race

It may have been fortuitous that Liberty Media fell into the Netflix growth model but when it became evident the power of the show to excite interest in F1 where none before had been evident, Liberty Media embraced this totters with an expansion plan for the number of races the US would host.

With three events during 2023 in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas many in the paddock appear to believe this for now is about the right number for the States to hit, but there has been persistent talk of a fourth event – potentially in New York – though in a strange way the success of the Las Vegas event may well scupper this location for good.

One of the problems with a New York Grand Prix is the location. The city administrators have shown no appetite for the F1 cars to race up fifth avenue and through Central Park pas the iconic landmarks of the city.

Yet since Las Vegas opened its world famous ‘strip’ to F1 with all the chaos and confusion that brought, the sight of F1 hurtling past sin cities most famous buildings means any kind of Brooklyn based circuit would fail to match the glamour of the Nevada race.

F1 insiders says Red Bull facing “huge loss”

 

 

 

TV audiences fall in 2023 F1

The 2021 season with its last lap of th least race dramatic result served to create even more interest in the USA and the best ever viewing audiences were the following year where an average of 1.21 million watching the 22 races on ESPN and ABC.

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.

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 this year will have had an effect on the US audience but the fall in figures will be of concern to the owners of the commercial rights.

Hamilton/Alonso rivalry intensified with swipe at the Brit

 

 

 

F1 CEO gives audience figures perspective

To give the numbers a little perspective, the average audience for Sunday Night Football in 2022 was 18.7 million which shows how far F1 has to go before it can be considered mainstream.

Earlier this year, F1 CEO Stefano Domencali announced the global audience figures for 2022 which fell slightly from the previous year to 1.54 billion.

“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%.”

So given the average viewership globally for an F1 race is 70 million, the USA with its population similar in size to Europe is only scratching the surface at less than 2% of the total.

Verstappen told to change his media profile

 

 

 

Red Bull will continue to dominate F1

F1’s base numbers since it returned to ESPN in 2018 have been impressive having mire than doubled it its peak from just 554,000. Yet the fall in numbers for 2023 will be of concern to Liberty Media given it is in stark contrast to the “50% rise” heralded by Domenicali earlier this year.

who will realise the lack of competition for race wins and titles will have had a significant impact.

The stable nature of the regulations is supposed to provide the opportunity for teams to converge given the laws of diminishing returns Red Bull can make from the recent big rule changes in 2022. 

Yet this writer has argued previously the changes made by the FIA were so huge, even Red Bull may have only perfected a relatively small area of ground effect aerodynamics and themselves have big improvements to come before the next big regulation change in 2026.

IndyCar champ admits contract breach and faces ruin

 

 

 

F1 Tv shows grow in number 

That said, Netflix have clearly created interest for TV audiences which others are now seeking to exploit. Disney+ have just released their four part fairy tale series hosted by Keanu Reeves of the £1 F1 team which cleaned up in 2009.

Brad Pitt is shooting an F1 movie with Lewis Hamilton as executive director, though th actors and writers strikes this year saw the project stalled as their pit lane garage was empty for race after race as the European season drew to a close.

The disappointing US audience numbers will be difficult to turn around quickly given in 2023 the number of Sprint events was doubled from 3 to 6. F1 believe this attracts more interest over a Grand Prix weekend because there is competitive track action on all three days rather than just Saturday afternoon and Sunday.

FIA recognise 2023 regulation failure

 

 

 

Is Max Verstappen right after all?

Max Verstappen has been scathing of the Sprint weekend formats and following the first of the 2023 he was asked for his thoughts

“Just scrap the whole thing,” the now triple world champion hissed. “I think it’s just important to go back to what we had and make sure that every team can fight for the win, that’s what we have to try and aim for [rather than] trying to implement all these kinds of artificial excitement.”

The Red Bull driver is somewhat justified by these US TV audience numbers and maybe F1’s new(ish) owners still have a thing or two to learn. Maybe even in the USA where attention spans are reportedly lower during sporting events, messing with a 75 year old sport and its fairly stable weekend schedule won’t deliver more viewers and may just irritate some of those who are already there.

READ MORE: Mercedes admit they will take a “MASSIVE RISK” for Hamilton