Are casual viewers ruining Formula One?

[gethinceri]

I managed to find a link with the attendance figures from the 2009 British GP.

The diehard fans number around 85,000 as they are the ones who come for every session. An extra 20,000 turn up for qualifying with a further 15,000 who come for the race only. Compare that to the race day figures and if Saturday was practise as well the number of fans attending would be around 35,000 lower.

35,000 people can buy a lot of merchandise and food and drink at a GP, not to mention the loss in ticket prices. As most circuits are running at a loss already an extra 30% drop in revenue will make the difference between wanting to host a GP or not.

I chose Silverstone as it has one of the highest numbers of weekend attendance for a GP, a less popular GP would have an even greater number between those who come just for the race and those who attend the whole weekend.

Your figures are flawed. How do you know that Friday's crowd comes back on Saturday and Sunday? In the past I've had tickets for qual but not the race or practice and in the past i've had tickets for the race but not practice or qual. I've never been to practice. I try and watch practice on telly if work allows, i try and watch qual but generally recorded as the wife and daughter reckon shopping to be more important, if I can't watch any race live I'm grumpy, if i ever miss a race completely then i need to have an exclusion zone. Do you consider me a casual viewer? it would seem your 85,000 doesn't include me so i suppose I am. Maybe if i wore a starched collar, frock coat and knickerbockers i would appear less casual?

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

I'm one of those who goes on Friday and does go back for the Saturday and Sunday, but I know there are those who don't.
I remember one year, some time between 2000 and 2003, when I couldn't afford to go to the race but some clients I was working for had hired a suite in a Portacabin on stilts corporate box for entertaining their business associates, at the end of the main straight but only for the Saturday, which they kindly invited me to, knowing I was an F1 nut.

 

[snowy]

The type of balls used has changed a lot over the years, to combat the racquet technology.

True enough but what they have done to the ball totally disadvantages the serve volley and has created a particularly dull and unattractive baseline game.

20/20 cricket is an abomination before God and you shall be smitten and damned to hell for mentioning its name on this forum, you blasphemer!

 

[sportsman]

The question however was about casual TV viewers.
But are we any better in reality.I can easily remember only a couple of years ago endless posts from members of this forum complaining about "yet another pole to flag win."
I seem to remember that we all wanted to see more overtaking, or at least a faster car being able to overtake but foiled by turbulent aero wake.
One common comment was that the FIA should force by regultation the designers to design wings that did not create dirty air affecting the following car.

 

[gethinceri]

the FIA should force by regultation the designers to design wings that did not create dirty air affecting the following car.

I agree 100%.
What they've done instead is introduce a regulation that the viewer (even those in ermine robes and coronets) to spend more time looking at the vast advertising space that is the rear wing.

 

[sportsman]

Hang on a sec.Taking my words out of context makes them sound stupid.I actually said this.

One common comment was that the FIA should force by regultation the designers to design wings that did not create dirty air affecting the following car.

 

[gethinceri]

Please forgive me:

The question however was about casual TV viewers.
But are we any better in reality.I can easily remember only a couple of years ago endless posts from members of this forum complaining about "yet another pole to flag win."
I seem to remember that we all wanted to see more overtaking, or at least a faster car being able to overtake but foiled by turbulent aero wake.
One common comment was that the FIA should force by regultation the designers to design wings that did not create dirty air affecting the following car.

I agree 100%.
What they've done instead is introduce a regulation that the viewer (even those in ermine robes and coronets) to spend more time looking at the vast advertising space that is the rear wing.

 

[sportsman]

Nothing to forgive.
But seriously any mass travelling through atmosphere will create turbulence behind it.Even more so if it is equipped with wings specifically designed to create either lift or downforce.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

I had déja vu just then.

 

[Speshal]

What they've done instead is introduce a regulation that the viewer (even those in ermine robes and coronets) to spend more time looking at the vast advertising space that is the rear wing.

Unless you are looking at the back of a McLaren

Which has always as struck me as odd that they don't have a logo on the rear of the rear wing.

Anyhoo back on topic, be it for the casual fan who buys a Ferrari cap with his 50 litres of Shell points or the nutter (polite term) that turns up at Silverstone on Thursday evening, pitches his tent and tries to light the BBQ in a downpour so he can have a quiet walk round the trackside on the Friday morning before the madness stands they are both contributing to the sport - I believe that Formula one caters for all fans.

So, if the casual fan "ruining" F1 - nope, it's always evolved and it always will - you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

 

[Fenderman]

Never a truer word spoke in a robe

 

[RickD]

The type of balls used has changed a lot over the years, to combat the racquet technology. Snooker is having a radical shape up, including the trial of new formats, and a change to the ranking system. Cricket now has 20/20 along with the one day series, in addition to test matches.

All these are in an attempt to broaden the appeal, to keep people interested, this means as many people as possible whether thet are die hard fans or casual viewers does not really matter, but there must be a critical mass that is required to make it viable, otherwise, why worry?

And each one of those sports feels like it s being dumbed down (except tennis). Snooker is good, but it is becoming more like darts when the players come out. Soon we will have the players walking through the crowd giving high fives before a match starts.

A technical sport like F1 does not need dumbing down for the imbeciles (or maybe it does and I am so out of touch I can't see the excitment in one car breezing past another instead of the leading car putting up a fight).

