Could a Shrinking Audience See Ferrari Exit F1?

[Bethonie Waring]

Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne has warned the manufacturer cannot keep committing to Formula One whilst its audience figures continue to shrink.

In a conference call with investors, he said Formula One’s new owners must bring the entertainment factor back and make the sport more accessible to fans.

“I would expect that Liberty and Chase [Carey], in particular, would have very clear understanding that the entertainment side of this needs to come back to play,” he said. “We cannot keep on committing to a sport that has decreasing audiences for a variety of reasons. And so we need to re-popularise the sport and we need to make it more accessible.”​

Marchionne is also reluctant to buy shares in F1 until Liberty have outlined their plans for the post-2020 agreements. Liberty have set aside 19 million shares for teams but Ferrari won’t be buying any until they get an idea of what the agreements for the 2021 season will look like.

“We are in discussions with Liberty and I just recently had a meeting with Chase,” Marchionne said. “The issue is not just the question of the financial investment. This is something that we do for a living in a very serious way. The Concorde Agreement expires in 2020, so becoming a non-voting shareholder in an entity, which would effectively keep us trapped in without knowledge of what 2021 and the latter world will look like, is something I consider unwise.​

“One of the things that I tabled with Chase is clarity on what the post-2020 world looks like, and what Ferrari may be able to get from its involvement in Formula One. Once we have clarity, then I think it becomes a lot easier to decide whether we want to participate in this venture.”​

It’s unlikely we’re going to get any commitment from Ferrari until Liberty have outlined the replacement for the Concorde Agreement. The agreement is the commercial deal between the teams and F1, which sees some teams get huge bonuses no matter where they finish in the championship. Ferrari have seen the most benefit from this agreement. It’s a system that teams such as Sauber have been calling to come under review, but it’s unlikely anything will change until the deal expires in 2020.

After that, nobody knows what to expect. One of the first things Liberty said they were going to do when they arrived in F1 was scrap Ferrari’s bonus, but it’s not known if the new owners actually intend to go through with that threat.
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Do you think Ferrari would really leave the sport? Let us know in the comments below!

 

[Alex Townsend]

Ferrari's raison d'etre is racing. I don't think they'd leave F1 as they've been involved for so long and it's one of their main advertising options.
Although with the rise of WEC and Blancpain maybe they're looking at other options?

They can't hold the financial monopoly on F1 as it isn't really fair to the rest of the teams that are competing. If anything we need financial concessions to the smaller teams to help them grow and compete closer to the guys at the sharp end of the grid that usually also sell extremely popular Supercars.

 

[Knoxstar]

No I don't but they do carry a big stick. This bonus issue is not popular with the other teams no doubt but I seriously wonder if F1 could survive w/o Ferrari. Given that they easily have the largest fan base in F1, I doubt it. Liberty needs to placate Ferrari (unfortunately) while at the same time come to a more equitable fund sharing plan for the other teams. Manor might have stuck around but they lost 10th to Sauber in spite of showing quite well and lost multi millions as a result. I don't know what the current agreement states so far as the teams' cut in this is but Liberty and the FIA need to protect the investments of ALL teams. The TV producers need to have more features on the whole grid. I got quite sick of the Lewis vs. Nico features in every race and the endless commentary on a few drivers. Ditto with spending most of the air time talking to Mercedes and Red Bull team principles. Surely there were other journalistically (a new word from my personal dictionary) important news items from the mid pack and back of the grid.

 

[Alex Townsend]

Definitely. And the fact that Ferrari, already a company that has Millions in revenue from their worldwide car sales, needs more payout from the sport from any other team is a joke.
Yes they have a large fan base but I'm sure if other marques were promised the sort of bonus they receive then we'd have more competitors in the sport.
Think BMW, VW, Aston Martin, Toyota etc.
If they all received a similar bonus then we'd have a real race on our hands. To he honest half the time Ferrari aren't even at the top of the standings. Why should they still reap the rewards?

Also. We need to do away with these new circuits in places where no one cares about motorsport. What's the point apart from those hosting nations backing up the ludicrous fees for hosting the event, at a loss no less.

We need circuits packed with fans
We need tickets that are reasonably priced
We need television rights for all and the money shared out between the teams as equally as possible.

