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How F1 Exploded
How F1 Exploded
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Subtitles (567)
0:00
perhaps nothing better demonstrates the
0:02
Colossal scale of Formula 1 than the
0:05
newest addition to its five continent
0:07
calendar the Las Vegas Grand Prix
0:09
starting in 2023 F1 was going to race
0:11
down one of the most iconic roads in
0:13
America the Las Vegas Strip but in order
0:16
to facilitate that they needed a padic
0:19
the facility serving as temporary home
0:21
to the 10 teams during race weekend and
0:24
specifically they'd need a padic close
0:25
enough to the strip the street with some
0:27
of the highest commercial land values in
0:29
the ENT entire world but it was no issue
0:32
for Formula 1 management who paid $240
0:35
million for this Square plot just 1300
0:39
ft or 400 m long on each side but that
0:42
was just the start then they needed to
0:44
actually build the paddock the
0:46
fast-tracked construction of the
0:47
facility reportedly cost upwards of a100
0:50
million then they had to build a
0:53
racetrack this was to be a street race
0:55
taking place on otherwise public roads
0:57
but the conventional pavement did not
0:58
even come close to meeting the standards
1:00
necessary for the world's fastest racing
1:02
series therefore F1 spent 6 months and
1:06
many many millions more resurfacing the
1:08
roads much to the annoyance of Las Vegas
1:10
locals who had to endure endless delays
1:12
on the already congested streets and
1:14
construction ramped up even more around
1:16
2 months out as assembly of the grand
1:18
stands pedestrian Bridges and other
1:20
temporary facilities began requiring the
1:22
relocation of trees the draining of the
1:24
bagio iconic fountains and plenty of
1:26
other drastic changes to the strip Allin
1:29
former one is reported to have spent
1:31
upwards of a half a billion dollars
1:33
developing its Vegas Street circuit so
1:36
that's to say they spent more than a
1:38
small nation's GDP to build the
1:40
facilities for one annual 90minut race
1:45
to put that in perspective just a few
1:47
blocks to the South is the fourth most
1:49
expensive Stadium ever built in the
1:51
entire world it's called alion stadium
1:54
and it cost about $2 billion its primary
1:57
purpose is to host the Las Vegas Raiders
2:00
the 11th most valuable sports team in
2:02
the world the Raiders Of course play in
2:04
the NFL the highest revenue Sports
2:07
league in the world allegion stadium
2:09
also hosts college football and
2:10
wrestling and concerts and more but if
2:12
you ignore all that and just focus on
2:15
the Raiders dividing $2 billion in
2:17
construction costs by Eight Annual
2:19
regular season home games brings you to
2:20
a construction cost of $250 million per
2:24
annual event so that means at minimum F1
2:28
spent double as much much in facility
2:30
construction costs for its annual Las
2:33
Vegas event but of course they don't
2:35
just race in Vegas a similar degree of
2:37
distruption and devotion happens each
2:39
year in Singapore where the iconic
2:41
streets of Marina Bay are shut down for
2:43
its now legendary Grand Prix and most
2:45
iconically the entire country of Monaco
2:48
transforms into a racetrack each spring
2:50
leading up to its late May Grand Prix
2:53
and on top of that the series stops at a
2:55
half dozen other Street circuits along
2:57
with more than a dozen dedicated
2:58
circuits dotted around the world each
3:00
year each pulling in three four
3:03
sometimes close to 500,000 fans across
3:06
race weekend few Motorsports events pull
3:08
in crowds even close to those of f1s
3:11
meaning these circuits have large
3:12
portions of their infrastructure parking
3:14
lots Grand stands buildings that only
3:16
ever get used once a year for that
3:18
90-minute F1 race despite this terrible
3:21
inefficiency plenty of these races
3:23
actually turn a profit for the circuits
3:25
and promoters not all but enough that F1
3:28
now has far more venues Vine host a race
3:30
than they can reasonably accommodate in
3:32
an annual calendar they've eliminated
3:34
some less lucrative races and expanded
3:36
the number of races each year but still
3:38
then F1 is starting to schedule certain
3:40
races only every two years to cope with
3:42
demand and develop new markets but just
3:46
one decade ago such thunderous growth
3:48
would have seemed unimaginable
3:51
throughout the 2010s F1 was in a state
3:54