Casual fans are/aren't ruining the sport. They are because soem bunch of 'experts' says we need DRS etc because the casual fans would like it. They aren't because it keeps the audience larger, therefore giving the 'sport' more prominence.

I would prefer not to have shit like DRS thanks..

 

[RickD]

The question however was about casual TV viewers.
But are we any better in reality.I can easily remember only a couple of years ago endless posts from members of this forum complaining about "yet another pole to flag win."

But that is exactly what we have had in all but 1 GP this year?!?

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Your figures are flawed. How do you know that Friday's crowd comes back on Saturday and Sunday? In the past I've had tickets for qual but not the race or practice and in the past i've had tickets for the race but not practice or qual. I've never been to practice. I try and watch practice on telly if work allows, i try and watch qual but generally recorded as the wife and daughter reckon shopping to be more important, if I can't watch any race live I'm grumpy, if i ever miss a race completely then i need to have an exclusion zone. Do you consider me a casual viewer? it would seem your 85,000 doesn't include me so i suppose I am. Maybe if i wore a starched collar, frock coat and knickerbockers i would appear less casual?

The majority of fans who are there on the Friday and Saturday will be there for the Sunday too. There may be a few who don't go but they will be the exception rather than the rule.

You also said you have never been to practise, if Saturday was practise too would you go for that session? I don't think any of our members are casual fans, I'm probably one of the more casual ones amongst us and it's very rare that I miss any of the sessions even if I catch it on iplayer later in the day.

Back on topic though, F1 needs the casual fans to provide the extra income during race weekends and if qualifying became a non-event then a substantial proportion of the audience would be lost.

 

[EvilWhippet]

And each one of those sports feels like it s being dumbed down (except tennis). Snooker is good, but it is becoming more like darts when the players come out. Soon we will have the players walking through the crowd giving high fives before a match starts.

A technical sport like F1 does not need dumbing down for the imbeciles (or maybe it does and I am so out of touch I can't see the excitment in one car breezing past another instead of the leading car putting up a fight).

Casual fans are/aren't ruining the sport. They are because soem bunch of 'experts' says we need DRS etc because the casual fans would like it. They aren't because it keeps the audience larger, therefore giving the 'sport' more prominence.

I would prefer not to have shit like DRS thanks..

From where is the assumption that only casual fans enjoy the current regulations born?

 

[teabagyokel]

The only set of rules preventing the possibility of "pole-to-flag" wins would make the sport far more artificial than KERS, DRS and Pirelli.

From where is the assumption that only casual fans enjoy the current regulations born?

Casual fans are more of a convenient scapegoat whenever change occurs in any sport.
Here, they're serving the same purpose as football's "prawn sandwich" brigade, the idea that the enjoyment of the sport of football is incomplete if you're not flipping the Vs at an opponent player, and acting boorishly.

In the F1 case, the idea is not that boorishness should be encouraged, but that we're entitled to a more cerebral sport than the quick-overtaking one these "casual fans", who only watch F1 if something is likely to happen want.

I hate when a distinction is drawn between fans. There are no casual fans or die hard fans, there are just fans. Without which there is no chance of the event existing.

 

[Fenderman]

RickD's observation with regard to lights to flag victory is precisely why I object to the artificial means being employed to pump up the show. Something that has been apparent but not frequent in F1 but as anyone who follows MotoGP, WSB and other forms of bike racing will confirm, that when the pack starts beating each other up the guys at the front take off and are rarely beaten. Buttons spirited defence of his position against Hamilton served only to destroy any chance Mclaren had of keeping on terms with Vettel and indeed, 3 stop strategy aside ... I think, cost Button a couple of places at the finish. It has been observed that Alonso who quietly got on with the business of driving with minimal fuss in his overtaking cruised up to the 3rd spot on the podium and Webber, I feel got up there because his is one of the two fastest cars on the grid.

As in other threads where I'm starting to bore myself (and therefore bore everyone else), that is my final contribution to this subject but I will continue to read and appreciate the vews y'all. Roll on Monaco.

 

[MCLS]

What about Spain Fenderman?

 

[Fenderman]

Sorry, MCLS, but Catalunya is a done deal. Can't remember if I did this already or not but my prediction, unless it rains is it's gonna be Vettel & Webber run away lock-out with everyone else just scrapping for the crumbs. I doubt that it'll entertain me in the slightest. Hasn't in the past ... apart from the 1996 powerboat race that is. Not looking forward to it at all. Sorry.

Oh, I suppose I do look forward ... a teeny weeny little bit ... to being surprised. Let me know what happens as I may well be asleep.

Readers please note: My views on the Catalunya F1 Grands Prix in no way reflect an antipathy toward the Nation of Spain and its people for whom I have the deepest respect. Thank you.

 

[Jen]

Sorry, MCLS, but Catalunya is a done deal. Can't remember if I did this already or not but my prediction, unless it rains is it's gonna be Vettel & Webber run away lock-out with everyone else just scrapping for the crumbs. I doubt that it'll entertain me in the slightest. Hasn't in the past ... apart from the 1996 powerboat race that is. Not looking forward to it at all. Sorry.

Oh, I suppose I do look forward ... a teeny weeny little bit ... to being surprised. Let me know what happens as I may well be asleep.

Readers please note: My views on the Catalunya F1 Grands Prix in no way reflect an antipathy toward the Nation of Spain and its people for whom I have the deepest respect. Thank you.

Life is full of surprises and you have to travel in hope - sleeping just doesn't cut it I'm afraid