In the round-up: Christian Horner says Red Bull will treat every race this year like a cup final, as they don’t know how long the championship will be.
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What they say
Horner was asked after Sunday’s race whether teams need clarity on how many grands prix will be held this year to decide their approach to the championship:
Well, not really. You’ve just got to go for it at every race and treat it as a cup final.
Today I felt that strategically was strong. We’re pushing all the way. We had both in a position to go for victory at different stages of the race. So we’ve just got to keep applying that approach.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
#NL6 looks back on his first weekend in @F1 👇#WeAreWilliams 💙 pic.twitter.com/ZOutJm7JYF
— WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) July 7, 2020
¡Esto algún día tiene que parar!
¡Estoy en contra del racismo y de cualquier tipo de discriminación!This have to stop some day. I’m against racism and any form of discrimination!#endracism pic.twitter.com/eY4tCqktqX
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) July 7, 2020
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
"It is understood that F1’s American owners Liberty Media and the governing body, the FIA, will inform Britain’s six-time world champion that he is free to kneel at the next instalment of the championship in Austria this weekend and for the remainder of the year."
Analysis: How F1’s return to action fared around the world (Motorsport Broadcasting)
"A peak audience of close to four million viewers watched Formula 1’s return to action in the UK, overnight viewing figures suggest."
Rahal rebounds with runner-up finish (IndyCar)
Alexander Rossi: "We think it was the same fuel pressure issue that we had yesterday. We thought we had it resolved, but clearly, we didn’t. It was strange because it was fine until we went under yellow. It’s just unfortunate that we’ve had this kind of weekend two races in a row."
First-ever international electric race scooter championship launched (ESC)
"The championship, which will hold its first event in 2021, will race specially developed high-speed electric scooters in the heart of major cities, and has been developed to make international motorsport more accessible, affordable and sustainable than ever before."
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Comment of the day
Should Fernando Alonso come back to F1 next year?
I don’t see what Alonso stands to gain from this. If it’s as simple as him missing driving F1 cars then fair enough but he has said time and time again that he wants to fight for the title. He was at least winning with Ferrari when he left and in reality Renault is an eighth/ninth place kind of car.
@Broke84
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Ev!
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Johns
8th July 2020, 1:30
I Think Alonso can make Renault a winning team. After all it is all about the driver, just ask him
MB (@muralibhats)
8th July 2020, 2:35
Ocon just needs to crash out convincingly in all races
faulty (@faulty)
8th July 2020, 3:30
COTD!
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
8th July 2020, 3:38
Four million viewers after a long hiatus is not a great number. The biggest motorsports event is on par with nightly tv political pundit segment. It already was boosted by off track politics & protests, it should be highly expected.
I hope Styrian can produce another great race. F1 can’t afford a single boring race.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
8th July 2020, 7:19
4 million viewers + 400 million ghost viewers, @ruliemaulana. ;-)
Without live fans, the new F1 Ghost Racing series is very odd to watch. Not as odd as the ‘podium’ ceremony and driver interviews. So many masked men, felt like watching a dentist’s conference. Or bank robber’s confab.
Unfortunate they couldn’t have kept Crofty back at Sky HQ. In a locked, sound-proof room, without a mic.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
8th July 2020, 7:27
@jimmi-cynic the protocol that banned Jenson Button to hugged Norris is cruel. Glad Zak Brown catch and hugged him.
AJ (@asleepatthewheel)
8th July 2020, 7:46
Me thinks this was the main reason why the safety car was sent out as many times as it was. First race of the season after a 6 month long hiatus , share prices down, half the grid in economic crisis; they had to do something to attract viewership and boost their figures. What better than a chaotic race with an unpredictable outcome.
Anyone else find it weird we were shown the midfield procession when Hamilton was hunting down Bottas?
Jack (@jackisthestig)
8th July 2020, 8:36
4 million in the UK seems quite disappointing given the only other major live sport taking place at the moment is football. The weather wasn’t all that nice and it wasn’t competing with any big-hitting TV shows as far as I’m aware.
It really is quite worrying that even the novelty factor of the first post-lockdown Grand Prix pulled in so few viewers.
bob (@riptide)
8th July 2020, 9:02
Really? Their were a few more pay viewers than normal. Did anyone really expect a plethora of people who have never paid for F1 before would rush out and pay for a subscription for a series they have never shown an interest in, has a shortened season, and that may have to be abandoned or modified again subject to the vagaries of a pandemic.
The free viewing figures were the best of the night for a channel outside the two main channels.
