Why Formula 1 is not as popular as you think would be a counterintuitive argument that goes against everything you have read since Drive to Survive burst onto the scene. This week you will find out how not everything is at it seems. I also have news on how Formula E is growing in popularity, the latest motorsport legal news and all the sponsorship news and partnership developments from the past week.
It’s all part of this week’s edition of the Business of Motorsport Roundup on Motorsport Prospects, business news that racers can use.
Motorsport Industry News
Formula 1
The Entertainment Strategy Guy has published a thought-provoking article that not only argues that the influence of Drive to Survive is overblown but that F1 is not as popular either in the United States or globally as people think.
“What about Drive to Survive? Same story: it’s not nearly as popular as you think, as I covered on Monday. But looking globally, the story is even worse: ratings are down 30% year-over-year. According to Netflix’s December data drop (which covered all Netflix viewership in the first half of 2023), the fifth season of Drive to Survive garnered a paltry 90 million hours globally, 114th overall, and only about 13.4 million “views”, or a fifth of regular Formula 1’s weekly global viewers. Other sports docu-series actually did much worse; this genre is really overrated on a global viewing basis.”
Debunking Formula 1 Media Narratives Yet Again
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has met with the prime minister of Thailand over the possibility of the nation holding a Grand Prix in future. The current Thai government are looking to boost tourism in the Southeast Asian country and are pursuing not just F1 but Formula E as well.
If Thailand lands the rights to host a Formula One race in 2027, it could generate about four billion baht (US$108 million) and more than 1,000 jobs, according to the country’s deputy secretary general to the premier Jakkaphon Tangsutthitham.
Thailand pursuing F1 race as part of tourism push
Formula 1 has announced a new free streaming channel in the United States that will carry race replays and highlights of F1 and its feeder series according to Autosport.
“The Formula 1 Channel is the latest development by F1 designed to further evolve and elevate our content experience for fans,” said Ian Holmes, F1’s Director of Media Rights and Content Creation at Formula 1. This service caters to the diverse viewing habits of our USA fanbase and serves as a great entry point for new fans into the sport, through strong curated programming, which aims to showcase the drama of F1.”
F1 Arcade Boston Seaport is set to open on next week at 87 Pier 4 Blvd. Covering 15,500 square feet across two floors, the new venue will welcome guests to “a best-in-class Formula 1 racing experience.” A 37-foot-long bar that will serve expertly crafted cocktails will be the centerpiece of the venue. With 69 full-motion racing simulators, guests can become immersed in the experience of racing on the world’s most iconic tracks.
F1 Arcade fits into the recent trend of Sportainment which is experiencing a meteoric rise in the United States.
Somewhat related to the F1 Arcade post above, Road & Track has an interesting article on how so many of the current crop of F1 drivers are avid sim racers.
Streaming is also a bigger and bigger part of an F1 driver’s life. Verstappen’s Team Redline keeps him busy. The weekend after he clinched his second championship, he was doing an endurance sim race. He has been setting up his own GT3 racing team with a stated goal to provide a ladder for sim racers into real cars. He told his own Verstappen.com website, “Using Verstappen.com Racing, we sponsor and support the racing activities of various people close to me via consultations and advice. It all started with the sim racing of Team Redline.”
F1 Is in Its Streamer Era
General Motorsport Industry News
Despite a scandal involving Team Penske that emerged after the Long Beach Grand Prix, the marquee Indycar event had its largest crowd since the unification of CART and the IRL. While this is undeniably good news for a series that will be adding at least one new team in 2025, the marketing of IndyCar has been less than stellar. Enter one marketing guru Zack Brown who will be part of a small new task-force designed to help the IndyCar Series improve its marketing efforts.
“So I think there’s lots of opportunities for improvement. I think the schedule would really need to get into the East Coast. I think there’s two things to play for growing the value of the sport. There’s cash generative, but then there’s also franchise value.”
Beyond sustainability, The Sports Pundit looks at how the competitiveness of the Fornula E grid is energizing interest in the series. As Formula E’s CEO, Jeff Dodds articulated on the Sports Pundit Podcast, “Without a competitive and compelling motorsport to watch, no one cares about sustainability and racetrack to road technology transfer. No one’s tuning in just to see those two things. They need to also see an amazing motor racing series.”
This competitiveness is key to keeping manufacturers interested in the sport and the Formula E Notebook looks into which ones will be onboard with Gen4. “FEN understands that Formula E is internally anticipating a minimum of five and a maximum of eight manufacturers to be part of the Gen4 rules set which will begin at the end of 2026.”
