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Downforce Radio’s #DownforceDebrief show revealed back in July a big reason why attendances at some popular race events have been woeful this season… and with a culmination of ugly cars, bad sounding cars, bland generic Tilke tracks, F1 mostly moving to pay TV we think extortionate ticket prices has added to this to persuade lovers and fans to stay away from F1. Formula 1 ticket prices make the sport no longer family friendly and since children don’t have resources to stump up the cash, it’s increasingly Dads and his friends that go to the races, there are exceptions of course like Silverstone and Austria but the gaps in the crowd at each European event now is becoming more noticeable.
The Problem is probably ignored more than it should be because comfy FIA accredited journo’s are too busy in their air-conditioned media room, chin-wagging with old pals and enjoying all the benefits of free entry to every race, You can bet your house than if the hacks from the London media or the Bloggers that blag a media pass that if they had to pay fans prices just to gain paddock access this issue would be NUMBER ONE and Bernie would be under more pressure than he ever was by a recent German court.
It was only just revealed on the Autosport website this week that Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff have only just now dared to raise the subject to Bernie saying
“We have dared to discuss ticket prices, and we discussed the impact and the importance of the traditional circuits like Spa, like Monza, like Hockenheim,”
“Races like that need to be part of the race calendar. This is a global sport.
“We need to go abroad and we need to conquer new territories and new countries, this always has been the case, but I guess it is pretty clear what needs to be done to fill the grandstands in the traditional races such as Hockenheim and Monza.”
How very brave of the teams to even suggest that evil overlord Bernie might possibly be charging tracks too much. I’m sure teams have no clue how much fans are being charged for the privilege of watching the likes of Lewis Hamilton have a strop and park his car when he’s not in the lead, No wonder fans boo now…. it might be because even before the race has begun they are already angry about having been ripped off so much.
As long as the F1 bubble continues to become a concrete bubble, fans will watch other motor sports like British GT or BTCC or MotoGP…. or any other sport in the world will be much cheaper than watching Privileged, Millionaire Prima Donnas in disgusting looking and sounding cars.
The unfortunate fact is that F1 is first and foremost a business and a sport second.
The fans are not welcomed to the venues and are as far as FOM is concerned, merely there to extract money from.
Ticket prices are astronomical. As a long term fan of the sport I cannot justify the expense to go to my home race. The entire travel costs, hotels and tickets cost was less at Belgium than Silverstone. Unlike many I do not lay the blame at the circuit’s door. They are charged an incredible amount of money to host the race and I would argue that even they do not (in the short term) see it as value for money outside of the ‘prestige’ of being an F1 venue.
As someone who frequents Silverstone for many other races and events as a marshal/team member/punter there are far better value and give the visitor a greater bang for their buck. The Silverstone Classic is a prime example of family friendly costings for three day tickets and the on track action is effectively non-stop. One could argue that the WEC is also very good value, circa £25 for two days racing including two long distance races and support series represents a great couple of days out that doesn’t break the bank, even though the time of year may not suit everyone!!
With all the F1 teams engaging fans in their own limited manner through social media it is about time that the ‘sport’ itself recognise that without the fans there would be no TV deals, a massive reduction in revenue through merchandising etc, the sponsors woudl no longer see the sport as a viable expense and eventually the business model would crumble.
Sadly, with the numbers seen at venues like Hockenheim and a non-sell out at Silverstone I fear these harder times are not far away. If the major teams (McLaren etc) are incapable of sourcing major title sponsors on the back of what is meant to be the pinnicle of motorsport (a phrase I dispise and also feel is completely unjustified) then what hope the smaller teams?
F1 has forgotten its roots, its soul and it’s reason for being. Yes many ‘fans’ will follow it no matter what but the vast legions of die hard motorsport fans who are already disillusioned with how the sport is goverened and how it treats them will no doubt jump ship much as the majority of car manufacturers have.
So where do these fans, sponsors and manufacturers go?
I hear northern France is very nice in June…
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