Continuing to gain popularity day by day, how did Formula 1 manage to surpass its former popularity and turn into a money printing machine in just a few years? Let’s tell the story of Formula 1 that you didn’t know.
Considered the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula 1 has gained immense popularity all over the world, especially in the past four years. So, what are the roots of this popularity, which is largely owed to Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive documentary series? Formula 1, although perhaps a much more competitive environment before How did it lose popularity? How did it gain this popularity and more? Let’s take a look at Formula 1’s recent history.
Formula 1, which was accepted as the boss of the sport until 2016. Bernie Ecclestone was operating under its management. But Bernie was admired by many fans, both in the Formula 1 community and in the years to come. seen as ‘senile’ and his ideas were not well received. The decline in popularity of Formula 1 also took place during Bernie Ecclestone’s era.
Formula 1 popularity has lost 40% in 8 years:
Formula 1 was actually quite popular until 2008. In 2008 alone, Formula 1’s global audience was over 600 million. So in 2008 the world 1 in 10 was a Formula 1 spectator. But due to some of Bernie’s beliefs, Formula 1 was discontinued from 2008 to 2016. It has lost popularity by more than a third in 8 years.
In the years of his loss of popularity, Bernie’s interesting belief came out like a pumpkin in an interview he gave:
“I can’t understand why people want to appeal to the ‘younger generation’. Why do they want to do this? To sell them something? Many of these children have no money. I would rather reach out to a 70-year-old who has a lot of money. Since children will not buy a product, there is no point in trying to reach them. If marketers are targeting this audience, they’d better advertise with Disney.
I’m not interested in tweeting or Facebook or whatever. I tried to learn, but I’m all kinds of old-fashioned. I didn’t see any value in any of them.”
Even this small statement by Bernie succinctly reflects how a sport like Formula 1 could collapse. Not interacting with younger generationssocial media channels are not used effectively, want to grow by targeting only those who have money but the future of sports is not considered. So how are things changing?
Change begins in 2016:
Formula 1, which is watched by 600 million people all over the world, that is, one of the most popular three sports in the world, is actually because of Bernie’s belief. he couldn’t turn his popularity into income. At this point, after Bernie’s statement that he had revealed the easy way to money for a heavy brother, the mass media company Liberty Media stepped in.
When the US-based Liberty Media heard the deficiencies in Formula 1 directly from Bernie’s mouth, it encountered a treasure in which billions of dollars were buried. As a result, he took action and in 2016 Formula One Group. bought it for just $4.4 billion. The acquisition, which was completed in 2017, brought Chase Carey (now Formula One Group CEO and former Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali) to management.
The popularity of the sport in the US was of paramount importance:
Liberty Media, as a US-based company, aimed to increase the popularity of Formula 1 in the USA. But the main purpose of this is of course not to introduce the Americans to beautiful sports, it was to make money thanks to this introduction. This sport, which has hundreds of millions of followers, started in the USA in 2017. only $1.8 billion was earning income. That year, the NFL’s revenue was $13.6 billion, and the NBA’s was $8 billion.
That’s why Liberty Media acted against Bernie’s idea and made radical changes. It has passed regulations on social media that will allow teams to interact with their fans and bring Formula 1 to a wider audience. Changed the pass rules during the race to make the sport more active, race mini festivals and events on weekends added. All this, also by ESPN for viewers in the US. It was broadcast on television for free.
While Formula 1 fans may not like it, the F1 documentary series was the building block that made the sport so big:
As Formula 1 started to recover with Liberty Media, the bomb exploded in 2019: it was decided to make a documentary on Netflix, and that documentary made its debut. This idea that even teams like Mercedes and Ferrari finds ‘stupid’helped Liberty Media achieve its goal. Along with the Netflix documentary;
- The number of Formula 1 viewers in the US alone doubled between 2017 and 2022.
- It has been announced that the number of Formula 1 fans worldwide is expected to exceed 1 billion this year.
- Moreover, 77% of these new fans young people under 35 created by specified.
- The US GP, which had 264 thousand participants in 2018, hosted more than 400,000 people in 2021.
- Formula 1 has added the Las Vegas and Miami races to its calendar with its sudden increase in popularity in the USA.
In addition to all these, the share price of Formula 1, Increased by 250% since 2016. Liberty Media has already managed to earn many times over what it spent to buy the Formula One Group.
Today, Formula 1: Drive to Survive is met with hatred from Formula 1 fans, especially for its misrepresentation of events. But it is also necessary to think like this: People realize that the sport they are involved in with this documentary is misrepresented, and in order to spread the truth. sharing more interacting with each other. Perhaps this reverse effect is exactly what Liberty Media wants…