Fans, Monza, 2018

F1 race attendance rose in 2018, according to FOM

2018 F1 season

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The number of people who attended Formula 1 races rose by 2.7% on average in 2018, according to figures published by Formula One Management.

The total attendance across this year’s 21 races was 4,093,305, an average of 194,919. “The average attendance per race weekend was up over the 2017 figures by 2.7%,” said FOM in a statement.

Last year it report a total attendance of 4,071,400 for its 20-race season, an average of 203,570, which would indicate attendance has fallen. However, FOM noted, “according for the adjustments made to certain 2017 attendance figures subsequent to the release of last year’s attendance results and the increase from 20 to 21 to the total number of events, the overall increase in attendance from 2017 to 2018 is 7.83% in absolute terms.”

The total race-day attendance for the 2018 season was 1,702,959, an average of 81,093 per race. Silverstone had the biggest race-day crowd, with 140,500 spectators turning up on Sunday.

The change in the number of races from 2017 to 2018 was due to the removal of the Malaysian Grand Prix and the return of the German and French races. The latter attracted weekend audiences of 165,000 and 150,000 according to FOM. The 2019 F1 calendar features the same 21 races that were on this year’s schedule.

Fans were also surveyed on their experience of attending races. “In 15 of the 16 events where the research took place, 70% of the spectators judged the experience ‘very enjoyable,’” said FOM.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “F1 race attendance rose in 2018, according to FOM”

  1. …according to FOM.

    Understood.

    1. You just have to look at the statistics the right (wrong) way and you can make it say anything you want.

      1. And if just looking at it a particular way doesn’t help you sell your line then there’s always…

        adjustments made to certain 2017 attendance figures

  2. Probably the Max effect..
    Spa, Austria, Hungary, france, germany lots of Dutch orange. But even the asian races showed a lot of orange.

    1. Yep, I was also expecting the header image to be orange, surprised it is red.

  3. . But even the asian races showed a lot of orange

    You need new glasses the orange tint is effecting your vision. :))

    1. You should invest in a color tv set ;)

      1. It’s true but you have to know that Japanese, Chinese etc. are all dressing up in the colors of their favorite drivers. It’s not like thousands of Dutch go to those races (a few I’m sure) like they do in Europe.

  4. So last year with 20 races we had 4,071,400 people, but this year with 21 races we had 4,093,305. But after we corrected the numbers from last year, so that they came out lower we have an average increase! Don’t worry folks, this year adjustments will come when we release next year numbers to make it go up again!

    1. I think someone got confused when preparing the statistics. FOM have earnestly tried to discourage people from watching their races, and the drop in average attendance across all the races is proof they’ve been successful, so should be welcomed, and proclaimed with lots of fanfare. Tweaking the figures to make it look as though there has been an increase in attendance, when there wasn’t, suggests fining people for watching F1 doesn’t work, and that bigger fines for watching the races are necessary.

  5. Lies, damned lies, and FOM statistics. ;-)

  6. I don’t understand why Germany is so poorly attended. It’s a country with a significantly bigger population than France or the UK and it has a significant history in F1. They are economically sound as well and they have a multiple DWC fighting for the title in a red car, whilst his rival is driving a silver arrows for crying out loud! Why are Germans not showing up in bigger numbers?

    1. You need drivers that attracts people. Vettel has lost his appeal and the hulk is to far behind.
      They hope for a new schumacher to stir things up.

    2. Because they know that that attending an F1 race is pretty poor value for money compared to other motorsport events they can attend in their country and actually vote with their feet by choosing not to go. In 2014 a Truck racing event held at Nurburgring on the same day as the German GP managed to get 100k to attend vs 50k that went to Hockenheim for F1. They aren’t like UK fans who constantly complain about Silverstone prices but then still buy the tickets.

  7. A 5% increase in the number of events.
    A 2.7% increase in audience.

    In other words, they’re going backwards…

  8. I’m not convinced about the post hoc audience manipulation of last year’s figures. That to me looks suspiciously like we shouldn’t trust any figure Liberty produces regarding tickets – we have been given no reason to have confidence this year’s stats are any more correct…

Comments are closed.