Lack of suspense won’t have a negative impact on F1, warns Domenicali

Formula 1 attracts a lot of people. The circuits are packed from Friday onwards and tickets sell well. We recently saw records being broken, notably in Austin with 440,000 spectators at the circuit over 3 days. This is equivalent to, for comparison, 6 and a half sold-out matches at the Vélodrome or 9 sold-out matches at the Parc des Princes in just 3 days.

The tickets are almost all sold out and even though F1 already has its two champions for 2022, the seats have already been reserved by spectators. Stefano Domenicali wants to reassure everyone: “We don’t really have any risk related to whether the title is decided early or not. All the tickets have been sold for the final races and the numbers are very good,” explains the F1 director to the Wall Street Journal.

For Domenicali, fans make a distinction between the battles on the track and the victories. Indeed, even though Verstappen and Red Bull have won most of the races this season, with 14 successes out of 20 races for Verstappen already, the qualifications were more in favor of Ferrari, providing suspense at almost every event.

« So, let’s focus on the other battles in the championship, but that’s part of motorsport. The regulation changes have had a very positive impact on the perception of races by spectators, and we can’t really afford to debate whether a team has managed to dominate everyone. That can’t be an issue. We got what we wanted, with wheel-to-wheel battles.

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« I am confident that next year, the suspense will go until the end of the season. » he convinces himself.

In 2022, all the suspense is not lost. The battles for the position of vice-world champion of drivers or even for the 4th place of the constructors continue. Perez and Leclerc are very close, just like Alpine and McLaren.

The teams are battling for a constructor ranking that determines the money they receive based on their position. So there will undoubtedly be a lot of suspense in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Europe and the world are entering a period of crisis and recession. Tensions among the population could greatly impact ticket purchases next year, as entertainment was the first budget to be cut by families.

However, Domenicali also does not see the financial crisis impacting F1’s finances next year. We are already seeing a lot of pre-sales for tickets to next season’s Grand Prix races, especially in Europe, despite the crisis. We have signed long-term contracts with promoters, which also helps to reduce the risk. From this point of view, I have every reason to be optimistic, even though we are monitoring everything closely.