In the round-up: Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey reported a rise in the number of people watching races so far this year despite being disappointed by the lack of on-track action.
What they say
Carey gave his view on the season so far in a Liberty Media investor call yesterday:
The results on the track so far have not quite delivered the drama and surprises hoped with Mercedes, for the first time ever, finishing one-two in all four races. However it is early in the season and we believe Ferrari and Red Bull have shown the potential to take Mercedes on, and the competition in the midfield is tighter than ever with six teams battling each other week-to-week. And the rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas for the top spot has the potential for some interesting storylines.
A new dynamic introduced for this season is the point for fastest lap if that driver finishes inside the top 10. It’s been well-received by fans and created some new excitement. This extra point is the reason Bottas leads Hamilton by one point, season to date.
In spite of races that did not deliver hoped-for on-track drama, our TV audience through four races is up 3% and our attendance is up 6%. In addition we continue to drive strong growth on digital platforms. For example on social media our video views year to date increased 55% and minutes watched increased 83% to a year ago. That being said we know we have to make our racing better and one of our top priorities continues to be improving the competition, action and unpredictability of our sport on the track.
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Beyond excited to share with you guys that I have joined the @RedBullRacing Junior Team!!
🤗 excited to see what the future brings 🤩
•
¡AMIGOS! Les tengo noticias!! me he unido al @RedBullRacing Junior Team !!
🤗muy contento y a ver que viene en el futuro 🤩 pic.twitter.com/QHYAgQImyW— Patricio O'Ward (@PatricioOWard) May 9, 2019
I still don't know what most of this stuff means. But I'll indeed be driving this "lit" #MillennialCar during the #AllStarRace. pic.twitter.com/ANs19jcDX9
— Kevin Harvick (@KevinHarvick) May 9, 2019
Should @ScuderiaFerrari have put @Charles_Leclerc on soft tyres earlier on in the #AzerbaijanGP? Here's what he said today.#F1 pic.twitter.com/sF6L360ssh
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) May 9, 2019
#F1Barcelona @ayrtonsenna sculpture is ready at the FanZone! Thanks @PaulOz! Come and see it! #SennaSempre #TheTributeThatNeverHappened 🇧🇷🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/GKaOlWInDU
— Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (@Circuitcat_eng) May 9, 2019
The entire Monaco track has been resurfaced recently. That was a bit of a surprise to most of the paddock this morning! Some work still going on but beyond Saint Devote! #ABBFormulaE pic.twitter.com/EYh6mE9c63
— sniffermedia (@sniffermedia) May 9, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Getting to know: Andreas Seidl (McLaren)
"It’s very encouraging to see the step forward the team has made over the winter. The changes that Zak initiated last year – Pat Fry returning to the team, promoting Andrea Stella, bringing in Gil de Ferran, securing James Key, signing Carlos and Lando – are already paying off. The fundamentals have been put in place to move forward. There’s a lot of positive energy and momentum inside the team right now."
Didier Perrin on 'exciting' new era for F2 (F2)
"For obvious cost reasons, we will be keeping changes to a minimum in order to enable the cars to deal with the new tyres. We will be sticking with the same brakes and most of the suspension members, while trying to minimise the bodywork changes."
Leonardo Pulcini: "Something has changed in terms of tyres though and we have to watch them a little bit, especially on the third sector which is the critical part of the track in terms of tyre temperatures."
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Comment of the day
Another unhappy F1 TV user:
Just cancelled my subscription. Wish I could keep it, but that amount of money for a product that is inferior to unofficial streamers I can’t justify anymore. Maybe I’ll come back, but as long as I have my other sources I’m done paying for a non functional app, inaccessible live broadcasts, and buffering replays.
As mentioned above; MLB.tv has been streaming 12 to 15 games a night for 15 years. This isn’t new technology.
@Gunner22
From the forum
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Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
10th May 2019, 0:20
Yeah, keep having every race be as predictable as the Sun rising the next day, with a Merc winning and winning and winning, and those numbers will plummet. The sport has GOT to get some unpredictability AND parity between the teams, otherwise people are going to be bored. When the race is won in turn one of lap one, it just plain sucks. If a baseball game was won or lost with the first batter, nobody would watch.
GtisBetter (@)
10th May 2019, 6:23
We had so many season were teams and drivers were dominant and we are still here in a pretty good place. I think many people who are watching F1 are used to it and wil look for the battles, like F1.5 when it gets boring at the front. I don’t think the sport has to get some unpredictability for the sake of entertainment. It’s always better for have a close titel fight between teams, but nobody wants spec racing. And i doubt the viewers will plummet, cause they would have by now.
