F1 supremo identifies HUGE shift in F1’s new goals – Formula One is celebrating its 75th year in 2025 and is reaching historic numbers in terms of its audience from all around the world – or so we are led to believe. The Netflix factor from the popular series ‘Drive to survive’ is cited by many as the turning point in the fortunes of the sport yet behind the scenes there’s a shift in the force – not for the better – detected by the more dinosaur-esque fans of the sport.
Netflix is credited with having performed miracles for F1 in terms of cracking the USA – something Bernie Ecclestone wished to achieve for decades – together with rejuvenating the fan base which has led to a host of new sponsors and partners clamouring to have their names associated with the sport.
Much of the ‘cracking America’ talk is mere hype and based on a pole published in 2022 which stated 28% of Americans are now F1 fans. Clearly this is utter rubbish, given this would mean some 72 million US citizens would be tuning in come race day on Sunday.
The F1 hype over America
The reality is that Formula One has just about now matched and at times exceeds the TV audience for Indycar with figures from the recent weekend in Shanghai demonstrating the effect. An average of 824,000 viewers watched McLaren’s Oscar Piastri take victory in the Chinese Grand Prix despite a 3am Eastern Time start. This was up 31.6 per cent over last year’s race, which did take place later in the season.
Media reports claim this represents an almost 300 per cent jump in viewership compared to the first Chinese Grand Prix on ESPN, which averaged 284,000 viewers back in 2018. Yet the same weekend Nascar’s Cup series attracted three times the viewership of F1, with its second tier Xfinity and Truck series also beating the numbers of viewers watching F1.
Yet this success in the US is more down to falling interest in Indycar, given F1’s big season for US fans was back in 2022. Then an average of 1.19m watched the seasons F1 Grand Prix which fell the following year to just 1.16m and ing 2024 this fell 3% further to 1.13m. Yet these numbers pale into insignificance when compared to the 826.5 million eyeballs which watched F1 in 2024, an increase of some 90m although this was mostly drive by a huge rise in viewership in China.
Cracking America wasn’t that difficult after all, Bernie Ecclestone may conclude. However, behind the headlines are interesting shifts in the makeup of F1’s new audiences. Figures show female interest has risen from just around 8% of the mix to 44% at the latest count, the average age of the F1 audience in plummeting too.
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F1’s changing audience
Most of this is being done through engagement on social media with new commercial rights holders, Liberty Media having relaxed the intellectual property rules that used to prevent a driver from posting a selfie from his pit lane garage. “Content creators have the ability to help brands tap into topics that run adjacent to F1,” says TJ Adeshola, an operating partner at Arctos Partners, a private equity firm which recently took a stake in Aston Martin Racing.
“So let’s say you have a mummy blogger or a food critic who has this really strong and engaged audience, how do I create this content adjacency that’s going to pull those audiences in to become fans of F1 and Aston Martin.”
This is all well and good, but attracting new kinds of fans for Formula One is requiring the sport makes significant changes in an attempt to retain these new ‘fans’ who by the very nature of their social media driven contact can be flighty at the best of times. Keeping these new audiences engaged without alienating F1 traditionalists will be one of the sport’s biggest challenges over the next decade.
Change is not coming easy for the F1 traditionalists and F1’s big boss understands this as he is the poacher come gamekeeper in charge of F1’s destiny. Stefan Domenicali was the last Ferrari team principal to bring championship glory to the iconic red liveried F1 team with both Kimi Raikkonen winning the drivers’ and the team the constructors’ titles in 2007/8 respectively.
F1’s core objective rooted in technology
The F1 supremo has done an about face in his position over what is important to F1 as long standing fans see much of the historic attraction of the sport whittled away. F1 is now a soap opera style drama with DJ’s pumping out the beats for those in the grandstands just minutes before lights out and the on track action begins.
During his Ferrari tenure Domenicali was extremely resistant to the FIA’s two decade old push to reduce costs and make the sport more sustainable but now his optics come from a different perspective. In a recent interview with motorsport.com F1’s supremo now claims the teams are still spending too much money which endanger the future of the sport.