of decline its viewership Figures were
3:56
shrinking year after year and by 2015
3:59
this summed to a third of its audience
4:01
gone in just 7 years proposed races were
4:05
failing to get funding existing races
4:07
were cancelling out of unprofitability
4:09
from audience figures to revenue F1 was
4:12
just failing on all fronts and while
4:15
marketing was poor and digital strategy
4:17
was bad and Leadership was weak the
4:19
largest explanation for the state of F1
4:21
in the mid-2010s was remarkably simple
4:24
Formula 1 was unequivocally and
4:27
objectively just plain boring you see
4:31
much of their viewer experience is
4:33
wrapped up in the contribution of each
4:34
race towards the season-long battle for
4:36
drivers to score the most points and
4:38
maintain the lead of the drivers's
4:40
championship the grand prize in the 2015
4:43
season reigning Champion Lewis Hamilton
4:44
won the very first race in Australia
4:47
meaning he started the season in first
4:49
place of the drivers championship at the
4:51
second race in Malaysia Contender
4:53
Sebastian vettle won but Hamilton's
4:55
second place earned him enough points to
4:57
stay in the lead of the driver's
4:59
championship two weeks later in China he
5:01
won again keeping him in the lead in
5:04
fact throughout the 19 races of the 2015
5:06
season Hamilton never left first place
5:09
in the driver Championship from the
5:11
audien's perspective there was no
5:13
Struggle No uncertainty it was just pure
5:17
dominance Hamilton and his Mercedes
5:19
teammate Nico rosberg led a collective
5:22
82% of all laps while the top three
5:25
drivers combined LED
5:27
97% by the end of the season Merc meres
5:29
had won all but three of the 19 races
5:33
racing was rarely tight the Mercedes
5:35
cars often finished dozens of seconds
5:37
ahead of first place for a casual TV
5:39
audience it was just plain boring and
5:43
2015 was hardly unique in its boringness
5:47
over the past 20 Seasons the driver's
5:49
Championship has only been fought all
5:50
the way till the final race eight times
5:53
in all other Seasons a driver has
5:55
mathematically clinched it earlier
5:57
sometimes by as much as six races and a
5:59
mathematical clinch always happens long
6:01
after the audience considers the
6:03
championship of foregone conclusion so
6:05
that's to say F1 has a particular
6:07
propensity for this style of boring
6:10
dominance as an entertainment business
6:12
it's potentially its fatal flaw but the
6:15
explanation for why Formula 1 can be
6:17
boring is right in the name it's the
6:20
fault of the formula the word formula in
6:23
this context is a reference to the set
6:25
of rules and regulations that govern
6:27
what teams are allowed to change in a
6:29
car's design and what they aren't
6:31
essentially any Motor Racing Series has
6:33
some equivalent set of rules and
6:35
regulations but f1's is uniquely
6:37
open-ended it's supposed to be a battle
6:39
of driver skill and Engineering press
6:43
this is in comparison to something like
6:44
NASCAR where all teams are given the
6:46
exact same car are allowed to do little
6:48
Beyond setup changes and the sport is
6:50
intended to be fundamentally a battle of
6:52
driver skill even in Indie Car f1's
6:55
closest equivalent teams are given
6:56
limited freedom to modify the vehicles
6:59
while there certainly are other
7:00
Motorsports serieses that allow for
7:02
open-ended development with the
7:03
exception of Moto GP they don't tend to
7:05
have large audiences because it often
7:08
comes at the expense of entertainment
7:10
they often end up with scenarios where
7:12
one car is just so dominant that driver
7:14
skill can't make up for the difference
7:17
what's most exciting for a TV audience
7:18
is to watch close racing won or lost by
7:21
the drivers the secretive development
7:23
happening behind the scenes clearly does
7:25
not translate into very exciting
7:27
television the sport attempts to make
7:29
mitigate the downsides of this system by
7:31
dramatically revamping the rules every
7:33
five or so years which tends to shake up
7:35
the hierarchy of performance as teams
7:37
must find new Technical Solutions to
7:38
achieve superlative performance it was
7:41
such a revamp that ended mercedes's era
7:43
of dominance in 2021 in fact but
7:46
sometimes these shakeups only perpetuate
7:48
dominance as wealthier teams are able to
7:50
devote more of their budget to
7:51
developing the new era of cars years in
7:53