 

[Nick Gregory]

The season hasn't even started yet, and they've already threatened to leave. Well, at least they've been working hard over the winter break.

 

[Blimey]

Ferrari leaving F1 for WEC because of the audience wouldn't be a reasonable move lol, I'd like to see the comparison in viewership.

 

[Bruce Banner]

You're guaranteed more viewers if you put the sport on free to view tv ( and I mean the whole championship , not just a few races ) . Here in the uk , if you want to watch every formula one race live you have to first subscribe to Sky ( which is around 30 to 35 pounds a month for just the basic package and then on top of that you then have to sign up for the Sky Sports channels ( of which Sky Sports F1 is part of the package ) which pretty much doubles the cost . So you're talking pretty much 70 a month for 12 months = 840 pounds a year which to the working classes on low wages with ever increasing gas and electric bills , rent and mortgages and council tax and everything else makes it an impossible option . Yeah , Channel 4 have some of the races and highlights of them all so you do get to see some of the races , but even then Sky usually gets the pick of the bunch with the likes of exclusive rights to Monaco etc . So unless they stop selling their souls to Rupert Murdoch they're never going to get an increase in viewership no matter what gimmicks they come up with .

 

[Bethonie Waring]

You're guaranteed more viewers if you put the sport on free to view tv ( and I mean the whole championship , not just a few races ) . Here in the uk , if you want to watch every formula one race live you have to first subscribe to Sky ( which is around 30 to 35 pounds a month for just the basic package and then on top of that you then have to sign up for the Sky Sports channels ( of which Sky Sports F1 is part of the package ) which pretty much doubles the cost . So you're talking pretty much 70 a month for 12 months = 840 pounds a year which to the working classes on low wages with ever increasing gas and electric bills , rent and mortgages and council tax and everything else makes it an impossible option . Yeah , Channel 4 have some of the races and highlights of them all so you do get to see some of the races , but even then Sky usually gets the pick of the bunch with the likes of exclusive rights to Monaco etc . So unless they stop selling their souls to Rupert Murdoch they're never going to get an increase in viewership no matter what gimmicks they come up with .

This is why I just have radio coverage...

 

[JayJayRaceinho]

In a conference call with investors, he said Formula One’s new owners must bring the entertainment factor back and make the sport more accessible to fans.

“I would expect that Liberty and Chase [Carey], in particular, would have very clear understanding that the entertainment side of this needs to come back to play,” he said. “We cannot keep on committing to a sport that has decreasing audiences for a variety of reasons. And so we need to re-popularise the sport and we need to make it more accessible.”​

ahhh, i think i like this guy

first step in the enternainment sector / gaming-sector : kick Codies to a planet where nobody sees them again

then...crying engines, crying drivers.

 

[Erwin Greven]

Ferrari leaving F1 for WEC because of the audience wouldn't be a reasonable move lol, I'd like to see the comparison in viewership.

Endurance racing is BOOMING. And this time the FIA won't succeed to mow it down that easily. F1 is not that popular anymore. The WEC, IMSA and Blancpain, to name a few series, get more and more attention. Endurance racing has much more relevance than F1.
Look at the Ferrari 488 GTE and GT3 in GT-racing. They learn more from that than F1 where the FIA rule structure prevents teams more and more to be innovative.

 

[aphidgod]

Clearly some sabre-rattling going on in Italy... this would be the time for it, with the new bosses watching everyone closely and all.

But they're right. After watching the whole 2016 season, the product we're being offered right now is crap. Plain and simple. Change will be welcome.

 

[thewarmer]

Good bye & long over due . Like most I love the Ferrari myth & hype . but like most who have grown up with their endless spoiled child tantrums when ever they want the rules to be changed in their fave or want even more revenue from F1'a profits.

Yes they have been the one constant team in F1 since day one . however I think F1 could carry on without them , in the short term they would see revenue drop from Ferrari's departure.
But i think the sport would develop better with out them & their constant bickering & moaning.

Ferrari could return to sports car prototype racing I always found their sports cars & Proto types racers far more interesting & it has much closer ties to the cars they sell in the real world than F1.

Another Fact is unlike the past the FIA is no longer favoring F1 like it did in the days of Max Mosley , where the FIA screwed just about every other Motorsport that dared to take the viewing public away from F1.