Of courser once the priority of those running an F1 outfit was technical prowess and a budget big enough to rival that of certain small nations, all in the dash to beat the opposition and see their drivers regularly on the top step of the podium. The Liberty Media dynamic has shown those running the respective teams that profit can be an equally engaging motivation, yet the manufacturers remain engaged by the billion dollar a year free marketing which success in the sport provides their brands.
The new fans care littler for the expensive technological advances made by the teams something Domenicali admits once Dave his ambition. “Fans of my generation need to rethink what creates performance and technological interest,” says the F1 boss. “Focusing on sustainable fuels is absolutely the right path,” he suggests.
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Entertainment now F1’s priority
This is contrary the the very nature of the world wide petrol heads, who see power and noise the end game in any automobile racing objectives. What was once the obsession of the F1 teams in terms of technological advances, is of little interest to the millions of social media followers and will be reflected in the future direction of the sport.
“But, and this may sound provocative, having teams invest huge amounts in designing their own gearboxes no longer makes sense,” continues the Italian. “The performance gains are minimal,” he insists. “Fans no longer see it as an exciting area of development. We need to identify areas where technology and entertainment overlap.”
“Many things that once seemed cutting-edge no longer justify major investment. We must have the courage to accept that the landscape has evolved,” continues Domenicali. Formula One is one of the few prototype racing series left in the world, but a shift towards using more standard components across the entire field now appears inevitable.
It is most likely the solution to the current crisis over the 2026 new F1 powertrains will be solved by allowing Audi to produce a standard energy recovery system for the front axle, that they have pioneered in endurance racing. Such technical advances would once have been formed from a Eureka moment in the design office of one of the F1 teams and Domenicali accepts his time at Ferrari was regularly driven by this. “I’ve lived through many,” he says. “Malaysia ’99, the double diffuser, FRIC, mass dampers, F-ducts… all part of F1’s story.
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Big changes may lead to a purer form of racing
“I used to be hands-on with technical and sporting regulation debates almost every Sunday,” he recalls. “Years ago, there were far broader grey areas than today, but F1 people still know how to push everything to the limit. Personally, I feel today’s controversies are relatively minor,” he suggests. “In fact, it’d be nice to have a bit more of that again, they’re the spice of the sport.”
There has been such a row brewing for some time, as a number of teams believe McLaren in particular is using flexible bodywork against the regulations set out by the FIA. But the ‘spice’ to which Domenicali is referring is now more likely to come from an obsession for “transparency” – or nosiness – when a senior paddock member is accused of inappropriate behaviour.
With the team’s on board following their sell outs to profit motivated investors, F1 is facing big changes and they will come quickly. The 2026 engine crisis is an example of this as this in charge of the sport realise a V8 or V10 engine would improve the entertainment of Formula One. Interestingly for many long standing fans, this particular technical regression in fact receives their full support.
The big problem the sport needs to solve is overtaking, which the ground effect cars were supposed to fix. Removing around half of the downforce from the aerodynamics on top of the car, was presumed to reduce the ‘dirty air’ effect which destroys the tyres of a car following too closely. A renewed focus on improving the entertainment does not need to be merely at the behest of F1’s social media followers, but also by those who prefer motor racing to be more about the man behind the wheel, than the machine.
Some believe this objective to improve the entertainment in F1 will see the death of the sport, yet other dinosaurs are more optimistic and see the championing of the competitors as something which will lead to an even purer form of motor racing.
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Lewis Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes has robbed F1 of an enduring bi-annual season log event. Contract negotiations between the Brackley based squad and the seven times world champion filled the back pages of the printed media for month after month in the year Hamilton was to become out of contract.
His final deal with the silver arrows team was expected to be a shoe in with Toto Wolff claiming come pre-season testing in 2023, the reason ink had not been penned on the dotted line was due to the fact he and Lewis had been on “different continents” during the winter break.
In March of the same year, a mysterious report emerged from the US that Hamilton was in fact expecting a long term driving contract together with a role as an ambassador for Mercedes lasting ten years. The total deal was predicted in the region of half a billion dollars…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