advance whereas smaller teams must
7:56
concentrate their spending on improving
7:57
the car for the current season so the
8:00
solution to fixing f1's decline in the
8:01
2010s was never going to be to change
8:04
what makes Formula 1 Formula 1 but it's
8:07
not like they had a whole lot of other
8:09
good ideas either for all that former
8:12
CEO Bernie eckl did for F1 over more
8:14
than 50 years in the sport after
8:16
founding the Formula 1 group in 1987 and
8:19
captaining it as CEO for 30 years there
8:21
is one interview that's come to Define
8:24
f1's position in the 2010s one critical
8:27
Miss that's come to encapsulate the
8:29
dying days of his leadership of the
8:31
sport speaking with the campaign
8:32
asia-pacific magazine eckleson
8:34
articulated that he saw no value in
8:37
reaching out to a younger generation of
8:38
fans or building out the brand social
8:40
media presence why invest in pushing
8:42
content over Facebook and Twitter his
8:44
logic went when young people won't have
8:46
the money required to interact with the
8:47
sports sponsors like Rolex or UBS sure
8:51
total viewership worldwide was
8:52
plummeting year over year but there was
8:54
no point in trying to address that with
8:56
viewers and fans with shallow Pockets so
8:59
a sport historically defined by a lack
9:01
of parody whose most interesting aspects
9:03
were shrouded in esoteric design details
9:05
seemed destined to remain on the fringes
9:08
then in late 2016 the sport entered a
9:11
quiet Revolution as Liberty Media well
9:13
versed in sports television and sports
9:15
media generally agreed to purchase the
9:18
floundering Formula 1 group for $4.4
9:21
billion the vision was simple Liberty
9:24
Media had little intention of
9:25
overhauling rules so core to the sport
9:28
and so difficult to alter but rather
9:30
overhaul how the sport was consumed as
9:33
this pitch deck relayed the
9:35
opportunities were in promotion of F1 as
9:37
a sport and brand in digital
9:39
distribution and in more strategically
9:41
developed events essentially in widening
9:44
the sport out from its narrow core
9:46
audience but at the simplest level the
9:48
problem standing in the way of growing
9:50
the audience as they saw it was that the
9:52
race at the front of the pack was not
9:54
always very interesting therefore the
9:57
solution was also simple
10:00
make people care less about who was
10:02
going to win the race the transformation
10:05
began at the circuit of catalunia in
10:06
Barcelona Spain where preseason testing
10:08
was taking place in late February 2017
10:12
first a letter circulated to the teams
10:14
stating that existing social media
10:15
restrictions on filming and sharing
10:17
photos and videos from The Paddock were
10:19
being lifted then this post a video
10:22
tweeted out by Red Bull following the
10:24
daily routine of its star driver Daniel
10:25
Ricardo what he eats for breakfast and
10:27
with whom how he stretches and prepares
10:29
for the testing and him getting in the
10:31
race car itself a day later came another
10:34
behind the- scenes video but this time
10:35
from the Mercedes team showing through
10:38
time lapses how the team gets a car
10:40
ready through the night for the eventual
10:41
Champion leis Hamilton the following day
10:44
with the restrictions lifted it was a
10:45
race between teams to start building out
10:47
their own content and notably in both
10:49
Red Bull and mercedes's efforts neither
10:52
the car nor the testing was the focus
10:54
rather it was the people who drove them
10:57
and built them that took Center Stage
11:00
fans it turned out wanted to know more
11:02
about who was under the helmet and F1
11:05
obliged soon came this video on the
11:07
Mercedes YouTube page one of its
11:09
earliest videos to break a million views
11:11
and while premised around doing what was
11:13
never allowed before by touring the
11:15
hospitality setup in Melbourne the top
11:16
comments have far less to say about the
11:19
paddock and more on the character
11:21
Charisma and confidence of Ls Hamilton
11:24
viewers said they hadn't seen this side
11:25
of him and now they wanted more
11:27
similarly empowered Daniel Ricardo
11:29
Hamilton's rival on the racetrack saw
11:32
his profile begin to grow as the sport
11:34
his Red Bull team and he himself pushed
11:36
his brand and offered an entrance into
11:38
the daily life of F1 from 2015 to 2017
11:41
the driver's Instagram profile took off
11:44
garnering hundreds of thousands of likes