GongTong (@gongtong)
10th May 2019, 7:23
I’m sure there’s a certain amount of spin on the figures, but he literally just announced that viewing figures are up. In the fifth year of Mercedes dominance following their fourth 1-2.
So I’m tempted to agree with @passingisoverrated.
I struggle to agree that we are “still here in a pretty good place” overall though. Sponsors are not exactly flocking to the sport. Neither are new teams and a handful of Manufacturers now hold the reigns at the teams we do have. The situation going forward looks delicate to me.
GtisBetter (@)
10th May 2019, 7:28
From the looks we had an increase in sponsors this year, but I haven’t really checked to make sure. F1TV, while being a mess right now, is a step forward, though I agree with the handful of manufacturers. That does seem like something that has been going on for a while and it looks like they have problems lowering the entry for new teams.
Lee1
10th May 2019, 8:59
Increase in sponsors does not mean increase in sponsorship money… They seem to have lowered the bar on how much it costs to slap your stickers on a car…
I am sceptical of the viewership figures especially as they have not told us what the actual figures are. Also I no one I work with watches F1 despite some of them watching FE… The place I work has a young workforce and they are clearly not engaged with F1.
Jon Bee
10th May 2019, 0:26
Before the season started Sky had a special offer of £10 a month to watch F1. That was about half the usual price. The offer closed some weeks ago. This week it returned. I pity those who signed up during the full price period. Now why might Sky be making offers like this? Certainly not because viewers are climbing over each other to watch Martin Brundle, that’s for sure.
ColdFly (@)
10th May 2019, 0:34
I prefer Martin Brundle any day over Herbert (not sure if he is still with Sky), that guy with the necklace (went to FOM I think) and even the diary guy.
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
10th May 2019, 1:36
Chirpy Johnny Herbert won 3 F1 races; dreary Martin Brundle won none.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
10th May 2019, 2:42
I would rather listen to either, than the fake panic-room drama of Crofty or Ted’s dreary pitlane diatribes.
Would prefer so much more to hear no talking-heads. Just the live mics and driver/pit feed. But no, the 21st century media mavens still insist on mediating all televised sports. Radio still casts a loud mealy-mouthed shadow.
bosyber (@bosyber)
10th May 2019, 4:07
Well, that last option is at least something that F1 TV offers @jimmi-cynic
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
10th May 2019, 4:23
@bosybe: When it works. But never works in my region..because…paywall broadcast rights.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
10th May 2019, 7:33
I enjoyed Di Resta when he stood in for Brundle. Would rather have Coulthard than any of them. Also Webber was good on the Ch4 highlights in Baku.
frood19 (@frood19)
10th May 2019, 11:12
I very rarely bother with sky (dodgy stream obvs) but when I do I find the commentary to be so banal and tedious. croft used to be quite good, from what i remember, but now he just shouts at an annoying pitch for basically the entire race, despite the fact the race is invariably dull as shyt. brundle is just kind of phoning it in now and he’s run out of original insights.
the C4 team took a while to bed in, but now they’re really quite good. if i don’t find out the result I will always wait for the highlights. basically, at all time i’m thinking bring back free to air!
ColdFly (@)
10th May 2019, 6:45
Thanks for the stats; now back meaningless opinion sharing.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
10th May 2019, 7:27
@gnosticbrian – but one’s racing record is no indicator of their effectiveness as a commentator or pundit, though, is it? Taking just one example, Karun Chandok and Narain Karthikeyan both have rubbish F1 stats (in fact Narain edges Karun out) but I know I’d rather have Karun than Narain offering commentary.
@coldfly – erm, who’s the guy with the necklace, btw? I didn’t get that reference :)
ColdFly (@)
10th May 2019, 10:10
@phylyp, the crashgate guy who later joined Williams.
Wasn’t he a technical analyst last year for Sky?
Phylyp (@phylyp)
10th May 2019, 10:14
@coldfly – Pat Symonds? Yeah, I vaguely recall him on Sky, but don’t remember any bling or flamboyant necklaces, hence my confusion. (In all honesty, I’d have thought either Mallya or Briatore would be the dudes toting necklaces :))
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
10th May 2019, 12:10
Phylyp – “…but one’s racing record is no indicator of their effectiveness as a commentator or pundit, though, is it?” – where did I say that it was?
My opinion on the two protagonists effectiveness as commentators was contained in the adjectives “chirpy” and “dreary”.
My highlighting of the difference in achievement was to show that both may “talk the talk” but only one actually “walked the walk”.
ColdFly (@)
11th May 2019, 0:20
Yes you did @agnosticbrain, as you responded with your ‘adjectivated’ racing stats to my opinioniated comment about preferred commentators.
