Chase Carey says F1 wasn’t progressing enough to keep Bernie Ecclestone on board
For Chase Carey, the main reason for Bernie Ecclestone's departure was that F1 had not developed strongly enough in recent years. A change of management was therefore essential to boost revenue and profit growth.
Formula 1 as we know it today has been shaped by Bernie Ecclestone over the past 40 years. Despite the praise given on Monday, it is precisely for this reason that a new dynamic must be established.
Indeed, the sport has now reached a point where its fan base is increasingly aging, with difficulties in attracting new fans. One of the main reasons is the near-absence of promotion of the sport outside the channels that broadcast the race. To understand this situation, one must look at the current economic model of F1.
Currently, the revenue distribution set up by Bernie Ecclestone stipulates that the FOM retains all of it, except for the ticket sales generated during races. In other words, this means that the premier discipline has no interest in promoting on-site races, as the number of spectators at the races does not impact its income statement.
To do this, this promotion should be ensured by the circuits in order to make the required investment profitable to have the right to host a race. But this amount, especially for European races, is so high that promoters often no longer have enough money to finance advertising and promoting the race in the city and surrounding areas.
In an interview with Sky Sports News, Chase Carey, the new CEO of F1, consequently stated the following: “We felt that over the last four or five years, the business has not progressed, the sport has not reached its full potential.”
This observation comes at a time when F1 has generally shifted from free television broadcasting to pay-per-view, which has managed to irritate a significant part of the fan base. All this, meanwhile, without attracting new ones, since they are much more present on social media than on television.
At the head of the GPDA, the drivers’ association, Alexander Wurz was quick to point out that the survey conducted last year revealed that F1 had only gained 0.3% more fans over the past three years. Furthermore, the number of viewers has significantly decreased, from 600 million viewers in 2008 to 400 million in 2015 and 2016!
The new American shareholders have decided to assign responsibilities to new individuals, starting with Ross Brawn and Sean Bratches: « We felt the need to establish a new organization to be able to advance the sport in today’s world, in the way it needs to grow and to work with the partners we have to ensure that we make the sport what it can and should be for the fans. »
We can thus recall that digital only generates 1% of F1’s revenues and that it was not until the 2016 season that real efforts to broadcast content alongside the events were seen…
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