11:46
rather than the customary tens of
11:47
thousands pulled in years prior and
11:49
while both drivers happened to be
11:50
towards the front of the pack race in
11:52
race out it wasn't only their success
11:55
that garnered The increased attention
11:57
while Ricardo's race results dipped from
11:58
a high water Mark in 2016 to losing a
12:01
seat entirely in 2024 one can argue that
12:03
he's never been as famous as he is now
12:06
as an Ever available equally fun-loving
12:08
and emotionally open athlete that the
12:10
most casual F1 fan recognizes and to an
12:12
extent feels as though they understand
12:15
while that required only a simple change
12:17
in policy F1 quickly identified the
12:19
opportunity of growing the off trck
12:21
profiles of its drivers and started to
12:22
play a more active role in it this is a
12:25
sampling of the official F1 Twitter page
12:28
from January 19th 2015 there are only
12:31
three posts on that day and all are
12:33
using the app to push users to read old
12:35
school journalism content on f1's
12:36
website 2 years later January 19th
12:39
looked like this more posts seven in
12:42
total a link to an article some news
12:43
reported right there on Twitter a
12:45
birthday wish to a driver an old image
12:47
and a trend post now F1 wasn't just
12:50
using Twitter to push to its website's
12:52
content it was using Twitter as a home
12:54
for Content itself and most notably not
12:57
all the content was about on track
12:59
action a lot was just about the drivers
13:01
as people by January 19th of 2025 this
13:05
transformation was complete over 20
13:07
posts all of it content for the fan to
13:10
consume without leaving the app a
13:12
similar investment is visible with f1's
13:14
YouTube page as videos published in the
13:16
year prior to this all-important
13:18
interview outlining a bold new future
13:19
for the sport number just over 250 while
13:22
those posted after this video Until the
13:24
beginning of the 2018 season cleanly
13:26
double that count numbering in the low
13:30
500s the effect of these shifts F1 hoped
13:33
was that people would care more about
13:35
say watching Daniel Ricardo make his way
13:37
from 10th to e8th place and therefore be
13:39
able to focus Less on Hamilton
13:41
maintaining a 10-second lead in first
13:43
place but that required them to get them
13:45
to watch in the first place and then
13:47
keep them watching if the sport was now
13:49
to emphasize the driver as much as the
13:51
car and the characters as much as their
13:53
positions across the field it needed to
13:55
match the social media push to get under
13:57
the helmets so more cameras not just on
14:00
the race course but within the paddock
14:02
as well and more live microphones too by
14:05
2018 the broadcast began to include the
14:07
communications between drivers and their
14:09
teams and then Communications between
14:11
team principles and the FIA and the race
14:13
directors now what the viewer could not
14:15
see in a standard race the Strategic
14:17
communication the high stakes high
14:19
stress decision-making and the
14:20
occasional argument over rules they
14:22
could experience through the audio this
14:25
along with increased focus on investing
14:26
more on ear time to the Midfield rather
14:28
than just the leaders made a race more
14:31
engaging for the less engineering
14:32
inclined viewer other moves made the
14:35
races easier for casual viewers from
14:37
revamping the broadcast theme music for
14:38
the US audience to adding an everpresent
14:40
leaderboard so anyone flipping channels
14:42
could understand the rac's status
14:44
immediately these strategies seemingly
14:47
worked in 2018 for the first time in a
14:50
decade f1's unique viewership Rose and
14:53
most promisingly they made the biggest
14:56
Headway in the one market that's always
14:58
been f1's white whale the one viewer
15:01
base that up until that point remained
15:04
uncharming by Formula 1 America so they
15:07
doubled down on the strategy and turned
15:09
the F1 grid into a format Americans were
15:12
more used to a reality TV show it was
15:15
called drive to survive debuting in 2018
15:19
this Netflix show gave audiences
15:21
unprecedented levels of access into
15:23
particularly the drama and personalities
15:26
of the sport viewers were immediately
15:29
captivated by Daniel Ricardo and team
15:31
principal gter Steiner and with an
15:32
American audience that hit 1.2 million