And a good racing car walker (e.g. Fred Flinstone) doesn’t necessarily make a good race talker.
ColdFly (@)
11th May 2019, 0:23
Pat Symonds it is. @phylyp
He is always wearing this choking necklace. Maybe a present he got when he visited Mosley in that cellar.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
11th May 2019, 3:15
@coldfly – LOL :)
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
10th May 2019, 7:25
Although, having signed up to the £10 offer, I was a little annoyed to then find the 1st 3 races were shown on the Sky One channel, which I already had on the basic package.
Then again, its still more than worth it for the F2, F3 and IndyCar.
AliceD (@aliced)
10th May 2019, 9:23
If you only want to watch F1 on sky it is going to cost you £36 a month, the 10£ is only if you are an existing sky customer and you are already paying them, this is blatant false advertising.
ColdFly (@)
10th May 2019, 0:31
Great to see Andreas Seidl to join McLaren as F1 Team Principal. I have a lot of respect for him (and expectations).
I still think there are too many Managers (again) at McLaren, but if this means Zak will focus only on running the whole company and the commercial part of F1 then I’m optimistic that this will be another good move in the recovery of McLaren.
Maybe one day F1 can be like football (soccer) and have four British teams leading the championships. Unlikely, as I only count two British teams at the moment, assuming that Racing Fullstop is Canadian and Renault French.
Also in the news:
Texas May Give F1’S US Grand Prix Its Missing $25 Million (AP)
“The Circuit of the Americas in Austin has collected more than $150 million from the Major Events Reimbursement Program for F1’s only race in the U.S. since 2012.”
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
10th May 2019, 2:37
Interesting points about racing, @coldfly.
Racing Fullstop is about as Canadian as Haas is an American constructor. In other words, not very much.
RP and Haas are more British than anything else, so there’s your 4. Merc is more British than German. That’s 5, right there. Even RBR is more British than Austrian. That’s 6.
Unless Brexit pushes all the engineers and factories to some foreign shore, more F1 teams are UK-based than not. Even the French team is based in Enstone. And TR is half-way between the UK and Italy.
Only Ferrari and Sauber…er.. Alfa, remain fully outside the ‘Motorsport Valley’ monopoly of the UK. ;-)
Phylyp (@phylyp)
10th May 2019, 3:36
@coldfly – you might be embarrassed to type it at this time of the month, but the team is named Racing Period.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
10th May 2019, 4:24
Ouch @phylyp! You hit that right on the dot.
ColdFly (@)
10th May 2019, 7:08
Thanks for the tip.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
10th May 2019, 7:31
Ah, my joke fell flat. :(
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
10th May 2019, 8:02
Sorry, @phylyp, but you can recycle it next month. With the proper sanitary precautions, of course.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
10th May 2019, 8:06
Bless you, @jimmi-cynic !
Faulty
10th May 2019, 4:05
¡Yeee, Pato!
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
10th May 2019, 10:38
Yeah, awesome to see RB pick up Pato!!
He’s impressed so far, but I wouldn’t say he’s been get-him-in-an-F1-programme-immediately impressive.
I reckon this is more to do with his Nationality, as the most promising young Mexican will be heir to Perez’s Carlos Slim backing.
Pato looks a better bet that Pietro Fittipaldi right now, which makes him a solid investment.
faulty (@faulty)
10th May 2019, 17:50
He’s not an Escudería Telmex driver, AFAIK.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
10th May 2019, 8:08
Off topic but has anyone noticed that the F1 Thursday press conferences don’t seem to be being added to the official F1 site?
Are F1/Liberty trying to force us to a different media?
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
10th May 2019, 8:54
Is it just me or adding an expected SC or VSC to your main strategy is completely stupid (re: Charles’ comment)? I mean, you make your strategy and then you make a plan B in case of SC. Binotto said the same right after the race and all I wanted was to throw a brick to the TV. Then John Elkann spoke to Sky saying “but we did the fastest lap so we are quick” and I actually threw that brick.
ColdFly (@)
10th May 2019, 10:13
;)
Jere (@jerejj)
10th May 2019, 12:39
Regarding the 2009 edition of the Spanish GP: People have quite a few times been complaining about drivers having to save fuel since 2014, but the fact Felipe Massa had to save fuel in that race because the team wasn’t sure whether he’d otherwise make it to the end contradicts these claims to an extent. Yes, fuel-saving might’ve been occurring more often post-refuelling era than it was during the refuelling era, but still, drivers occasionally had to do so even during this 16-season period with the case of Massa in the 2009 Spanish GP being the prime example.
Ad Lee
10th May 2019, 16:41
There has always been fuel saving in f1. But most fans only started having a problem with fuel saving when these new engines were introduced