MotoGP is set to unveil their new regulations for 2027 amidst rumors that BMW will be joining the grid. “And, with the substantial rule change marking a natural point for any new factory to enter the championship, BMW’s long-speculated entry into the premier class is believed to be set to follow once it’s had a chance to study the new rulebook and calculate what sort of budget will be necessary to be competitive.”
Supercars lacks big modern-day personalities because of online vitriol from fans of the championship, according to Scott Pye in SpeedCafe. “The reason we don’t have Brockys and Skaifes and Murphs and Ambroses fighting and speaking out is because of the fans. So, the hate we get online silences all of us.”
The FIA is not at war with manufacturers over the 2025 World Rally Championship technical regulations with “harmony” not far away, according to FIA road sport director Andrew Wheatley as reported by Autosport. “The position we are in at the moment is we need to find harmony with the manufacturers and honestly I don’t think we are so far away,” said Wheatley at a media roundtable.
PMW Expo 2024, to be held on November 13 & 14, 2024 in Köln Messe, Cologne, Germany, will see the debut of an all-new forum for the discussion of advanced powertrain technologies. Held on the PMW Magazine stage on day one of the Expo, industry leaders from the automotive and motorsport industries will share their insights into advancements in high performance powertrains, both electric and ICE.
“With a focus on technology transfer to mainstream automotive and beyond, attendees will receive unrivalled intelligence on the ways motorsport can drive developments that accelerate the decarbonisation of transport.”
Quick Takes on the Business of Motorsport This Week
- A2RL: Complete guide to world’s biggest autonomous motor race (Motorsport Magazine)
- Latest developments from the Indy Autonomous Challenge (PMW)
- NASCAR bounces back in Talladega as F1 and IndyCar continue early-season US viewership struggles (BlackBook Motorsport)
- Ferrari to revive striking historic colours in Miami Grand Prix livery change (Planet F1)
- Maharaj Appointed CEO of Motorsport South Africa (Motorsport South Africa)
- ATPI Group acquires motorsport travel agency FAST (iSportConnect)
- SRO Motorsports Group distributes 2023 sporting fines among charitable causes (SRO)
- How the Esports Bubble Burst and Why (The Ankler)
- VIP Tickets, Business Seats, Boxes: The hype about hospitality is real (SportFive)
Motorsport Law Roundup
A look at some of the legal and regulatory issues and analysis in Motorsport this week
Another group of FIA member clubs has written to the governing body’s president Mohammed Ben Sulayem recommending legal action over allegations made against him. The third letter, published April 18th, was sent by representatives of 27 member clubs in the Middle East and North Africa region and the FIA’s sub-region for the Arab Council of Touring and Automobile Clubs.
“The FIA Members for Sport for MENA Region and ACTAC Sub-Region condemn, and at the same time profoundly disappointed with the unjust and relentless attempt to undermine the integrity of the FIA Leadership by such unfaithful allegations to serve narrow personal agendas, and we strongly encourage the FIA administration to initiate legal actions against those responsible for those allegations against the FIA President.”
Aston Martin’s protest against the Chinese Grand Prix qualifying results based on Carlos Sainz’s participation has been dismissed by the stewards.
“In the above circumstances, taking into account the numerous examples where cars had stopped for different lengths of time and were permitted to restart and continue to participate in the session concerned, we considered that the decision taken by race control was not inconsistent with past practice nor in breach of Article 39.6.
“We considered that even if the plain wording of Article 39.6 warranted a more stark conclusion, the consistent practice in the sport to date did not warrant a setting aside of the discretion exercised by race control by us as stewards.”
Here is an interesting tidbit from Joe Saward’s Green Notebook from Transylvania that I was not aware of.
“The federation is bound by a commercial deal (signed in 2013 and lasting until 2030) that means that it gets paid by the teams and the drivers, on the basis of the points they score. Originally this was $5,000 per point per team and $1,000 per point per driver, but the numbers are index-linked and so, 11 years later, depending on the index-linking used, this means that an additional eight points awarded to teams and drivers per weekend would add around $1.5 million to the FIA revenues from F1 per year.”