15:35
and a global audience that reached 7
15:36
million almost a third of which were
15:38
under 30 plenty were tuning into the
15:40
series having never watched an actual
15:42
race F1 was going mainstream the timing
15:46
was impeccable particularly for the US
15:49
audience f1's evolving digital strategy
15:51
was already giving it momentum but drive
15:53
to survive launched just one year after
15:55
F1 secured distribution rights in the
15:57
states with ESPN at the time the sports
16:00
network signed on for a steal being
16:02
granted the rights to air F1 races for
16:04
free by 2020 the company was paying a
16:07
meager $5 million per year but in the
16:09
following two years the US audience
16:11
outright doubled and so ESPN's license
16:14
fee soon exploded two to upwards of $75
16:17
million annually the drive to survive
16:20
effect equaled big business for Formula
16:22
1 besides the licensing from ESPN it
16:24
increased viewers followers advertisers
16:26
and attendance now the on Euro luxury
16:29
car race that merely raised eyebrows in
16:31
the States became one of the nation's
16:33
most talked about events with Formula 1
16:35
Breaking records in Austin Texas by not
16:37
only doubling its attendance from
16:39
263,000 in 2018 to
16:42
444,000 in 2022 but by becoming the most
16:46
highly attended iteration of the race in
16:48
its history and one of the most attended
16:50
Grand Prix in the sports history
16:52
outright Liberty Media didn't stop there
16:55
however they tripled out on America and
16:57
expanded host cities to include two of
16:59
the United States's most iconic and
17:01
campy locations Miami and Las Vegas here
17:05
money is flamboyant and Formula 1 crowds
17:07
flocked to the Oceanside palm tree lined
17:09
Avenues of the Florida coast starting in
17:12
2022 demand was high with 242,000 people
17:16
attending over 3 days more than 2.6
17:18
million tuning in on TV and secondary
17:21
Market tickets reaching
17:24
$32,000 and then in 2023 the company
17:27
added that casino lit asphalt of the
17:29
Nevada desert and some 315,000 people
17:32
attended over the weekend with the race
17:34
starting at 11:00 p.m. to satisfy
17:35
European time zones and capitalize on
17:37
the lights of Sin City cars creamed down
17:40
the infamous Las Vegas strip and through
17:42
that Infamous Vegas lot that F1 had
17:44
purchased for $240 million demonstrating
17:47
the company's enduring commitment to the
17:49
city and the sport F1 was firmly in the
17:52
American Zeitgeist and globally it had
17:55
entirely reversed its path of decline
17:57
although for all that drive to survive
17:59
and the early 2020s did for F1 with time
18:02
the sports eventually once again crashed
18:05
headon into its fatal flaw after a
18:08
thrilling Championship battle fought
18:10
down to the last lap of the last race of
18:13
2021 2022 saw a return to boring
18:16
predictable dominance ver stappen and
18:19
Red Bull just couldn't stop winning in
18:22
fact 2023 was statistically the most
18:25
dominant season in F1 history with
18:27
verstappen breaking records for wins
18:29
podiums points laps LED percentage of
18:32
wins consecutive victories and more it's
18:34
therefore no surprise that viewership
18:36
has essentially stagnated since 2022 and
18:39
the new American races started to
18:40
struggle to sell out now is the true
18:44
test for F1 they're faced with a
18:47
challenge of continuing to capture the
18:48
attention of that fresh young audience
18:50
gathered 5 years ago even as the sport
18:52
continues its historical trend of
18:54
bouncing between thrilling battles and
18:56
mundane processions but what will
18:58
undoubtedly is f1's impact on the World
19:00
of Sports Marketing almost every
19:03
professional sports league has since
19:04
commissioned a streaming show attempting
19:06
to replicate the recipe of drive to
19:07
survive look at any Tik Tok or Instagram
19:10
page for a team and there's a good shot
19:12
it features the kinds of parasocial
19:14
Personality first strategies pioneered
19:16
by F1 it turns out characters don't need
19:20
to win to Captivate an audience what F1
19:23
recognized before most was that through
19:25
making an audience care about the people
19:27
underneath the helmet audiences will
19:29
tune in even just to watch their
19:32
favorite person
19:34
lose speaking of streaming the sponsor
19:36
of this video is perhaps unsurprisingly
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