Seems entirely expected to me. And anyone who has shown even a slight interest in maybe watching or subscribing to F1 will have spent the last three months being told that RB are not there yet , Ferrari are going the wrong way round the track, and the season will consist of two Mercedes in a different race than the rest. And I know that to be true because half the F1 press and all the naysayers on here been banging on about that for months.
ob1 (@ob1)
8th July 2020, 9:22
It was the first weekend since the end of March that pubs and restaurants have reopened. Most casual viewers will have other priorities.
Rather than staying behind a paywall they should make this season FTA.
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
8th July 2020, 11:48
The smart thing would have been to show a few of the races free-to-air like they did with the Premier League relaunch.
There are a lot of former F1 fans out there that have forgotten what they’re missing. If they’d got to see Sunday’s race for free with the prospect of another couple of races over the next few weeks then they might’ve caught the F1 bug once more.
9m UK viewers watched Lewis win in 2008. That’s the benchmark.
David (@nvherman)
8th July 2020, 11:57
Are they including those who didn’t watch it live? I watched on chase play about an hour behind live.
Also, 4m viewers sounds pretty good to me. British viewers only really turn up in bigger numbers for the likes of Nigel Mansell. He’s what the British like: a plucky underdog who wins against expectations.
Despite his undoubted greatness, Hamilton alienates many: people expect him to win, and that’s not exciting to casual viewers
anon
8th July 2020, 18:54
@nvherman most of the peak interest in Nigel Mansell occurred during the 1992 season when, rather than being the plucky underdog, he was dominating the championship.
If you look at the wider trends, once Mansell went, viewing figures dropped noticeably in 1993 and 1994, before then rising as Hill became more prominent in 1995 and 1996. Figures fell pretty consistently after 1996, but Hamilton does seem to have had a marked effect in 2007 and 2008, when viewing figures went back up.
If you look at the wider term, average viewing figures for F1 races have not been above 4 million that often. They peak at about 5 million in 1992, dropped back to about 4 million in 1993 and 1994, spiked up to about 5.3 million in 1996 before then steadily declining to about 2.6 million in 2006. They then started rising in 2007 and 2008 as Hamilton appeared, with Button making a bit of a difference in 2009 as well – after that, they kind of bobbed along at a bit over 4 million from there until 2012, where the deal with Sky began kicking in.
As you note, by historical standards 4 million is a fairly solid number of viewers – there have been a few big spikes, with the 2007 Brazilian GP peaking at about 7.1 million and the 2008 Brazil GP peaking at about 13.1 million (9 million was the average for that race), but those are individual spikes that have occurred at a title deciding race that were at the end of seasons that generated significant media coverage about the sport.
For the UK, considering F1 is more of a niche sport, 4 million is probably actually a reasonably decent audience – particularly since, as @riptide notes, quite a lot of people have been moaning about a boring and predictable season and were disparaging the sport in public in the run up to that race, which is hardly going to build a positive image around that race.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
8th July 2020, 12:21
When its behind a pay wall, the numbers don’t really matter any more. The more significant numbers are the Ch4 highlights program.
If other people didn’t watch that, even after hearing that it was an exciting race, then that’s the apathy that will kill the sport.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th July 2020, 7:30
I entirely agree with the COTD, and he’s implied before that he’d only be willing to return if it were for a top-team, but apparently, he changed his mind at some point.
Wilson
8th July 2020, 8:41
That was the only top team available.
Beggars can’t be choosers.
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
8th July 2020, 11:50
Either Alonso is terrible at making career decisions or Briatore is.
Lenny (@leonardodicappucino)
8th July 2020, 8:12
Thinking about the Alonso return, it won’t be a one year deal, Alonso wants to win and Renault just isn’t going to be doing that next year. So Renault must have shown him something for 2022 that looks promising. The other question is what happens to the other driver. Guanyu Zhou is probably the favourite for the F2 title this year, but Ocon already has a contract for next year. So do they park Zhou in Super Formula for a year if he wins the title? And then drop Ocon for 2022? I could see Zhou stepping out of the Renault academy and joining the RBJT and stepping into the Toro Rosso for next year, unless they want to get Vips or Sette Camara in that car.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
8th July 2020, 8:58
Second Wave is coming to Europe, so potentially every race is the final one.
Bottas might become champion, what do regulations say, how many races must there be in a championship to declare champion?
JC
8th July 2020, 10:32
8
Patrick (@paeschli)
8th July 2020, 11:41
I’ve read 8 (most websites) and I’ve read 12.
For the TV deals, it’s 15.