You only have to look at the revised GT series & the WSC & Le-mans , there were far more cliff hanging GT & LMP races last year that you could not say who was going to win till the last lap almost , good racing across all the classes.

Now we also have the new look WRC with return to wilder looking cars more hp & better sounding than they have for a long time.

Other classes in Motorsports are turning the corner , with only F1 in dire problems.
The biggest issue is ticket prices & no free to air tv coverage not even any live streams from any teams are allowed.

Look at every other big league racing event Daytona have free to air live streams world wide along with extra incar access from all the major teams.

But it is the same for Le-mans where several factory teams Stream free to air coverage.
The same for Spa 24hrs & the Nürburgring 24 hrs . & yesterdays Bathurst 12 hrs.

Even though the WRC is pay for view web-stream , you can still view for free Via Redbull TV.

F1 has created its own downfall by locking out with Hi prices & over priced Pay for view TV coverage , along with hold racing in country's most have no interest in visiting & paying for the hi costs of flying there & back.

F1 one has become to distant from it original fan base instead it choose to have closer ties to the rich & powerful & the corporate hospitality class or race fans.
While all the other forms of racing have kept a closer connection to their paying fan base , while still following a more global direction in racing.

At the end of the day Ferrari should leave their loss would be a better sharing out of the cake that Ferrari has been given to large a share of the cake compared to its net results over the last few years at least.

F1 needs to take a leaf out of the way other formats stream live & free across the internet . F1 needs to get it head out of it arse & realize that creating a total media lock out with sky high Licences rights to the TV feeds is always going to lead to dropping viewing figures if you do not give some sort of compromise for those who can not afford the high monthly satellite & cable TV fees.
For one months fee through SKY TV you can get the whole years coverage of the WRC including their new Live stage feeds.

All things come to an end even for Ferrari , though they wont go just then now standard Ferrari BS machine .
F1 has a new bosses so Ferrari now needs to flex its muscles & see what it can get away with.

 

[Erwin Greven]

Give ^this^ man a beer!!

 

[Porsche1]

They need to bring back old engines where spectators can hear them passing by. That was the single most biggest complaint sponsers have talked about. Not this bs turbo **** half electric for what? Save fuel?. We can drive 30 year old cars with no emission control but f1 needs a diet.
Especially when mercedes patented the technology ferrari and others are suposed to compete? I hope ferrari pulls out lets see how big the audience is after.

 

[Sky]

They built an indycar one time to threaten the organisers with.

 

[Deleted member 130869]

They want to put pressure to slow down Mercedes, and to keep their unfair share of additional revenue. Let them be silly.

 

[GTSpeedster]

removed by user

 

[Alex Townsend]

I just did a quick Google and it would appear that F1 lost 200 million viewers between 2008 and 2015.
Went from 600mil to 400Mil

Look at WEC and they're saying they're able to get over 300 million globally.
So it looks like it may be a little closer than we think.
I'm only taking info from other websites and the WEC figures are projected and not confirmed so a bit of guess work I think.
Blancpain was quite a bit lower with 1.4Mil worldwide but thats still quite a result for a series still in it's infancy

 

[Yapci]

You're guaranteed more viewers if you put the sport on free to view tv ( and I mean the whole championship , not just a few races ) . Here in the uk , if you want to watch every formula one race live you have to first subscribe to Sky ( which is around 30 to 35 pounds a month for just the basic package and then on top of that you then have to sign up for the Sky Sports channels ( of which Sky Sports F1 is part of the package ) which pretty much doubles the cost . So you're talking pretty much 70 a month for 12 months = 840 pounds a year

Was going to say that here in Spain is 10€/month but then I remembered that you first got to pay for internet connection with Movistar and paying extra fees for Movistar TV which ends at about 60-70€/months too...

And you pay for an 85% of boring races. I have seen some of them online and switched of half the race because I fall sleep. Not worth to pay that much for sleeping...

 

[Alex Townsend]

I know what you mean. I used to get up at ridiculous times to watch F1 live. Practices Quali and races now I just watch them online after they've been on...
Admittedly it's also tied in with my new location in kl and becoming a father but that's not really the point. I could get up and could watch them live but I cant be bothered.