"Formula 1 is getting old." Darren Heath

[fandango]

Formula 1 Photographs - Blog - F1 Photos - Darren Heath Photographer

I'm inclined to agree completely with what he says (even though I'm 43 with two kids). Anyone any ideas on what F1 should do to move with the times?

Ticket prices? Online live broadcasting? Demotion and promotion like in football? A thread for some new ideas..

[donKey jote]

Formula 1 Photographs - Blog - F1 Photos - Darren Heath Photographer

Apparently the average F1 fan fits neatly into a predictable category: he’s 45 years old, has two children, a middle-management career, plans on attending one race a year, and couch-slouches the rest on either terrestrial or digital TV.

ouch

[schmenke]

What a stupid blog.


F1 is now commercially more successful than ever before. With a world-wide television (now in HD) audience of several 100s million every fortnight, and seemingly no lack of sponsors, how is the sport in jeopardy?

Formula 1 draws the largest world-wide body of fans of any motorsport. The sponsors doesn’t care if it’s either balding 40-something ( * cough * ) or 20 year olds watching the events? Sponsorship deals continue to be negotiated and that is what’s ultimately financing the sport.

What “clock is ticking”? I, for one see, no imminent end to the sport.

Why should kids “adore Formula 1”? So what if they don’t? Millions of others do. I certainly didn’t “adore” the sport as a kid. My interest in it expanded as I matured.

“The sport lives in the past on a diet of one-off $50m deals when progressive minds are all about 500 million $1 deals.” Wtf is this all about? F1 currently lives on current 500 million world-wide deals every two weeks.

The author talks about kids playing Angry Birds, and continues to cricize Kimi’s Lotus emblazoned with anti-dandruff shampoo and deodorant. Does he not realize that the car also carries an Angry Bird prominently on the nose?

Rubbish.

[tfp]

What is that bloke getting at? Just because he doesnt know any young'uns that follow F1, he thinks that there arent any?

The fact is F1 isnt for everyone, and if they dont like it they dont watch it. Much like I think football matches are pretty boring.

[N4D13]

While F1 is certainly not in a bad shape, I'm sure that some things could be done much better. For instance, Formula 1's involvement on the Internet is extremely poor, which is a huge shame - how many million viewers would an appropriate presence on the Internet bring? If only they started a campaign to promote the sport on the Internet - higher presence on social networks, more contents published on the Internet, perhaps even live streaming of races... that's a kind of thing that could increase F1's popularity significantly, and it might appeal to many people who don't know about the sport any more than it's about cars driving round circuits, don't you think?

[jarrambide]

The sponsors doesn’t care if it’s either balding 40-something ( * cough * ) or 20 year olds watching the events? Sponsorship deals continue to be negotiated and that is what’s ultimately financing the sport.

Actually they care, they care a lot, different products have different markets, if your market is 20's, then you sponsor a sport that appeals to 20's, if your market is 40's with high income, you sponsor F1, apparently many companies want to sell to 40's with high income, which is why F1 has no problems getting sponsors.

[Rollo]

How many 45 year olds are likely to buy Red Bull? Obviously Red Bull see the utility of advertising on the side of a Formula One car or else they wouldn't have done it... twice.

I get on a bus during the school commute, and every Wednesday there's always at least one copy of Auto Action mag being read by a few high school students. That suggests to me that today's kids are as likely to be F1 fans as ever before if that's a useful sample.

I reject Darren Heath's reality and substitute my own.

[SGWilko]

This glut of 45 year old fans, won't their kids follow in their parents love of the sport????

[AndyL]

While F1 is certainly not in a bad shape, I'm sure that some things could be done much better. For instance, Formula 1's involvement on the Internet is extremely poor, which is a huge shame - how many million viewers would an appropriate presence on the Internet bring? If only they started a campaign to promote the sport on the Internet - higher presence on social networks, more contents published on the Internet, perhaps even live streaming of races... that's a kind of thing that could increase F1's popularity significantly, and it might appeal to many people who don't know about the sport any more than it's about cars driving round circuits, don't you think?

I would say F1 probably does better in this respect than any other form of motorsport. For example the live timing is free, comprehensive and real-time - much better than anyone else's. There is good content on the f1.com web site. As a counter-example, have you tried to use the World Superbikes web site - it's rubbish. Some of the teams make good content available too, e.g. the telemetry and pit radio they have on the McLaren site.

[ArrowsFA1]

I would say F1 probably does better in this respect than any other form of motorsport. For example the live timing is free, comprehensive and real-time - much better than anyone else's.

In terms of engaging with fans F1, by that I mean the series not the teams or drivers, has been very slow to utilise social media and is way behind the likes of Indycar and NASCAR. The amount of content, particularly via Twitter, from drivers, teams and journalists, is excellent and makes the sport more accessible but FOM seem unwilling to engage in the same way, preferring to restrict access wherever possible.