07/04/2023
NEWS STORY
A captive audience of potential new fans, courtesy of the global lockdowns, played a significant role in the boom F1 is currently enjoying, admits F1 CEO.
The cancellation of the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, just hours before the opening session, looked set to be the beginning of a nightmare for Formula One.
Whilst officials were still discussing the situation, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel had already left the circuit and were preparing for their trips back home.
In the days and weeks that followed more and more races were cancelled, as the pandemic spread and emergency measures kicked into action, these included lockdowns and bans on fan attendance at sporting events. Indeed, many sporting events themselves were cancelled.
Aware of the financial implications this would have for the sport, F1's powers that be began formulating a plan at the heart of which was to put some form of championship season together.
In the meantime, two other cornerstones of the boom emerged, social media and Drive to Survive.
Under Bernie Ecclestone little credence had been given to social media, but from the outset Liberty Media saw it as being of vital importance and therefore along with the sport's own official accounts, the teams and drivers were instructed to up their games and increase their level of interaction with the fans.
When it launched in 2019, covering the 2018 season, Drive to Survive barely moved the needle in the US, however a captive audience courtesy of lockdowns was to change that as viewers discovered the sport, albeit a somewhat breathy, dramatic and wholly controversial version, for the first time.
Hooked by the Machiavellian plotting, the vast sums of money involved, the backstabbing, the frustration, the tears, the jubilation and, sometimes, the racing, a whole new army of fans was won over, and this, combined with the assault on social media had an audience eager, ready and waiting when F1 was finally able to put a championship together.
However, at a time sport, certainly on an international level, had ground to a halt, F1 made the brave move not only to hold races without spectators but pay circuits for hosting them. It was a bold, brave move that could easily have backfired but didn't.
"That could be really the game over," F1 CEO, Stefano Domenicali tells Speedcafe.com "We were in a situation where financially, we lost a lot of money because, of course, we couldn't have people, we couldn't go racing, we had to move this first season of COVID later on, fewer races and so on.
"But as always, when there is a problem, there is a big opportunity and I have to say thanks to the vision, our shareholders and Chase (Carey), I think there was a moment where we invested in Formula 1.
"We were able to create the protocol and the procedure to go around the world. We kept the system alive in the worst moment ever.
"That was a moment where we put the foundation for the growth that we had as soon as the COVID was lifted in terms of pressure and but that was really the turning moment of our success."
As for Drive to Survive, despite the hype it has never been in the top ten in the US, where a grand total of 400,000 watched Season 4 in the first week. In contrast, the latest series of The Crown was watched by 1.1 million people on its first day in the UK alone. As it happens, Drive to Survive's most popular market appears to be Norway as it is the only country where it was number one for two weeks in a row.
According to Netflix itself, in the first two weeks of its release, which is when most of its viewing took place, Season 4 reached number two in the Netherlands and was third in the UK.
"It's more than that," says Domenicali of claims that Drive to Survive is mainly responsible for F1's so-called boom. "For sure, we had to tackle how to connect and stay connected to fans, fans are the centre of our relationship, there's no discussion.
"Fans are old fans, avid fans, traditional fans. And if you just focus on them, of course, we're losing a lot of other opportunities.
"So, what we did, in terms of strategy, (was to look at) how we could adapt and also attract new fans that were not really interested in our sport, of course, and with a traditional way of connecting and speaking would have been impossible. So, we worked very hard on social media platforms, activation, connectivity with the drivers and the teams."