Legal Briefs
- Motorsport Games and British Touring Car Championship Announce Settlement and New Licensing Agreement (Business Insider)
- 10 Legal Trends for Brands to Watch When Investing in Sports Marketing (JD Supra)
Motorsport Sponsorship & Partnership News
Here are the latest motorsport sponsorship deals, partnerships and related analysis that were announced this week
- Ferrari announces HP as new F1 team title sponsor (Autosport)
- The staggering financial value of Ferrari HP title sponsor deal revealed after ‘historic’ move (Planet F1)
- EXCLUSIVE McLaren leads pack of F1 teams hunting major Mastercard deal (SportBusiness Sponsorship)
- ‘Sponsorship showdown’ set for Miami as four F1 teams chase huge Mastercard deal (Planet F1)
- ExxonMobil Ignites Formula 1 Activation Around American Races (Forbes)
- TFH has big commitment at Hi-Tec Oils Super Series for the 2024 season (SpeedCafe)
- Chile’s Canal 13 extends broadcast partnership with Extreme E (Extreme E)
- Red Bull Racing sees gap to top football clubs narrowing with Castore deal (Sports Business Sponsorship)
- IndyCar painted like a Pop-Tart to promote Seinfeld’s Netflix movie (AutoBlog)
- Nascar pens multi-year iced tea partnership with Liquid Death (BlackBook Motorsport)
- BTCC realigns commercial strategy with Global Media Properties collaboration (BlackBook Motorsport)
- IndyCar inks multi-year deal with Evolve Transporters (BlackBook Motorsport)
- Red Bull partner with EA Sports for 2024 F1 season (BlackBook Motorsport)
- Andretti Global finalises US$1m partnership expansion with Zapata AI (BlackBook Motorsport)
- Kroger move could signal forthcoming shakeup for NASCAR’s JTG Daugherty Racing team (Sports Business Journal)
- How NASCAR’s Sponsorship Ecosystem Is Evolving With The Times (Forbes)
- GB4 Championship Arrives on REV TV Care of Road To Racing! (RevTV)
- VP Racing Named Official Fuel of Skip Barber Racing School (Skip Barber)
- Luxury: sports, China, and diversification – key influencer marketing strategies (Fashion Network)
- The rise of multi-asset sponsorship – why quantity and quality help the big brands get bigger (SportFive)
- Northants LMR Building Supplies firm goes national with motorsport sponsorship (Northamptonshire Telegraph)
- Hub International Announces Primary Sponsorship Of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s No. 30 Entry and Full-Season Associate Sponsorship of No. 15 Entry
- Arrow McLaren announce the addition of HOKA as a Team Partner (McLaren)
- King Taco to Sponsor #51 Nolan Siegel Entry at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach (Dale Coyne Racing)
- Juncos Hollinger Racing Announces Multi-Year Partnership with Racing-Driven Eyewear Brand, 100% (Juncos Hollinger)
- Juncos Hollinger Racing and Endstate Create First-Ever Fully Connected Team Kit and Merchandise (Podium Life)
- Puma and BMW M Motorsport Introduce Crews Go Summer Collection (Podium Life)
The Business of Running a Race Team
Front Office Sports looks at Michael Jordan’s success as a NASCAR team owner in contrast to his time owning an NBA team.
“Jordan’s young tenure as a NASCAR team owner is already notably more successful than his time owning an NBA team—and he’s not trying to hide his excitement about the rubber-burning passion. Tyler Reddick’s victory at Talladega on Sunday marked the first time His Airness was in attendance for a race won by one of the drivers at his majority-owned 23XI Racing, which launched in 2021. “This is, to me, like an NBA playoff game,” Jordan said in an interview with Fox Sports from Victory Lane. “I am so ecstatic.””
Team & Manufacturer News
Here is a roundup of the latest team news from around the world of motorsport
- JOTA in Contention for Factory Cadillac Hypercar Deal (Sportscar365)
- Hypercar Manufacturers Braced for Two-Car Mandate (SportsCar365)
- Two-Car Rule Set To See Expanded Works Hypercar Programmes For 2025 (Daily Sportscar)
- HAAS RT to Make 24H Spa Debut With Two-Car Audi Effort (SportsCar365)
- Schubert Has “More Tools in Toolbox” With Three Cars (SportsCar365)
- DXDT Corvette Test Programme Begins, Satellite Team Formed (Daily Sportscar)
- Walkenhorst Commits to NES2 With Three-Car Aston Effort (SportsCar365)
- Inside Mazda MX-5 Cup: BSI Racing – new name, deep roots (Racer)
- Lamborghini “Carefully Selecting” New Motorsport Boss (SportsCar365)
- Lamborghini “Will Run Two Cars” In Hypercar If Required To Do So (Daily SportsCar)
Author: Mark Boudreau
Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.
